Finding Dory, Finding Memory

Release Date：Jul/07/2016

Genre：Animation/Adventure/Comedy/Family

Director：Andrew Stanton

Cast：Ellen DeGeneres、Albert Brooks、Ed O'Neill

Viola's Rating： 8.7

It has been a long time since the timid clownfish, Marlin, set out a journey from the Great Barrier Reef to Sydney to take his son, Nemo, home. The long wait is over! Thirteen years after the advent of “Finding Nemo”, Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Pictures finally released its sequel “Finding Dory.”

Fans of “Finding Nemo” who were children at the time are all grown-ups now, so most of them were looking forward to this latest animation not only for knowing how the protagonist this time, Dory, regains her memory about family, but also for finding their childhood memory. The friendly-but-forgetful regal blue tang fish, who suffers from short-term memory loss, begins a search for her long-lost parents, and during the journey, everyone learns a few things about the real meaning of family.

Besides the main storyline, there are more marine animals appear in “Finding Dory” such as beluga whale, octopus, sea lion, whale shark and more. All together, they bring the audience back to the sea area where Dory, Marlin and Nemo live in and the area where Dory was born.

Having all these new animals, the feature film contains some science knowledge related to marine lives. Also, elements about not keeping whales in captivity were put into the flock after Pixar executives viewed “Blackfish”, a 2013 documentary.

Lighting and simulation are critical stages of making “Finding Nemo” since it’s important to provide the ambience through lighting in the water and water itself requires simulation to look authentic. Again in “Finding Dory”, there are times when the water turns into green or purple which means there’s danger around the main characters.

Compared to “Finding Nemo”, “Finding Dory” is less tight and well-knit because the audience sometimes has to slow down with Dory to figure out what has been forgotten. Although Dory’s adventure finding her family is exciting as well, it’s not as dangerous and scary as what we experienced with Nemo 13 years ago.

In order to satisfy Nemo lovers, there are some connections between two episodes which moviegoers might find surprises from, and a flashback of Dory’s provides the background story of how she met Marlin and helped him to find Nemo, so even a viewer who hasn’t seen “Finding Nemo” can find it enjoyable.

Dubbed as a “safe sequel” by some critics, “Finding Dory” doesn’t have a dramatic twist that makes it thrilling, but it’s still a fun motion picture. Also, while watching Dory finding her family and regaining her memory, you can have a whale of a time finding your own memory about the adventure those cute fish had in the ocean 13 years ago.