It deserves its glory as the biggest grossing animation in film history.
Finding Dory
Grade: A
Directors: Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, WALL E), Angus MacLane
Screenplay: Stanton, Victoria Strouse (New Best Friend)
Cast: Voices of Ellen DeGeneres (Finding Nemo), Albert Brooks (A Most Violent Year)
Rating: PG
Runtime: 97 min
by John DeSando
“I suffer from short-term memory loss.” Dory (voice of Ellen DeGeneres)
Just to intimidate you and me, the statistics show that Finding Dory is the largest grossing animation in film history, currently at about half a billion dollars and moving up. Yes, more than its companion, Finding Nemo. However I make more demands on the film with that kind of pedigree, and this one exceeds my demands as few other animations have.
Dory is the cutest fish you’ve ever seen, a blue tang with a disability. The genius of this warm, family comedy is that her short-term memory is a source of affection for her family and friends and the audience. She struggles to remember from moment to moment, most prominently after she has lost contact with her family.
The film becomes her odyssey to find her family and, in existential terms, herself. The companions who accompany her are eccentric and loveable, most notably Hank (Ed O’Neill), whose gruff octopus exterior masks a heart as big as the ocean.
Overcoming Dory’s disability and re-connecting with her family are the prominent motifs, not that the latter is at all foreign to the Pixar empire. It’s just that Dory’s lack of self awareness and genuine love of her fellow fish predict she will be a winner no matter where she lands.
“What would Dory Do?” is a refrain that tells us we have a self-directed heroine here who has a reasoning ability better than her mortal man’s. Everyone is smarter for asking that question, regardless of the death-dominated consequences.
I don’t usually dwell on the technicals, but this film has art work to make even kelp beautiful. The undulating vegetation and synchronized fish schools are marvelous to behold.
In the end, this is a film not to be missed if you want to keep up with the best of cinema. Who knows if an Oscar nomination for best picture will follow?
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
