Finding Dory

A year after the events of "Finding Nemo", absent-minded Dory has an arrant memory of her Mom and Dad. That memory sparks her desire to find them and be reunited with her family. With the help of old friends, Marlin and Nemo....and also a few new ones, the adventure begins in a trek across the ocean to find them.

Cast

Ellen DeGeneres as Dory

Albert Brooks as Marlin

Hayden Rolence as Nemo

Ed O'Neill as Hank, a cranky East Pacific red octopus

Diane Keaton as Jenny, Dory's mother.

Eugene Levy as Charlie, Dory's father.

Kaitlin Olson as Destiny, a near-sighted whale shark

Ty Burrell as Bailey, a beluga whale

Idris Elba as Fluke, an easygoing sea lion

Dominic West as Rudder, a sea lion

Bob Peterson as Mr. Ray

Who will like this:

This one is a little tricky. It's a kid-friendly Pixar movie, but not as kid friendly as the first, considering it is rated PG as apposed to the G rating of "Nemo". And because of the 13 year gap in in time, little ones who liked the first are a bit out of the age range of this one and not quite old enough to have little ones of their own to take. So it's really a "Finding Nemo" for the next generation.

Phantom Thoughts

This movie is a bit special to your favorite Phantom. See..."Finding Nemo" was the very first movie I took my daughter to see in the theater when she was only 3 years old. And the Pint-Sized Phantomette sat through the whole movie in amazement. Only once climbing onto her Daddy's lap during the part where the screen went completely dark as the characters there sank into the deep abyss. I took my daughter, now a 15 year old young lady Phantomette to see it and complete the circle.

But that's the issue. She is on the very fringe age of enjoying the two movies. Very young when the first came out, and a bit too old to fully enjoy the second. The 13 years between movies is too long and not long enough at the same time. I guess the next wave of little ones can watch Nemo on Netflix or Blu-Ray before going to the theaters of course, but it's not quite the same. So let's just focus on the movie itself.

This whole thing came about at the persistence of Ellen DeGeneres wanting to play the character again. And why wouldn't she? With over 25 million likes, Dory is the most liked character on Facebook from any Disney or Pixar film. That's quite a statistic if you think about ALL the different and loved characters Disney and Pixar has created.

All the standard Easter Eggs found in Pixar movies can be found here as well. Such as the Pizza Planet Truck (found sunken in the wreck where the Giant Squid battle takes place), The "A113" (on the tags of Fluke and Rudder) and of course the voice talents of John Ratzenberger (who goes from a school of Moonfish to a crab named Bill). Just to name a few.

There is, however, the problem of movie flow.....pun intended. The first is the story plot, which gets a little spastic and convoluted at times. Finding Dory's parents took a few more twists and turns than it needed to. In "Nemo", the story was simple....it was the story of Marlin's journey to get to where is son is captured. It's a linear story that is as straight as the path he takes. "Dory" goes from the reef to California, into a Marine Biology Institute and then to different parts of that location and back into the ocean...all the while sprinkling in flashbacks of a young Dory to get her backstory. It just was a bit messy in my opinion. Speaking of flow.....in "Finding Nemo", Marlin lives on the Great Barrier Reef which is just off the coast of Queensland, Australia. To find his son, Marlin needs to travel to......Sydney AUSTRALIA! To be fair, the trip is over 1200 miles and the EAC (East Australian Current) does in fact run down the length of the country to make it a feasible story. However, in "Finding Dory", the gang travel from the reef to California...which is over 7500 miles! And as where the first movie takes the entire time on that voyage, THIS movie takes that 7 times as long excursion and condenses it to a mere few minutes.

I know, I know.....it's a KID'S movie. Who cares about the inaccuracy in the two trips? The Film Phantom. That's who. As a personal experience, it was a great time that I wouldn't trade for the world. But strictly from a movie experience, it was cute....but lacking.

Until next time, see you in the center seat.