Film review: Finding Dory is a perfect family movie

Ellen DeGeneres returns as the loveable Pacific blue tang in Finding Dory.

Hank, voiced by Ed O'Neill, left, and Dory, voiced by Ellen DeGeneres in Finding Dory. Pixar / Disney via AP Photo

Finding Dory

Director: Andrew Stanton

Starring: Ellen DeGeneres, Sigourney Weaver, Idris Elba, Albert Brooks, Diane Keaton, Eugene Levy

Three-and-a-half stars

There’s been a bit of a run of late of sequels to franchises that seemed to have been laid to rest years ago.

Last year, for example, we had Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens continuing the sci-fi saga after a 10-year break; the return of the genetically engineered dinosaurs in Jurassic World, 14 years after the previous film; and Creed, which revisited the world of Rocky nine years after Rocky Balbao (which itself was released 16 years after the previous instalment, Rocky V).

In a few weeks we will see an Independence Day sequel, Resurgence, 20 years after the aliens first tried and failed to invade the earth.

Before that, though, we have Finding Dory, which revisits the animated aquatic world of Finding Nemo, 13 years after the release of the classic Pixar original, although the story takes place only a year or so later.

Clownfish Nemo (with Hayden Rolence providing the voice this time, taking over from Alexander Gould), his dad Marlin (Albert Brooks) and the forgetful blue tang, Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) return for the sequel, although many of the peripheral characters from the first film are missing, in favour of a new cast of fishy friends.

They include Hank (Modern Family's Ed O'Neill), a colour-changing octopus – though he has lost a tentacle and so is often referred to as a "septopus" – who provides much of the movie's comic relief.

This time around, Dory takes centre stage, having played the comic sidekick to Marlin on his quest to find his missing son in the first movie. Even by fish standards, she has an appalling memory but then has a sudden flashback that she was separated from her parents, who might be imprisoned in an aquarium in California. So the three friends set out from the coral reefs of Australia on an underwater quest to reunite her family.

The movie is sure to be a box-office smash, given the goodwill for the much-loved original, the timeless appeal of the cute characters, its star ­pulling-power alone – and the inevitable pester ­power of younger viewers.

However, it is also a worthy film in its own right. The animation, particularly during the action sequences, is of the constantly evolving high standard we have come to expect from Pixar. There are also enough contrasting moments of comedy and emotional drama to keep youngsters and their parents entertained, while the impressive cast give a surprising level of gravitas to the task of voicing animated fish.

The film does not, however, quite reach the high standards of its predecessor. The narrative complexity of Finding Nemo isn't really in evidence here – Dory's frequent memory-lapse gags are likely to grate on all but the youngest viewers after the first dozen or so, and the film's message about the importance of family, and how even broken families can be fixed, isn't so much underlying as delivered with a sledge hammer over the head.

These are minor points, though, considering that the original – Pixar's second-highest grossing movie after Toy Story 3 – set the bar so high.

It’s probably also fair to say that the movie’s key, toddler demographic isn’t really looking for narrative complexity or subtle messages, when a good ­memory-loss joke will do.

The film’s success internationally is a safe bet – what will be interesting to see, locally, is how it fares at the box office in the UAE. There’s long been an accepted wisdom that families don’t want to visit cinemas at this time of year, and so blockbusters are held up for a release over Eid or in the weeks after.

Finding Dory is the first major film we can remember getting a release during Ramadan. Time will tell whether this gamble works – but this is exactly the kind of movie that families would want to make a point of going to see at a time of year where the focus on family is so strong.