Finding Dory (2016) [Blu-ray]
Animation | Adventure | Comedy | Family

From the Academy Award-winning creators of Disney-Pixar's Finding Nemo (Best Animated Feature, 2003) comes an epic undersea adventure filled with imagination, humor and heart. When Dory, the forgetful blue tang (Ellen DeGeneres), suddenly remembers she has a family who may be looking for her, she, Marlin (Albert Brooks) and Nemo (Hayden Rolence) take off on a life-changing quest to find them... with help from Hank, a cantankerous octopus; Bailey, a beluga whale who's convinced his biological sonar skills are on the fritz; and Destiny, a nearsighted whale shark! Bring home the movie overflowing with unforgettable characters, dazzling animation and delightful bonus extras!

Storyline: Dory is a wide-eyed, blue tang fish who suffers from memory loss every 10 seconds or so. The one thing she can remember is that she somehow became separated from her parents as a child. With help from her friends Nemo and Marlin, Dory embarks on an epic adventure to find them. Her journey brings her to the Marine Life Institute, a conservatory that houses diverse ocean species. Dory now knows that her family reunion will only happen if she can save mom and dad from captivity. Written by Jwelch5742

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, November 8, 2016 It's fair to say that no other studio in film history can boast the track record of excellence that Pixar has put together. Sure the output is minuscule compared to the giants that have been around since, or near, the medium's beginnings, but for sheer quality of product on a consistent basis -- particularly in this day and age of depressing junk cinema, sequels, remakes, and a dearth of creativity in general -- there's nobody better. Add a studio that's always on the cutting edge of digital technology and capable of weaving together meaningful life insight, tangible drama, effortless humor, and charm into practically every film, and Pixar stands as the champion of modern cinema done right, and regularly. Finding Dory, which has released 13 years after Finding Nemo (but takes place only one year later in movie time), is another quality product from the studio, but it's also, arguably, the most derivative picture in the Pixar canon. Borrowing heavily from the first film and only slowly finding its own identity through a series of fun yet slightly stale adventures and character expansions, the film works well enough as simple entertainment with a heart and purpose, but it's not the beacon of creativity that has made the studio into Hollywood's rightly heralded breath of fresh air.

It's been a year since Nemo's adventure to the Sydney dentist's office and Dory's and Marlin's frantic quest to find him. Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres) is still struggling with her short-term memory loss. Nemo (voiced by Hayden Rolence) is happily growing up beside his father Marlin (voiced by Albert Brooks), attending school, and finding the best life has to offer. But there's something wrong with Dory. Despite her memory issues, she misses her family. One day, she recalls being separated from her mother and father and where she was born: California. She insists on setting out on an adventure to find her family, and she's accompanied by both Nemo and Marlin. But when they arrive off the California coast, they become separated. As Marlin and Nemo desperately track her down, Dory finds herself a new companion in Hank (voiced by Ed O'Neill), a red octopus who joins her in her quest to track down her long-lost family and share in the trials she faces within a packed and perilous Marine Life Institute.

Familiar sights and refrains dot Finding Dory, particularly through its first half, and it's not until later when it starts to mold its own identity, expose its heart, and elicit a deeper emotional response beyond the fun of reuniting with old favorite characters and partaking in the first steps of new adventure. Indeed, much of the film's beginning feels more like a collection of fun scenes rather than an original story, but as it circles around cues from the first film, it slowly expands its base to the point that the outer reaches feel sufficiently unique to carry the movie to its predictable, but satisfying, conclusion. Beyond that, the movie looks expectedly gorgeous, never feeling bolstered or reworked from the tone and texture of the first film, comfortably recreating the world and characters and adding its new layers with a seamless sense of transition that keeps it in-line with the last film, at least on a pure textural level.

What really makes this film, and the one before it, stand apart is the spirt with which it builds it charters. Part of that is the quality voice component and the digital construction, but the screenwriters have done something special with the world and characters, beyond even many other "talking animal" features, by exploring to a much greater extent, finding a tangible sense of self, purpose, place, and soul in the characters that's often lacking or, at worst, nonexistent in other like films. With Finding Dory, the film builds on the gimmick from the first movie -- Dory's inability to remember anything for more than few moments -- while using it to explore the character more fully and intimately. That's not just the nuts and bolts of her past but rather the heart at the center of the character and how that heart shapes the world around her. Indeed, these films aren't simply about the physical "finding" part of the title. The adventure might be what sells tickets, but what wins hearts is how they focus, albeit more subtly, on finding the character beyond the physical realm. They're as much about finding hope as they are finding home, as much about finding purpose as they are parents or places. Even as the raw content within Finding Dory isn't particularly unique, the film's ability to reach well beyond the surface is what gives it balance and success as a cinematic venture.

Finding Dory is superficially derivative, a rather basic animated Adventure film that's frequently not all that dissimilar from the first. It finds its place and success beyond the cruder story details and down within the characters themselves. The film is more a journey of the spirit than it is the body, and with excellent depth of character support complimenting the outer layers, the film plays very well and works as a quality sequel to a great original. Disney's Blu-ray release of Finding Dory delivers superb video, terrific 7.1 lossless audio, and a nice allotment of bonus features. Highly recommended.

[CSW] -3.3- I truly admire the difficulty of animating the octopus and the great job that they pulled off so exceedingly well but this reviewer nailed the problems with the storyline better than I could with the following:
It was good, but obviously not nearly as good as Finding Nemo. Of course, how could it be, really? On its own, it was cute, but it was missing something. Maybe the characters were overdone? Maybe it was TOO unrealistic, even for a cartoon? It felt like the writers made it up as they went along: "OK, now let's have them in a truck on the highway" "But how will they ever be found" "Well, let's flip the fish up to the highway on a whale shark's tale!" "Sure, go ahead." Amazing animation though, and that's worth at least a star. And the title made no sense either. I think they spent maybe one full minute trying to find Dory. The movie should have been called "Finding Dory's Family". The introductory cartoon short with the sandpipers was better, I'd say.
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[V5.0-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box


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