Starring: Ellen DeGeneres, Albert Brooks, Hayden Rolence, Diane Keaton, Eugene Levy, Ty Burrell, Kaitlin Olson, Ed O’Neill, Willem Dafoe, Vicki Lewis, Idris Elba
OUR RATING: ★★★½
Story: Disney Pixar’s animated sequel to Finding Nemo, written and directed by Andrew Stanton and co-directed by Angus MacLane.
The story picks up six months after the first movie, with Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) living a quiet life among the clown fishes. After going with Nemo on a class trip to see manta rays migrate back home, her home sickness leads the forgetful Dory recalling her childhood memories with her parents, Jenny and Charlie (Diane Keaton and Eugene Levy), and remembering something about “the jewel of Monterey, California”.
So accompanied by Nemo and Marlin, she sets out on a quest to find her family and where she came from. when she arrives at the Monterey Marine Life Institute, she meets Bailey (Ty Burrell), a white beluga whale; Destiny (Kaitlin Olson), a whale shark and Hank (Ed O’Neill) the octopus, who becomes her guide.
Verdict: It may not be on the same par as Finding Nemo and, yes, the story is predictable, but this sequel doesn’t not let us down. It’s really colorful, fun and Ellen Degeneres is so perfect as Dory that you can’t help but enjoy this. You’d have to be pretty hard-hearted to not feel lighthearted after watching this.
REVIEWS
Best Quotes (Total Quotes: 33)
Young Dory: Hello?
Fish #1: Did you hear that?
Fish #2: What was that? Hear what?
Fish #1: Stan, I just heard someone say hello.
Fish #2: Yeah, there’s a lot of fish here. Anybody, literally anybody could have just said hello.
Young Dory: Hello?
Fish #1: There.
Fish #2: Where am I looking?
Fish #1: There!
Fish #2: Oh.
Young Dory: Hi, I’m Dory.
Fish #2: Yeah, well where are your parents?
Dory: Hi, I lost my family.
Large Fish: Where did you see them last?
Dory: I forgot. I was looking for something and I… Okay, totally get it, date night.
Dory: I suffer from short-term memory loss, it runs in my family. At least I think it does.
[teaching the kids]
Mr. Ray: Today’s the day! Our field trip to the stingray migration.
Dory: Stingray migration.
Mr. Ray: Migration is about going home.
Dory: Home.
Mr. Ray: Which is where you’re from.
Nemo: How do the stingrays all know where to go?
Mr. Ray: Instinct, something deep inside you that feels so familiar that you have to listen to it.
[talking in her sleep]
Dory: Don’t cry, mommy. Don’t cry
[Nemo and Marlin wakes to find Dory sleep swimming]
Nemo: Dory? Dory?
Marlin: Dory, it’s the middle of the night!
Nemo: Dad, Dory’s sleep swimming. She’s talking in her sleep.
[Marlin pulls Dory back into her sleeping spot]
Marlin: Dory says a lot of things in her sleep. Okay?
[Dory talks in her sleep again]
Dory: Hand me the ratchet wrench. No, I can fix it.
Nemo: But, dad, what if she starts sleeping swimming again?
Marlin: I’m sure this was a onetime thing, so can we just all go back to…
[they hear something, turn and see Dory swimming off]
Nemo: Dory?
Marlin: Dory! Dory!
Dory: [to Nemo] I remembered something! That’s not possible, is it? Okay, is it like a picture in your head and then you think I’ve seen this before? I’ve just used the word before which means I’m remembering something! What was I talking about?
Dory: I remember it like it was yesterday. Of course, I don’t really remember yesterday all that well.
Dory: [to Nemo and Marlin] My family! They’re out there somewhere. I have to find them!
Dory: And I remembered something important!
Marlin: Something important? What?
Dory: Something about a clam or…?
Marlin: No.
Dory: No, an oyster.
Marlin: No.
Dory: Mollusk?
Marlin: No.
Dory: Something?
Marlin: No.
Dory: I don’t know. No?
Marlin: No clam.
Marlin: Our friend got taken into whatever this place is.
Fluke: It’s a fish hospital.
Dory: My mom, my dad! I have a family!
[Dory has a flashback memory of her mother]
Jenny: We will never forget you.
Dory: What if I forget you?
Dory: I miss them. Do you know what that feels like?
Marlin: Yes.
Dory: Then we better get going!
Crab #1: [to Dory] Well, I guess you’re stuck here.
Crab #2: You’re not helping, Bill.
[riding on the back of a turtle]
Marlin: Totally sick!
Crush: Isn’t it great?
