Finding Dory

Hi, I'm Jethro! I write about movies. Several, in fact! Wanna know who had a movie once? Dory. That Pixar fish. She was just a side character in Finding Nemo, now she...

Hi, I'm Jethro! I had a movie once. Several, in fact! Wanna know...

Hi, I'm Jethro...

Wait, I didn't have a movie. Anyway, here's what I thought about Finding Dory.

Dory the Blue Tang lived with her parents, Charlie and Jenny (Eugene Levy and Diane Keaton), and "short term remember-y loss." One day, Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) gets lost from her parents. She can't remember why and, eventually, forgets them. She eventually runs into clownfish Marlin (Albert Brooks), helps him find son Nemo and...

Lives with them for a year.

She suddenly remembers her past, particularly something about "the Jewel of Morro Bay, California." She darts off to find her parents with Marlin and Nemo swimming close behind. Said "Jewel" is Morro Bay's Marine Life Institute. There, Dory gets lost, gets tagged and sent to quarantine and finds herself about to get shipped off to a Cleveland aquarium.

A chamelonic "septopus" named Hank (Ed O'Neil), wants to go to Cleveland, and he needs Dory's tag for it. He agrees to help her for his own means. Naturally, Dory's memory loss drives him nuts. Meanwhile, Marlin and Nemo navigate the Institute to find Dory.

Dory's memory loss, a source of humor in Finding Nemo, is played more seriously here. It opens with Dory playing with Mom and Dad, and suddenly, she's lost. Nothing funny about that. She inadvertently irritates sea-life around her and gets into trouble. But the whole point of the movie is her finding that her problem doesn't make her bad. And that's a good thing.

There's a good mix of new and old characters swimming around. Marlin and Nemo are, of course, the most active old characters. Marlin is still over-cautious, while Nemo is his voice of reason. Their trek through the institute was a fun one made great by their finding Dory. A blind whale shark, Destiny (Elizabeth Olsen), and migraine-addled beluga, Bailey (Ty Burrell), make for a fun pair of supporting characters. A pair of Sea Lions, Fluke and Rudder (Idris Elba and Dominic West), were also fun, but I don't get why they don't like a third sea lion, Gerald (He's odd-looking, but not actively annoying).

As with Nemo, Dory provides some amazing imagery. The ocean looks great, the Institute's exhbits look great and the sea-life is unique and colorful. Hank's chameleonic powers are a great effect. The climactic chase was silly, but it was fun. Thomas Newman once again sets these images to his music. The end result makes Dory a more memorable experience.

Is it better than Finding Nemo? I don't know, since it's been a long time since I saw it.  But I do know that it's a worthy Pixar follow-up. It's a compelling story which simply doesn't rehash Nemo's plot. If it does recycle anything from Nemo, it's its ability to make you care about fish. It certainly makes up for John Carter, which was Director Andrew Stanton's previous work, that's for sure.

As usual, Pixar has another appealing short opening the feature. This is Piper, the story of a sandpiper chick's adventures on the beach finding oysters. It's just as memorable as the movie that follows.