Loved it. The supporting characters in Hank, Destiny, Bailey and the sea lions were the highlight but I enjoyed Dory's storyline too as the film dips into an occasionally darker place than the original. A very fine Pixar sequel in the class of Toy Story 2 and 3

Finding Dory is a dull retread of the already weak original. Pixar is dying of sequelitis. *F*

Great short though. I give Piper an *A+*

I am surprised again that you think this was an "F" tree. What score did you give to the original?

I was underwhelmed by the first, but didn't consider it a failure. But I am getting sick of Pixar doing sequels, especially when they use exact same story as the original. Additionally, though I found the photo-realistic animation in Piper stunning, I found the increased resolution in Finding Dory made it creepy, especially Marlin. Seeing the face of Albert Brooks grafted on to a clown fish was exceptionally unpleasant. Finally, I found the emotional impact to be lazy and unearned with the obviously manipulative script. But I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it.

I guess if you didn't like the first there was no way you were going to enjoy this one. I agree to the emotional impact and manipulative script but still thought it was enjoyable enough on its own without the comparisons, except for the final ending with the chase scene, that part is just too much.

This film retreads on the beats of the first film much like Force Awakens with A New Hope. But the Sea Luons were great.

B+

The main idea of a search for someone is recycled, but really other than that I don't see how it's that much of a retread. The first movie was an epic journey, this is an intense chase.

Most of that has to do with the shoehorned Marlin and Nemo stuff. I think if the movie had solely focused on Dory's journey, it would have been better and felt less like a retread, even though I didn't have an issue with it in this movie.

I was the last person on earth to see this tonight. I enjoyed it: B. It is inferior to the first—it is less expansive in regard to both scope and the emotional experience, and by the time an octopus and a fish are driving a tractor trailer on a freeway, it has veered perilously close to Madagascar or Secret Life of Pets territory—but the animation is gorgeous, and the characters great (both new and old). The grumpy, Ed O'Neill-voiced octopus is terrific.

It's passably cute, but nowhere near the depths and wonder of Finding Nemo. The movie struggles to justify its own existence, despite some tender resonance regarding families and those with disabilities. Honestly there's something really haunting about Dory's forgetfulness, kind of scary when you enlarge it to its own full length movie. But the supporting characters, mad-cap action pieces, and timely emotional moments all feel somewhat rote, as if the film-makers had a checklist.

One of Pixar's lower efforts, worse than Brave or Cars.

B

I found Brave more empty than this, but much of the rest I agree with.

Becky is my pick for the least appealling Pixar character to date.

You think Brave is empty? I think it's real issue is similarity to other Pixar movies. The production itself is sumptuous.

Finding Dory

This film is such a waste of time. It is a total, shameless cash grab - just an excuse to see the turtles and Marlin and Nemo again. And I wouldn't mind so much if this film was creative or interesting or even educational, but it is just a shit rehash of Finding Nemo. Well, up until the end it is anyway. The film's plot is as formulaic as it gets. There are unnecessary halts in the "fun" to explain yet again what friendship is or what family is or a monologue on believing in yourself. It is utterly generic and boring. It is just 'search, joke, heartfelt speech', 'search, joke, heartfelt speech' and repeat. Dory, voiced by Ellen Degeneres, is not funny. She's just annoying. And the new characters (the sea lions, that octopus, Destiny, and Bailey) are no match for even the seagulls in the first film, let alone Bruce (who is strangely absent here). The ending is admirable (the slow-mo truck) but overall Finding Dory is a hopeless, uninspired sequel.

D+

I gave it an F, and by the sound of your review, you would have given it an F too, if you hadn't aready poisoned the water.



++++++++++++++++++++++++
Edit:

I've got to QFT the following post for posterity - Algren is often manipulative, but rarely so transparent.

There is a chasm between D+ and F. Only a true cunt could give this an F, or an attention-seeking troll.

Would not be out of place in the DTV section.

Though harmless, ultimately wholly unnecessary.

***1/2 / ***** (B-)

A sequel not up to par with its predecessor. It has some really good things going for itself, but for the most part the story feels too familiar. Marlin and Nemo were sidekicked to irrelevance which makes their inclusion questionable. I like how they built on Dory traits from the original movie into her past and personality. That itself was definitely worth making this movie. Hank is one of the best Pixar characters in a while.

My main issue is that it cheapens the first film by making it so easy for them to cross a MUCH bigger distance than they did in the original. They only went from the great barrier reef to Sydney in the first one and that was a huge odyssey, but in this one they make it across the entire Pacific just like that? This extends into how over the top it becomes for the fish to transport themselves across the aquarium. The first one was a lot more plausible. And yes I know it's an animated film, but I like my animated films to have consistency in their universe.

Or for hacks like Andrew Stanton to eat humble pie, get dressed down and retire.

Wouldn't be surprised if he engaged in John Lasseter type behaviour or worse, the egomaniac.

I didn't love it when I saw this in theaters but I enjoyed this a little more now. Its still not as good as the original but the main story-line of finding the parents lands very well. The whole search is definitely uninteresting and the seagulls and new side characters were annoying. I wish they would have ended the movie after finding the parents but no idea why they had to do a double ending, without the second ending this might have been very close to the original.