Marlin: No! I’m gonna be totally sick!
[running into a whale shark]
Destiny: Sorry, not a great swimmer.
Dory: I think you swim beautifully.
Destiny: Thank youuu.
Dory: Youuuu welcome.
Destiny: Wait, Dory?
Dory: Yes.
Destiny: Dory?
Dory: Yes.
Destiny: You and I were friends!
Dory: No.
Destiny: It was so much fun because I’d tell you a story and then you’d completely forget it about, and then I’d get to tell it to you over and over again.
Dory: I lost my family.
Destiny: That is so sad. You’ve always been…
[as she’s swimming along suddenly she head butts straight into a wall]
Destiny: Not a great swimmer.
[to the dead fishes]
Dory: I’m sorry, I gotta blink. How do you keep your eyes open that long?
[Dory ends up in a fish tank]
Dory: What’s happening? Hello? Hello?
[an octopus, Hank, has camouflaged himself against the wall]
Hank: Hey, you!
Dory: Hi, can you help me?
Hank: Shh!
[Hank drops himself into the sink and uses one of his tentacles to reach for the light switch but instead turns on the dispenser]
Hank: Aah!
[he quickly stops it]
Dory: Mm-mm. not good.
Hank: My name’s Hank.
Dory: I have to find my family.
Hank: That’s a hard one, kid.
Dory: My friend, Sigourney, once said, “Rescue, rehabilitate, release!”
Marlin: Our friend is in there, lost, alone.
[to a pack of Pacific regal blue tangs]
Dory: Mom, dad!
Marlin: She should just pick two and let’s go.
Nemo: Dad.
Marlin: What? I’m kidding.
Marlin: I get the feeling that they’re shushing us for a reason.
Dory: Like something with one big eye, tentacles and a snappy thing?
Marlin: Well that’s very specific but something like that.
[suddenly the octopus behind them goes to attack them]
Dory: Somewhere out there is my family. I can’t find them on my own.
Hank: I don’t want to be touched!
[a kid touches the top of Hank’s head and he squirts out black ink in the water making the kids yell and run off]
Hank: Sorry.
Dory: That’s okay. Everybody does that, nothing to be ashamed of.
Nemo: I trust Becky.
Marlin: You trust Becky. Becky’s eating a cup.
Dory: I don’t know why I thought I could do this.
Marlin: Dory, you are about to find your parents and when you do that, you’ll be…
Dory: Home.
Marlin: Sea lions, they’re natural predators, they could pounce at any moment.
Fluke: Hah! Mate, don’t you worry…
[suddenly another sea lion jumps onto their rock, Fluke and Rudder suddenly pounce and yell at the other sea lion to get off their rock, as the other sea lion jump back into the water Fluke and Ruddy turn back to Marlin and Nemo]
Fluke: Don’t you worry about a thing.
Dory: For a guy with three hearts, you are not very nice.
Hank: You know something? I have no idea why you are doing this.
Dory: What do you mean?
Hank: It seems like a lot of trouble to find some more fish. If I had short term memory loss, I would just swim off into the blue and forget everything.
Dory: I don’t want to do that. I want my family.
Hank: I mean, kid, I don’t wanna anyone to worry about. You’re lucky. No Memories, no problems.
Hank: I just want to live in a glass box alone. That’s all I want.
Dory: What is so great about plans? I never had a plan! Did I plan to lose my parents? No. Did I plan to find Marlin? No. Did you and I plan to meet? Well, I don’t think we did and that’s because the best things happen by chance, because that’s life, and that’s you being with me out in the ocean not safe in some stupid glass box.
Total Quotes: 33
Trailers:
While Finding Dory has become a record breaker for the biggest opening weekend for an animated film, there was a reason it was.
Finding Dory truly is now one of Pixar’s greatest films. In my opinion… It’s definitely the rare sequel that’s better than the first. It definitely has a lot of things that Finding Nemo didn’t have but at the same time that old feel is still there.
Finding Dory is a 2016 summer blockbuster! Make sure to check it out in theaters now. Also I saw it in 2D and it was still great so it doesn’t matter if you see it in 2D or 3D.
Finding Dory also proves that audiences and moviegoers everywhere are eager to see Pixar favourites return to the big screen, this is a good thing cause Pixar’s upcoming releases until 2020 include some BIG sequels such as Cars 3, Toy Story 4, and The Incredibles 2 along with an original film called CoCo based on the Mexican Day of the Dead which will release after Cars 3 next year. I can imagine it will just be the Pixar version of “The Book of Life” but we’ll see.
Coming soon, soon, soon! Can’t wait! 🙂