Never thought about it before, but “Finding Nemo” does basically follow the Grimes family storyline of “The Walking Dead” Season 4. Either way, where is CORAL right now?! But consider yourself warned: The film doesn’t quite have the happy-go-lucky vibe Finding Nemo does – and Nemo opened with a brutal murder. Now Dory is feeling restless, gnawed at by flashes of the family she lost. “Hi, I’m Dory”, the younger fish recites.
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“Ed’s one of my favourite people in the world and we basically were operating on the set of Modern Family for months without knowing either one of us were in Finding Dory”, he said. Joining them are Hayden Rolence, Ed O’Neill, Kaitlin Olson, Ty Burrell, Diane Keaton, and Eugene Levy.
The cast is terrific and plays these sea life creatures beautifully.
At times emotionally cloying (it is a Disney movie, after all), Finding Dory isn’t just about Nemo and Marlin’s search for Dory, or Dory’s search for the family we’re born with and the family we make for ourselves, it’s about her search for herself. But it’s not a simple switch in perspective: In seeing through her forgetful fisheyes, you realize how terrifyingly disorienting it is to be Dory. Enlisting old friends Nemo and his father Marlin (Albert Brooks) to accompany her on this journey (helped by the surfer-dude turtle Crush in a cameo), Dory surfaces there miraculously emerging from the water to hear the voice of none other than Sigourney Weaver welcoming visitors to the park while invoking MLI’s motto and mantra of “Rescue, Rehabilitation, Release”. I’m not sure that’s a fair question, even though I asked it. “Nemo” happens to be my favorite Pixar movie, but my experience is that the Pixars get better every time I see them and it took a few viewings for “Nemo” and the “Toy Story” movies to rocket up my charts. That’s some tough chum to swallow for a character who yearns to reconnect with her parents, from whom she accidentally wandered away from as a child.
Known for suffering from short-term memory loss, Dory can not remember what she has just done. Finding Dory wins on only one of these accounts though. “Finding Dory” isn’t an instant classic, but it’s a film that is very easy to fall in love with. Ellen DeGeneres of course leads the pack as Dory, with her whale-speak and situational comedic moments, but the fun of the film very much is in the hands of all the side characters. You will laugh. You will get the feels.
Is it possible for an actor to go too deep while getting into character? Andrew Stanton’s script is heavy handed at times, but DeGeneres makes you at least want to believe it all.
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Finding Dory put it best in the final word of its film.
