Title: Finding Dory
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Andrew Stanton, Angus Maclane
Starring: Ellen DeGeneres, Albert Brooks, Ed O’Neill
Runtime: 1 hr 37 mins

What It Is: After finding the lost clownfish Nemo his father Marlin (Brooks) is happy that he’s back. In the midst of all of this, our favorite blue tang Dory (DeGeneres) is starting to get some of her memories back. What she’s remembering are remnants of her parents. Now she is bound and determined to find them and with that find out a thing or two about herself that perhaps she didn’t know.

What We Think: While it lacks some of the funnier moments of the original this is a solid animated sequel and perhaps the second best of the sequels in Pixar’s canon. Once again Ellen is a standout on the mic and gives a great vocal performance. As a sequel, it works because the world feels the same, but adds more characters, including O’Neill’s great addition of Hank the Octopus. There’s a slight bit of retread but that doesn’t take away from the overall experience of the film. I mean it is a sequel and so that is to be expected ever if it is ever so slight.

Our Grade: A, Sure Pixar’s originals tend to be better than their sequels but this is as good as you can make a sequel to one of their movies without the words Toy Story in it. I’m going to definitely recommend everyone go and see this as soon as you can. It’s a really good film but probably not the best animated film that we’re going to see this year but it’s just another example of Disney and Pixar’s supremacy of both the animated box office as well as the critical heart. Let’s see if this continues with their next film, and let’s also see just how good Kubo and the Two Strings and The Little Prince are.