It’s hard to believe it has been 13 years since FINDING NEMO came out. Like many others, one of my family’s favorite characters from the original was Dory. You can imagine our excitement when we heard that everyone’s favorite blue tang would be at it again in FINDING DORY!
FINDING DORY Blu-ray and digital download available on Walmart.com
Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) is a wide-eyed, blue tang fish who suffers from memory loss every 10 seconds or so. The one thing she can remember is that she somehow became separated from her parents as a child. With help from her friends Nemo and Marlin, Dory embarks on an epic adventure to find them. Her journey brings her to the Marine Life Institute, a conservatory that houses diverse ocean species. Dory now knows that her family reunion will only happen if she can save mom and dad from captivity.
FINDING DORY does a fantastic job of giving Nemo fans what they came for, while making Dory the focal point of an adventure that is all her own. Dory, Nemo, and Marlin functioning as a makeshift family after their adventures was a nice touch and getting to see Dory’s origin and meeting new (old?) friends was a real treat. Ed O’Neill’s Hank the octopus is a scene-stealer and is a part of some of the movie’s best sequences, and there are quite a few! Of course, as with any Disney/Pixar collaboration, the animation and voice talent is top-notch. From main characters to minor cameos, Finding Dory gives the audience a vibrant world filled with sea life that is funny and relatable.
One minor quibble is that the story feels familiar: small fish cross the ocean on an epic journey in the name of family and hijinks ensue! But it’s hard to dwell too much on something so small when you can’t take your eyes off the big, beautiful world of Finding Dory.
Overall, my family and I loved this movie and can’t wait to see it again. FINDING DORY is a family movie in the truest sense. It reminds us that, like Dory, Nemo, and Marlin, the bonds of a family unit allow us to overlook our shortcomings and be more than the sum of our parts. Now that’s something worth crossing an ocean for.
Genre: Animation/Adventure/Comedy/Family
Directed by: Andrew Stanton, Angus MacLane
Starring: Ellen Degeneres, Albert Brooks, Ed O’Neill
Written by: Andrew Stanton, Victoria Strouse, Bob Peterson
Rating: PG
Run time: 1h 45m
Release date: June 17, 2016
This is a guest post written by Andrew A., a movie fan and father of two.
*This post contains affiliate links. Which means QMW receives a portion of the total of any purchase.
