Surface deep

‘Finding Dory’ is a gorgeous but shallow sequel

I like to think I’m not a cynic—that I can find joy in a story imbued by the innocence we all once knew as children. But the sad reality is that I have a tendency to sneer at cutesy, animated cash-ins, particularly when they take a once decent concept and wring it dry.  Sit through bona fide crap like “Minions” or yet another “Ice Age” movie enough times and tell me you wouldn’t, even for a moment, kind of regret having the kids who put you there. 

But it’s not all drudgery. The best animated films appeal to kids while embedding deeper emotional themes (or winking humor) for adults, hidden under the candy-coated layers of anthropomorphized digital sweetness.

Pixar has had many successes in that regard. “WALL-E” (cried), “Up” (cried) “Monsters Inc.” (didn’t cry), and “Ratatouille” (got hungry), to name a few, defined a streak in the mid-2000s when the studio usurped the animation crown from their corporate parent, Disney, by crafting original films that appealed to practically everyone and, for a time at least, didn’t rely on sequels. That paradigm served to make each new film feel, well, new.  

“Finding Dory” arrives 13 years after its mega-hit predecessor, “Finding Nemo.” It is as warm and touching, sure, but it’s also very, very familiar: a pleasurable, amiably entertaining, and beautifully rendered retread—which just made more money its opening weekend than any animated film in history.

We meet Young Dory (Sloane Murray) long before she helps Marlin (Albert Brooks) find his lost son, Nemo (voiced now by Hayden Rolence). Her short-term memory is still terrible and her parents, Charlie and Jenny (Eugene Levy and Diane Keaton), are trying to teach her how to not be ashamed of her condition.

Dory gets lost and can’t find her parents, eventually forgetting to look for them at all as the years pass. She remains perpetually confused, left with the nagging sensation that something important to her is missing—which is about the time she meets Marlin.

Fast-forward one year after the events of “Nemo,” and we rejoin Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), Marlin, and Nemo at the Great Barrier Reef. Dory is experiencing fractured memories of her parents and her old home off the California coast. Despite being across the Pacific, Dory convinces Marlin and Nemo to help her find them.

Catching an oceanic current with the stoner turtle from the first film, Crush (voiced by director Andrew Stanton), they arrive at a Sea World-like marine institute where Dory is promptly captured. That’s where the title comes in.

“Finding Dory” is a visual stunner, which is as expected as everything else about it. The soothing, tangible aquatic environments, combined with the atmospheric art design, endearing characters, and deftly directed action set pieces, are pure Pixar. The voice cast is typically great, delivering equal doses of mirth and drama with aplomb. 

But the familiarity of the plot drains the film of much of its surprise and tension. Like Nemo in the original, Dory is captured and must be saved by those she once helped. Nemo’s misshapen fin is exchanged for Dory’s borderline amnesia. They face off against a badass squid instead of the first film’s shark. A dimwitted loon voiced by Torbin Xan Bullock stands in for Geoffrey Rush’s pelican, Nigel. And Dory’s role from the first film is somewhat adopted by Hank, a haphephobic helper octopus (Ed O’Neill).

Underdeveloped themes hint at a better movie that could have been. There’s a heartbreaking story about mental illness buried under all the kyoot. Glimpses of the pollution ruining the oceans reside in the translucently gorgeous backgrounds—Dory is captured, in part, because she’s wearing a plastic six-pack ring. I wanted those themes to pay off in a more meaningful way for these characters. I hoped that Dory would learn not just to rely on herself, but to realize that the adopted family around her is the only one she really needs. Old-school Disney used to have no qualms about raising the stakes and doling out the consequences, even if it meant upsetting the kids (“Bambi,” anyone?). You have to have emotional lows to contrast the giddy highs. Pixar has perfected that balance so often with films like “Up” and last year’s great “Inside Out.” Here, it just feels anodyne and unthreatening, content to look pretty and elicit laughs. Which is fine, but it’s hardly Pixar at its best.

I’m not trying to be Armond White. “Finding Dory” is well executed and benignly amusing, but it still reeks of fan service. Ultimately, it fishes for ideas that it doesn’t really want to fathom.

For more from Joe, read his article, "Film as populist culture."