Movie Review: Finding Dory

Most multiplexes like to play a slew of trailers before every movie screening; and this one was no different. This is done less for the audience’s benefit, than it is for the cinema’s, as a way of advertising what is to be screened in the future. The same goes for a film produced by Pixar too – the undeniably creative company behind almost all great animated movies. The trailers before a Pixar film starts are few compared to those of others, because the exhibitors also have to make time for the short film that precedes the main feature.

Piper is an animated short about a baby sandpiper (a small, scrawny bird) that has to learn to peck for food from the nearby seashore. We first see the bird in its small shelter being fed by its mother, but the mother soon judges her child ready for the outside realm and releases it into the large scary world. Pixar does make some money from the short films it produces, but nonetheless, the amount of heart, time and consideration they put into each one is staggering. Even though not as great as Feast – another short, shown before Big Hero Six – in no more than 6 minutes, Piper is able to amuse and exhilarate, much like the feature film that followed it.

The name Andrew Stanton will probably endure as the designation of the man that gave us the modern masterpiece Wall-E, but for those that dig deeper, appreciation for him would also be extended towards the almost equally brilliant Finding Nemo. Plot wise, it was a simple enough movie – a father searches for his son, Nemo, together with a female companion he meets on the way. But the film was set in the sea, the characters were all fishes and never before in any movie has marine life been explored with such enthusiasm, originality, spectacle and breathtaking attention to detail.

The female companion I mentioned was named Dory, and one of the greatest things about Finding Nemo is that she didn’t serve as an obvious love interest to the father character, a clownfish called Marlin. A year has passed since the events of that film, and now a new one, Finding Dory, follows. The first film was almost universally loved, but it is doubtful that’s why we are getting a sequel.

The title is self explanatory: Dory has to be found, because she has disappeared. When I heard of the title three years ago, I didn’t ask myself – but why would she disappear? Dory is a very unique fish that has short-term memory loss. If we have to be scientific about it, her condition is akin to Anterograde amnesia. She just can’t make new memories; subsequently, she is bound to get lost at one point or another.

Dory suddenly starts to recall fractional memories of her long lost parents. Realising that she had a family that loved her, and if alive are probably still missing her, she decides to go looking for them. But, of course, as a result of her amnesia, she can’t do this on her own, as her family’s probable location is far away from the Great Barrier Reef which is home to her and hers, Marlin and Nemo. The two, Nemo excitedly and Marlin rather grudgingly, accompany Dory on an “adventure she probably won’t remember”. Along the way, she gets lost, befriends various intriguing fishes, drives a car (kind of), remembers a bunch of stuff about her past (which is a big thing for her) and finally gets to figure out what it is that makes her so unique as to be a title character.

I didn’t think the film would work, or that I would like it so much, but if there is one thing Pixar is most praiseworthy for, it is delivering under pressure. The film starts off ordinarily, with no echo of that grave sad opening scene that proclaimed the crux of the previous movie. The second act, introducing an absurd octopus (or is it “septumus”), was fast paced and invigorating. I felt myself sit-up, a usual indicator of my interest in a film. Yet still, most scenes seemed forced, cranked up by warm soundtracks to give feelings they alone can’t achieve. But the third act was impressive. Especially the resolution – which wraps the movie up with one full sweep, played to Bobby Darin’s Beyond the Sea – is by far the highlight of the film. It isn’t often that a single scene breaks or makes a film, giving us the ultimate movie moment.

On the whole, I would have preferred Stanton to have made an original movie. His career with animated features is only rivaled by that of Brad Bird’s – director of The Incredibles and Ratatouille. It is hard to call a director of animated movies an auteur, more like a coordinator. More than any other genre, an animated film is truly a team effort. But a team always needs someone to draw together all its ideas, scrape off the bad ones and illuminate the great ones. Stanton, just for a moment, with his disastrous John Carter live-action movie, looked like he had lost his touch, but Finding Dory is a return to form.

I believe all films should be judged on their own merits or demerits. Because no two movies, even a remake to its original, are alike. All films represent different ideas and sentiments. But sitting in the cinema, not just watching but also enjoying Finding Dory – a film I would recommend to almost anyone – there was a part of me that wanted the projectionist to slip up and play this year’s Zootopia (also known as Zootropolis) instead. The movie was so good as to be unbelievable; no other animated film could afford to be that bold and wry. As much as I liked Finding Dory, it is humdrum compared to the maturity of Zootopia, or even the juiciness of Finding Nemo.


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