The UK premiere for Finding Dory and the return of that adorable forgetful fish was last month at Edinburgh's International Film Festival. Despite working the festival, I never found time to sneak into the screening. So here I am, a month later, diving into the deep blue to join Marlin, Nemo and Dory yet again.
Different premise. Same old tropes. Dory is aching to find her long lost family and ventures out to be reunited with them. Suddenly, she's captured and taken to an aquarium in California. This time it is Marlin and Nemo's turn to rescue their blue friend and as you'd expect - hilarity ensues. Yes, the film was very obvious and the true moments of comedy genius were teased in the trailer but it'd be a shame to overlook this film because of its simplicity. The animation in Finding Dory is crisp and clean yet flows as though we are actually in the water. The new troupe of characters are developed and, whilst not always crucial to the plot's progression, enjoyable to watch.
The film had a lot of publicity in the lead up to its release not just because of it's A-List cast. Many speculated that a couple appearing in the trailer with a child were a same sex couple and that this was the first appearance of such a relationship within a disney animated film. Frankly, the scene came and went in the film without me noticing despite having known to look out for it. Unfortunately, this didn't seem like first appearance of a same sex couple. It just came across as two women being in close proximity. Hopefully Disney are moving in this direction and we'll see an appropriately presented LGBT character in the near future - but please, no stereotypes!Like any other Pixar animation, this film will have you tearing up from the get go. Even the pre-film short, Piper, had me happy crying! There is something so heartbreaking about a young fish losing her parents and being unable to ask for help due to her forgetful nature. As you can imagine, the message of this film is subtly hidden in Dory's search for her family. I picked up that Stanton (Andrew Stanton, co-writer and director) had desired for audiences to recognise part of themselves in the young fish and that what he wants us to take away is the power of resilience and positive thinking. And although both of these points were explored in the first film, they resonate a lot deeper in Finding Dory.
Overall, the film was delightful and uplifting despite some dark moments. Whether you watch this at home alone or with a group of people at a screening, the humour will have you chuckling and the sad scenes will have you holding back some sympathetic tears. I feel like Finding Dory will be the benchmark moving forward for Disney in terms of sequels and is a great example of story progression done the right way. Having said that, I'm kind of done. I don't want to be brought to the brink of tears again by a school of damn fish!
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