Cast: Voices of Ellen DeGeneres, Albert Brooks, Hayden Rolence, Ed O’Neill, Diane Keaton, Eugene Levy, Kaitlin Olson, Ty Burrell, Idris Elba, Dominic West
Director: Andrew Stanton
Genre: Animation, comedy
Duration: 103 minutes
Showing: Cinema Magic, Metroplex Mall Naalya, Century Cinemax Acacia Mall, and Numax Cinema, Entebbe.
Thirteen years is a long time to wait for a movie. Yet this is what every Finding Nemo fan has done. In Finding Nemo, Dory and her short-term memory stood out. She was such a hit that most of us wished she could get her movie. The movie fairies heard us, spread their fairy dust and finally Dory gets her own adventure.
While Finding Dory is being released 13 years later, the events of the movie take place one year since Dory helped Nemo’s father Marlin, find Nero. Dory (DeGeneres) may still have a short memory but she has started having flashes. These flashes have her convinced that her parents are still alive and that she can find them. A recent lesson on fish migration makes her conclude that her parents, however, don’t live in the Great Barrier Reef. A flashback confirms this, making Dory determined to find her family.
Nemo (Rolence) is happy to join Dory on the search. His father, Marlin (Brooks) grudgingly comes along. During their journey, the three get separated. Dory ends up at an institute where she meets a seven-tentacled octopus called Hank (O’Neill), Destiny (Olson), a whale from her past, and Bailey (Burrell) whose sense of direction is off. They may not be the perfect team to help in her quest, but they do their best. Meanwhile, Marlin and Nemo are looking for Dory.
It feels like a seamless continuation of Finding Nemo, especially since we have the same voices. For Dory and Marlin at least. Nero may have another voice but let’s be honest, it’s Dory and Marlin we remember most from the first movie. That sense of continuity makes the movie feel like coming home to something familiar but some people may feel that the movie does not feel very original. However, this seems to be a trend in the movie world lately.
Originality is therefore not something we look out for anymore –it is a happy surprise when it happens but now we look out for other things; whether the movie is worth paying the ticket price for. Finding Dory, with its wit and endearing story, complete with lessons to be picked up fits the bill. It is worth watching, especially with the whole family. In case you are embarrassed about going to watch a “cartoon” at the cinema, just say you are going to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles –it’s also opening today.
