Ellen Degeneres and Albert Brooks return to the second helping of the fish under the sea as one year after Dory helped Marlin (Albert) find his son Nemo, now Nemo and Marlin must help Dory find her family that she has just recently remembered.
Having lost her family years ago and then eventually forgetting them Dory becomes determined to not forget what she has just remembered and go on a journey to find her parents, she enlists Marlin and Nemo's help as she knows she can't find them on her own. She learns where she is from, California, and with the help of a familiar turtle she finally finds her way, and where to? A Marine Life Institute, where in quarantine she learns she was raised.
The story is a fun, family movie dealing really with parents who have to handle special kids. Dory is very forgetful and having a child like that can be a handle. As a follow-up to Finding Nemo, Finding Dory is funnier, grander in scale and deeper in emotion. It also has a handful of amazing characters from sealions and a beluga whale to a red octopus and a whale shark.
Ed O'Neil and Ty Burrell play Hank and Bailey who help Dory try and find her parents. Ed plays Hank, the red octopus with a missing tentacle. He has a fear of the great big deep and says he only will help Dory if she gives him her orange tag, which will give him the chance to stay in an aquarium. Ty plays Bailey, a beluga whale who is able to eventually use echo location to help Dory locate her parents. He goes through a little self doubt at first as he feels he can no longer have echo location. With the help of his neighbour, the near sighted whale shark Destiny, he sheds his self doubt and helps in the release of a lot of marine life.
The film also stars Diane Keaton and Eugene Levy as Dory's parents, Idris Elba and Dominic West as sea lions, and returnees Bob Peterson as Mr. Ray and Andrew Stanton as the turtle Crush.
Thomas Newman returns to score the film. Having scored the past recent Bond films he does add in a familiar tune to the action scenes, which is fine however I would have preferred him to add more themes from the original but again this film has been made at least 13 years after the first. Sia provides a classic reworking of the song Unforgettable.
Finding Dory has a terrific cast, superb animation and a truly emotional story. The sequel adds another layer as it tells a story on the troubles families go through who have special needs kids. Its such an uplifting story and truly a perfect sequel.
Rating: A+
