To say that Finding Dory is everything I wanted is wrong, not because it doesn't meet expectations, but because I don't know what I want. Finding Nemo didn't end with a cliffhanger - the only thing to expect out of Finding Dory is a return to the Nemoverse: a goofy array of characters; witty, yet misguided understandings of the human world; and of course, a lot of heart. Dory delivers; it's not the knockout punch Pixar is known for, but even a mid-tier Pixar movie is leagues above another Ice Age (how did we, as a species allow FIVE of these things?).
A year has passed since Nemo, and Dory (Ellen Degeneres) has adjusted to her new Great Barrier Reef home alongside Marlin (Albert Brooks) and Nemo (Hayden Rolence). Dory begins to receive brief instinctual flashbacks of her childhood - more specifically, of her long-lost parents. With only some choppy hints and tons of determination, the trio travel across the Pacific to a marine life institute in California where (hopefully) Dory's parents still reside.
Notable newcomers include Hank (Ed O'Neill), a curmudgeonly octopus whose camouflage makes him near-invisible; Destiny (Kaitlin Olson), a near-sighted sweetheart of a whale shark; and Gerald (Torbin Xan Bullock), a derpy sea lion whose quest for a warm rock is denied, Trix Rabbit style, by the two other sea lions lying there (Idris Elba and Dominic West).
Finding Dory is less of a road trip than its predecessor, more of a character study. We're looking through Dory's eyes: her anxiety that she may forget everything; frustrations at forgetting only the most essential part of a memory; joy when remembering a new piece of the puzzle. Degeneres is guided by pitch-perfect direction from Andrew Stanton. She's warm, bubbly, naive, but smarter than she seems. Spending more time in her point of view lets us see her as less manic our annoying than as through Marlin's point of view in Nemo.
Visual work, such as the background fading as Dory fears forgetting are handled superbly, further linking us to her mindset. One scene featuring a panic attack was confirmed by the person next to me as pretty realistic - not too intense for kids, but handled accurately and respectfully.
The movie handles the experiences of someone with mental disabilities and how it affects others around them. In a flashback, we hear Dory's mom (Diane Keaton) worry if Dory will be able to function on her own. When Dory asks for help, other fish respond with confusion or fear.
In one scene, Dory asks a female hermit crab for directions, and the crab replies with a small list. The look on Dory's face, a blend of shame, frustration, and anxiety says it all: this is too much for her; it's child's play for others; and because of that, she feels inadequate. Above all, Pixar has a talent for empathy, for putting tough subjects in simple yet comprehensive terms. Just as Zootopia did for racism, Finding Dory does for mental disabilities.
But the other talent Pixar has is making fun, imaginative stories. Watching the millions of ways Hank can slink around the Institute with Dory (resting in either a coffeepot, sippy cup, or bucket) undetected is enthralling. There's just as much awe in seeing a flurry of colorful fish swimming around a tower of coral as in noting every individual gain of sand covering a seashell. (The movie's also got a way with launching fish out of water that gets me nervous.)
Finding Dory is all the good of Pixar with none of the bad: a well-told story with extraordinary visuals, characters you either already love or fall in love with immediately, and a wealth of creativity, passion, and wild imagination. It may not be all the greatness of Pixar, but I can't really count that as a fault. I'd say "Go see it," but judging by my box office view, you're probably already here.
Thank you all for reading. I'm the Man Without a Plan, signing off.
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