Finding Dory

A Pixar sequel (Toy Story exempt) is often cause for concern. As much as they've never strayed too far from quality their follow-on films tend to lean more toward marketability than anything else. Perhaps it's because they're so damn good at introducing characters, or maybe because their standalone films are always so beautifully rounded off.

I'm pleased to say that Finding Dory is an exception to the rule and is a wonderful sequel to Nemo (a whole 13 years after!) Perhaps because of this vast time difference, Pixar have decided to effectively rewrite the original for its forgetful protagonist. We again traverse the ocean on the search for family (Dory's obvs) and, inevitably, this leads to various things going wrong before they go right.

I always felt, and again feel here, that the first film was impressive visually and in story but the characters weren't quite as well rounded as other Pixar efforts and tend to have one defining character trait (scatty-ness for Dory, concern for Marlin etc.) When compared to the rounded family unit of The Incredibles or the friendship of Mike and Sully in Monsters Inc. I suppose it's to be expected with fish (how much can you really do without the body language of a human or land animal character?!) but I'll be interested to know if anyone feels the same about this.

There's one lovely exception to that rule in this film, though and a character that may just lift this one above the first: Hank the octopus. A masterclass in animation (he would have been in Nemo but the technology wasn't there at the time) and voiced perfectly by Ed O'Neill; he's the driving force of the film and allows us to venture out of the water for longer which nullifies the feel of deja vu.

The story, whilst intrinsically Pixar, still keeps you on the edge of your seat. There are the usual moments of 'how-will-they-get-out-of-this?' matched with equally brilliant solutions to those questions.

Pixar do visual humour better than just about anyone else in the world and there are laugh-out-loud moments in this for both kids and adults. Equally, though, the classic Pixar beats are here and there's equal amounts of peril and sadness.

Coming after Inside Out (which, in our opinion, is Pixar's greatest achievement) Finding Dory just stands as a very good Pixar film. But, when Pixar might just be the most consistent movie studio going right now and everything they touch turns to gold (perhaps excluding Cars and Cars 2) that's certainly no bad thing.

You know what you're getting with these giants of animation and this delivers in spaces. As with all Pixar films at the cinema, go early and catch the very cute short Piper beforehand as well. Wonderful stuff.

4 stars ****