Finding Dory (2016)

There's a cruel irony sitting at the heart of Finding Dory, and the film seems blissfully unaware of it. A story built around a character who can't hold onto memories has itself become one of the most forgettable films Pixar has ever made. I don't mean that as a savage takedown. It's more of a quiet, slightly sad observation about a film that is perfectly pleasant and almost entirely disposable.

Let me be fair about what works, because there's enough here to stop it being a write-off. The animation is gorgeous, as you'd expect. Ellen DeGeneres slips back into Dory's relentlessly optimistic, gloriously scatterbrained persona like she never left, and there's genuine warmth in the emotional backbone of the story: Dory's search for her long-lost parents. That thread is handled with quiet sincerity, and it lands more than it doesn't. The new characters help, too. Destiny the near-sighted whale shark and Bailey the anxious beluga are both charming additions, and they bring some of the film's best laughs. The voice work throughout is hard to fault.

But here's the thing. When I think back to Finding Nemo, I remember specific moments, specific feelings, a specific emotional journey that felt genuinely earned. Marlin's terror, the Tank Gang's escape plan, the jellyfish field, "just keep swimming." That film had a clear destination, emotional and literal, and getting there felt like a real voyage. Finding Dory follows almost the exact same blueprint: cross-ocean quest, perilous encounters, unlikely friendships, tearful reunion. But it doesn't have the same sense of discovery, because we've already made this journey. The structure is familiar, the obstacles feel lower-stakes, and the resolution is so predictable you can see it coming from a mile out.

The central conceit is also something of a double-edged fin. Dory's memory loss is used both as comedy and as the emotional engine of the whole thing, and it works to a point. But leaning so heavily on it means the film keeps resetting itself, circling back, losing momentum. That might be thematically deliberate. It's also, in practice, a little exhausting. And the irony I mentioned earlier: a film about forgetting is one you will absolutely forget. I genuinely struggled, not long after watching, to reconstruct what actually happened in the third act. That's not a great sign.

There's nothing here that's actively bad. Younger kids will love the bright colours, the silly fish business, the slapstick. And I'd never begrudge a children's film for working on that level. But Pixar at their best, think WALL·E, make films that work on every level simultaneously, that give adults just as much to hold onto as children. Finding Dory doesn't quite clear that bar. It's aimed squarely at the younger end of the audience, and the rest of us are just along for the ride.

Competently made, occasionally sweet, and almost never necessary. That's the verdict. A sequel that does just enough to justify its existence as a product, without ever quite justifying its existence as a story. Two and a half stars, and I mean that generously.

Rating: ★★½  | Year: 2016  | Watched: 2025-08-08

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Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus
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Watch in the US
Stream: Disney Plus · fuboTV
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