Finding Dory

This review may contain spoilers!

I was a bit skeptical at first about whether Finding Nemo needed a sequel; I should never have worried because this is as close to a perfect sequel as you can get. I would give Finding Dory an 8.5/10.

This film is probably best described as a character film; it's all about Dory, her memory loss and her rather tragic backstory. We meet a wide variety of new characters in this film and explore brilliant new locations but nothing is quite as exciting as Dory learning who she is and where she comes from. The animation in this film is spectacular, a great deal of effort is put into keeping the look of Finding Nemo but also revitalising it and providing more detail. The score is beautiful and adds a lot of emotional impact to some pretty powerful scenes; the soundtrack is also great, my favourite was the comedic use of Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World".

Ellen DeGeneres, who voiced Dory, did such a great job voicing the protagonist for this film; Dorry can be bumbling or funny or distraught or excited and every single time DeGeneres will nail the delivery flawlessly. Albert Brooks, who voiced Marlin, takes more of a step back in this film but still manages to provide us with some insight into what family means; in this film Marlin really accepts Dory as a member of his family and I think that's such a touching plot development. Ed O'Neill, who voiced Hank, is a new rough type character introduced for this film; Hank doesn't get along with Dory at first but it's nice to see him connect with and befriend her as the film progresses. Kaitlin Olson, who voiced Destiny, is another new character added within this sequel; Olson brings a ton of energy and charisma to this character and there's a lot of chemistry between her and DeGeneres in their scenes together. Hayden Rolence, who voiced Nemo, really gets a lot more screen time in this film which I thought was great; I liked how Nemo connected with Dory and how he took a hand in helping educate Marlin that Dory was an important part of their family. Diane Keaton and Eugene Levy, who voiced Jenny and Charlie respectively, were incredible parental figures in this film; the love and support they had for Dory was so touching and exceptionally moving. Idris Elba and Dominic West, who voiced Fluke and Rudder respectively, were really entertaining minor roles in this film; these British seals were very comedic and stood out in the scenes they were in. Andrew Stanton, who voiced Crush, was a great throwback to the first film; I love listening to Stanton's 'surfer dude' sea turtle.

However the best performance came from Sloane Murray, who voiced Young Dory. There are a multitude of scenes in this film that show Dory as a young child, this is incredibly interesting to see her before as a kid but also to see her with her family. Murray does a great job of portraying Dory's memory loss as well as her fear of forgetting important things like her family or her home; I admire that she can do all of this hard delivery while still maintaining and creating an admittedly cute character.

What this film really lacked was a point of conflict, there was no antagonist nor was there anyone really working against anything else. Sure there was a lot of tension and you were about the main characters but at the end of the day it was a fairly straightforward plot that didn't take many risks.

Ty Burrell, who voiced Bailey, brought a new character to this sequel who was more annoying than he was funny; Burrell's voice work isn't great and Bailey is a character you won't get as much enjoyment out of. Bob Peterson, who voiced Mr Ray, was a boring character in the first Finding Nemo and keeps that up in the sequel; Peterson's role is confined to delivering a lot of boring exposition that sets up the rest of the feature.