Finding Dismality

Rating: 6/10 (29 July 2016)

Aren't we all children at heart? I know for sure I'm a big one, especially when it comes to sequels to animations that came out when I was a genuine younger kid myself and I begin to get all nostalgic. I went to see Ice Age: Collision Course yesterday but I'll cast my view on that one aside. I watched Finding Nemo in cinemas upon its release back in 2003 (among other traumatised kids after the opening...) and for me it was a dip into an ocean filled with a near perfect balance of excitement, laughter, shocks and the occasional sad moment (... with that barracuda! I handled Jaws as a kid better than seeing that thing.) In the case of Finding Dory however, the ocean was filled with a lot more sorrow than anything else this time. It is often the case with many movies that the trailers turn out to be better than the film as a whole, and sadly that was exactly the case here for me. I was laughing throughout the trailer I first saw before a screening of 'The Secret Life of Pets' (another film for which I enjoyed the trailer much more.) There isn't much that is special about the 3D version I watched, and if you don't wish to pay the extra few quid for the glasses, you won't be missing too much flying out of the screen your way that would amaze you any more than it would in standard 2D. The movie didn't offer as much laughs as the first film, and most funny moments I had already seen in the trailer. There were much more emotional moments and I felt the balance was poor between the joyful and the sorrowful, with the sorrowful vastly outweighing. I didn't cry, though if I was the age I was when I saw Finding Nemo then I probably would have. It was definitely great though to see old animated faces in a new adventure, with, alongside Ellen DeGeneres' Dory, Albert Brooks returning as the voice of Marlin and newcomer Hayden Rolence replacing Alexander Gould (who actually guest voices as another character) as Nemo, as well as meeting many new characters, my personal favourites being Fluke and Rudder the Sea Lions (voiced by Idris Elba and Dominic West.) John Ratzenberger, as expected, had his usual Pixar cameo as a random character. It's a fun enough new adventure, if not a little familiar in moments, and Pixar's animation is as beautiful to watch as it is in any other of it's movies, but I did walk out of the screening at the end feeling slightly depressed. It could have been less dreary and offered more laughs and general happiness, but this is essentially the story of a young child searching for her parents for years. It shouldn't disappoint the youngest kids eager to see it who haven't had to wait so long for this sequel because they were born years after the first film even came to DVD, but many of the older kids didn't seem so impressed. Personally I would by chance watch it again, but most likely following Finding Nemo as part of a 'Finding' marathon at home... so long as I don't misplace my copy of it.