It's No Finding Nemo. But It Will Have To Do.

Rating: 6/10 (22 June 2016)

I really enjoyed Finding Nemo, it was a great film about family and had a lot of heart wrenching moments and it was really funny and had some great characters. When I heard they were making a sequel, I was like "Yeah. I think that could work."
Before I go into the plot of the movie, I wanted to tell you what I thought the movie was going to be about and how it disappointed me from the first trailer they showed. I thought this was going to be about Dory of course, but I also thought they were going to make a movie that took place in Nemo's teen years and maybe how Marlin has to let go from Nemo as he is growing older but is still paranoid about the dangers in the ocean. That would have been a stronger story.
What do we get? Well, Dory has memories of her parents and gets help from Marlin and Nemo to find them. She gets captured and put into an aquarium and finds out her parents are there. Meanwhile, Marlin and Nemo try to find a way to get her back.
The problem I have is that it takes one year after Finding Nemo. Which means Nemo hasn't grown up as much as I wanted to. This leads to uninteresting chemistry between father and son mainly because the two haven't changed at all from the first film.
Another problem I have is the characters. With movies like The Lego Movie, Big Hero 6, Kung Fu Panda 3, characters in animated movies have become more rich and diverse making them leave a permanent spot in everyone's hearts.
Hank was a character I didn't know I was supposed to like until he helps Dory try to evacuate the blue tang fish from a tank that is being loaded into a truck. His main plot point is that he wants to be in a permanent aquarium in Cleveland. This seems like an interesting plot point until Dory says No he can't because life happens by chance and is basically told to be in the ocean.
This is a big problem I have with this movie. Great plot points being tastelessly thrown away. There is a very great moment when Marlin and Nemo reunite with Dory. Nemo asks his dad if they have to say Goodbye to her if she finds her family and Marlin answers Yes.
Now this is the moment that made me angry. This could have been an emotionally powerful moment in the film if Dory did find her parents (Which she does) and would have to say her farewells. You know what does happen when she finds her parents?
They all go back to the Great Barrier Reef living happily ever after.
Wow. This is the most insulting thing Pixar has ever done. To have such a great piece of dialog, such a great piece of writing and emotion that could actually happen and be extremely powerful moment in the whole entire film RUINED by a crappy ending. Andrew Stanton, who I loved for making Finding Nemo and WALL-E, has created an ending that is a huge antithesis of Dory's story that is sugarcoated to the point of puking rainbows.
This doesn't mean I didn't like it, I thought the film was completely OK for a Pixar movie but it needed stronger story and characters. The climax is fun, Dory reuniting with her parents is a rewarding moment in the film, the animation if fine for the most part but is a huge downgrade when you see the 'Piper' short film before the feature presentation.
For fans of the first film who have been waiting for a long time to see this movie, you'll have to go in with lower expectations. The film is not nearly as emotional as the first and it feels almost more like an unintentional cash grab by Disney and Pixar. Kids will enjoy it fine but the movie lacks lots of things I wanted it to be.
64/100 C+