Finding Dory

Sure, this isn't Finding Nemo, or rather, it's not as good. But the return to the characters, the development of what we've seen, some nostalgic encounters, and new encounters, all work here, as well as the nice and touching story that brought a tear to my eye. You simply want to come back to these characters because they're still great. (01/08/2016)

I’ve never been crazy about Finding Nemo. I think of it as a perfect family Pixar film that looks great and stuffs the audience with the right values combined with humour and suspense. Good craftsmanship, but I just prefer the more daring, cheeky and contrived films with rats cooking in a restaurant or pensioners putting a million balloons on their house and flying off to Argentina with a fat Asian scout. Finding Dory wasn't a particularly anticipated film for me, so I can't speak to disappointment, but the fact is that it's another completely unnecessary animated film from a studio that was considered the absolute top of its field just a few years ago. It's not a weak Cars 2, but it's far too similar to the first one, only with less interesting supporting characters and starring a talkative heroine who is more annoying than entertaining. It looks great, the jokes work as they should, and it's touching in the right places, but that's it. Finding Dory feels like it's going to neutral, banking on the fact that people will come anyway because they like Nemo and probably want to see the same thing, only with a blue fish instead of an orange one. I'd like more than that, though. I'm used to a bit more class and ambition from this bunch. (15/05/2017)

Because it took thirteen years to make this sequel, the screenwriters had enough time to think about it properly; I did not believe it would be a disaster. On the other hand, I was expecting that it would be much more of a mess by focusing the narrative on Dory as the main protagonist. In the end, the result is very good, and Pixar has managed to keep the bar of this franchise still very high. The animation is, of course, perfect, and the characters, both the old ones and the new ones, are also very good. The narrative does feature a few minor quirks, although I could not find anything majorly bothersome. The ending was good, and I found the moment with Dory and Marlin interestingly profound. So, in the end, they pulled Finding Dory off really well, though I do not know why, although I was expecting a bit more. 8/10. (19/06/2016)

The fact that this is a pure marketing sequel in order to launch a merchandising tsunami (mimiDora, as the cutest small fish of all time, is directly asking for it, and I am surprised that my son did not want me to buy a him fish on the way from the cinema) and not a sequel made to say something new about the characters/the world (and such sequels were never unfamiliar to Pixar), so it's not bad at all. Mainly because it is basically the same like two peas. The main downside is Dory herself, who works great as a supporting character, but much worse as the main character, as you will quickly become tired of her energy and forgetfulness. However, she is backed by new characters, especially Hank the octopus. In many scenes he is the only main driving force that is pulling strings. It will pleasantly surprise you how well it works in terms of emotions. Which is balanced by the unnecessary escapade final rescue action and the Marlin/Nemo duo, who are here purely out of duty. Watching this is like a torture, especially how the creators forcibly incorporate them into the center of events and at the same time sideline them throughout the whole footage. (24/06/2016)

"Hi, I'm Dory and I'm suffering from short-term memory loss." Like Toy Story 2, Finding Dory is a completely natural sequel that has stuck to the bar of the first film, knows the measure and does not exaggerate anything, has a bunch of ideas... It's just magical. Plus, Hank the octopus and Gerald the sea lion are such fantastic new characters! (16/06/2016)