FINDING DORY Review: This Warm, Exuberant Film is a Delight & Should Not Be Missed

For years, animated films have been unfairly treated by a portion of audience—and even by those who are given a chance to pass judgments on the whole business of movies.

According to them, animated films, being so similar-looking to cartoons that come on television, are just that: Cartoons. Sure, they’re 90 minutes long as compared to a half-an-hour show on TV. But adding a little more narrative doesn’t change the fact that the characters were just drawn by someone. Not to say they aren’t fun to watch; of course they are—they’re cartoons! They are colorful and, at times, really funny. You know, something kids should watch.

These are the EXACT same arguments that people who have been avoiding animated films have been making for the past twenty years.

I bring this up before the review because these arguments – maybe once upon a time valid – are now just plainly wrong. And the latest example of that is the Friday-release Finding Dory.

Sequel to 2003’s Finding Nemo, one of the best things creators of Finding Dory have done is to bring back the major characters from the first movie. Not only does that draw nostalgia from those who have seen the previous installment, but it has helped the makers create a larger sense of connectedness, which runs through the course of the film, making the events much more important than they might have otherwise.

The movie is about a forgetful fish named Dory, who is in fact so forgetful that her memory is a disability for her. She only remembers that she is separated from her family, and with that knowledge she meets Marlin and Nemo, eventually pestering them enough in helping her find her parents.

But along the way, her memory not only becomes an impediment in their journey but a cause of danger for her and her companions. This causes Marlin, afraid for the safety of his son Nemo in particular, to flip out. And that leaves Dory, who can’t remember past 10 seconds, to go on alone in search of her parents.  

What follows is a vibrant, funny and thought-provoking journey of an overly optimistic yet absent-minded fish in search of the only thing she is certain about; all the while not knowing how to get it.

The film’s perfectly-timed humour and diverse range of characters are consistently entertaining and are enough to carry the film to its rightful end. But the real achievement of the film is that it doesn’t stop there. It’s not just that the film is heartrending but the fact that it effectively explores the universal themes of disability, parenthood, and belongingness along the way makes it something of an instant classic.

Yes, the film is cute. In fact, it’s downright adorable. Yes, the characters of the film have been drawn and even look like cartoons. But don’t let the innocuousness of it all stop you from watching it. It’s much more than what you’d expect it to be.

4.5 stars