What I mean to say there is that there are characters that behave way too similarly to how they behave in the first film. Particularly Marlin, who at the end of the first film learns to be a bit more lenient and not so overprotective. Yet here, he is almost just as paranoid, if not straight up insulting towards those he cares about. The reason I guess I don't mind this so much, mainly because in this movie, Marlin and Nemo don't really have much of a role in this film. They're honestly just kinda there. In fact, while it's on my mind, the vocal performances here really don't sound that enthusiastic to me. There's no driving sense. At times, they all can sound very uninterested in their roles. While there can be some important plot involving Marlin and Nemo towards the beginning, they don't really contribute to this story. In fact, towards the end, Marlin and Nemo kinda have this deus ex machina moment that comes nearly out of nowhere. And that's not the only moment this can happen. The plot at times can be incredibly convenient in the spur of the moment from fish jumping into tanks of water perfectly lined up with one another, or other crazy occurrences that honestly could have been executed better. One of those being the echolocation of the beluga whale. I can't claim to be an expert, but I do know that echolocation doesn't work as well outside water as it does in water. Yet here, it doesn't really have much of a limitation.
Which brings me to my next criticism. The sea life. A lot of the time, I really don't like how certain creatures behave or whatnot. One thing that comes to mind is that there's very little hostility. The only creature in this film that shows any interest in eating our main characters is this squid which only had one short scene in the very beginning. While I understand that this film isn't nearly as hostile a journey as the first film, there are times I feel that the opportunistic predator behavior is dropped completely, despite being completely hinted at. Like with the sea lions. Marlin talks about how they're known to be predatory animals, yet throughout the film, they have absolutely no signs of such behavior. It's little things like this that make me feel very underwhelmed with a lot of these characters. Even the octopus, which feels more like an excuse to potentially bait another sequel to this series, I didn't find that interesting. He says he wants to avoid the ocean because...reasons. Let me make a quick comparison to Gill from the first film. Despite knowing not as much about him, we were given glimpses into his past to connect with him better than we could this octopus. Hank just isn't as developed as the minor characters of the first film were. Heck, despite being fun, all the minor characters here could have had better development.
My final really big criticism to this movie comes from the fact that the environment of this movie isn't as immersive or played with as in the first film. What I love about Finding Nemo is how they set up the ocean and how life under the sea works. Little things that film does, from fish not knowing how to read, to taking a breath of water before exposing themselves to the air really make this world feel alive. Even in the aquarium of that film. But almost all these things they did in that film are dropped here. Reading seems to be a simple to most fish (even Dory struggled slightly in the first film), we see the fish expose themselves to the air quite often, and they even know how to use certain human objects. Granted that the octopus in real life is indeed a very intelligent animal, very capable of flipping a switch, or whatnot, but it being strong enough to push a stroller, or...minor spoiler alert...drive a truck, seem rather far fetched. Heck, there are times the octopus is exposed to the air for large amounts of time and it doesn't suffer at all.
However, despite all this, despite this film taking so many identical plot moves the first film did to get to its story, despite all these annoyances, once the ball is rolling, there is plenty of fun to behold. Despite being so very over the top in so many ways, I found it impossible not to laugh. Despite the weaknesses of the minor characters, there is plenty of times I laughed at Destiny's near-sighted weaknesses. I had a good laugh at Dory's carefree memory loss moments. I had a fun laugh at the sea lions constantly yelling "OFF!" at that one sea lion trying to get on their rock. The film does have some life in its blood, despite getting a lot of things off or wrong. Though I'd have loved to hear Dory mess up Nemo's name more, it's impossible to say that her journey to find her family is not well executed, if not straight up emotionally touching at times.
I'm giving Finding Dory a three star rating out of four. It does fall short of Finding Nemo. By a long shot. But I kinda saw it coming honestly. It's not a sequel that could have easily topped that film, especially since that film did so much right when it did. With that said, I do hope that we don't see another film in this series. There's just not much else to tell with these characters. The same life blood that gave the first film so much to go off of is no longer there. Sorry Dory. Is it fun? Sure. But it just doesn't compare.
Please feel free to suggest a film you'd like to see reviewed. Leave a comment down below expressing your own thoughts on the film down below, and as always, thanks for reading.
Final Verdict: 3/4
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