At last. Finding Dory, a movie 13 years in the making, is on the cusp of arrival. The sequel to 2003’s megahit Finding Nemo premieres in exactly one week, with the first reviews appearing online early Friday morning.
Sequels can be a tricky road to navigate, but with the return of director Andrew Stanton, Albert Brooks’ Marlin the Clownfish and, of course, Ellen Degeneres as Dory, it’s difficult to imagine the follow-up disappointing audiences. But what about the critics? They’ll certainly have an impact on how Finding Dory performs at the box office, and they’re a notoriously tough crowd to impress.
Movie tickets are expensive nowadays, so if you’re on the fence about seeing Finding Dory, look no further. Here’s a roundup of critic reviews for Finding Dory. Hint: you’ll definitely want to see it:
Finding Dory Review Roundup
Andrew Stanton and Angus MacLane, the co-directors of “Finding Dory,” have made a beautiful, rambunctious, and fully felt sequel — a movie totally worth its salt water. It’s a film that spills over with laughs (most of them good, a few of them shticky) and tears (all of them earned), supporting characters who are meant to slay us (and mostly do) with their irascible sharp tongues, and dizzyingly extended flights of physical comedy. The images never stop dazzling us with their awesome, tactile sheen — their oceanic incandescence.
Sequel-wise, that puts this follow-up to 2003’s “Finding Nemo” leagues ahead of “Cars 2” and “Monsters University” if not quite at the level of the second and third “Toy Story” entries. Still, the studio has figured out an organic reason to bring back the forgetful fish voiced so memorably by Ellen DeGeneres, and they’ve crafted a story that puts her comfortably front and center.
A lot of people who loved 2003’s Finding Nemo will pay to see this new follow-up and walk out feeling like they got their money’s worth. But it’s not Toy Story or Inside Out or even Nemo. What it is is a perfectly enjoyable family film that’s comforting, familiar, and a bit slight, like one of those serviceable Lion King spin-offs that Disney used to ship straight to DVD back in the ‘90s.
In many ways, “Finding Dory” is no different. But, under the surface, an abstract and unspoken truth begins to take shape in a more palpable way than it did in the first film. You sense it in the ominous wide shots of a tiny fish engulfed by an infinity of water, and sense it in the tear-jerking moments during which she’s realizes that she’s not alone.
I never thought I wanted a sequel to Finding Nemo, but here we are and I’m pretty happy it exists. And, again, for me, it was a more emotional experience than the first film. Finding Dory got me – it made me cry.
After 21 years, that formula is still very satisfying. But it also feels more like a formula than ever before. We love Pixar not only for the way they make us laugh and tug at our heartstrings, but also for their innovations along the way. In Finding Dory, the scene that sums everything up is the one where Dory, Marlin, and Nemo hitch a ride on an ocean current with a bunch of cool sea turtles. It’s an echo of a very similar sequence from Finding Nemo, and it observes its characters having a grand old time as they happily coast along.
