FINDING DORY (2016)

Andrew Stanton directed this delightful sequel to 2003’s FINDING NEMO, with this film concentrating on the quest to find Dory’s parents despite the fact that she has short term memory loss, proving it can be quite a challenge at times. However Dory has a heart of gold and despite her disability has the aid of Marlin and Nemo, a father/son clownfish duo from the first film who figure just as prominently in this film as the first. Though this film’s focus is mainly on Dory, she has the assist from various marine friends such as an octopus, a near sighted whale shark, a beluga whale, a couple of sea lions, and of course Crush, the “surfer dude” sea turtle from the first film. Much more than just a silly animated film, this story was very well thought out, proving that it was well worth the wait and is as much playing to the adult audience as the younger set. Ellen DeGeneres as the voice of Dory and Albert Brooks as Marlin are exceptional as well as all members of the voice cast which include Hayden Rolence (as Nemo), Ed O’Neil, Kaitlin Olson, Ty Burrell, Diane Keaton, Eugene Levy, Idris Elba, Dominic West, and Andrew Stanton as Crush. Beautifully animated by PIXAR animation, and though I feel the first film is still superior, I’m sure most folks will not be disappointed in this rather ambitious follow-up.