Good, but not Finding Nemo good!

Rating: 7/10 (21 June 2016)

This movie's marquee was that it was one of the few sequels that was, "better than the original." I loved it, but *spoiler alert* - it wasn't.
Finding Dory picks up a year after the original film and gets to the point quickly! Through a series of events, Dory remembers that she has a mom and a dad and that they live in Morrow Bay, CA. Marlin and Nemo decide to help her and voila, we have our premise.
The movie wastes no time as Marlin, Dory, and Nemo meet up with the turtles and ride the East Australian Current presumably west where they land in the murky, garbage and kelp filled Californian coast. I won't give any more spoilers, but I will say that the trio quickly meets up with a villain who is unfortunately not as interesting as Bruce the white shark.
Without giving the plot away, I will say that the new supporting characters introduced in Finding Dory are just not quite as lovable, memorable, or funny as Gil and the tank gang. The slapstick humor was there and there are absolutely some laugh out loud moments throughout the movie! My daughter and I were cracking up!
The reason "Finding Nemo" was so darn successful was because of how simple it was. A neurotic, scared of his own shadow type of fish (Marlin) is forced into crazy scenarios because of Dory's reckless abandon and because the love of his son keeps him going. You feel the emotional attachment from the first minute the movie starts. Unfortunately, "Finding Dory," throws a ton of crazy scenarios at you without establishing a super strong emotional bond with the audience. While it makes for a good movie, it's not NEXT LEVEL good like "Finding Nemo" is. In short, Dory is a much more interesting supporting character than lead character (in my humble opinion). It's very hard to take her seriously with the whole short term memory loss thing!
Please don't mistake me for one of those guys who thinks the originals are always the best, I really don't think that way (Empire Strikes Back is the best!), but to me a superior sequel needs to both continue and improve upon the best aspects of the original which this movie did not do. Also, please don't view this as a negative review! I still loved this movie and will definitely be purchasing it when it comes out on DVD!!