It isn’t often that Pixar does sequels, and so far the two franchises to be rewarded with follow up movies have experienced feedback from extreme ends of the spectrum: Toy Story on the positive and Cars on the not-so-positive. Enter Finding Dory!
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Given Pixar’s strong thematic drive to their stories, it makes sense that only a few of them are viable for sequels. Similar to Up, Finding Nemo explored the idea of love and loss. Unlike Up, however, it is the idea of a protagonist with a childhood disability that warrants a sequel in Finding Dory.
While Nemo’s physical disability in the first movie was little more than a plot point, Dory’s short term memory issues pretty much take centre stage here, enforcing the possibility that the Finding Whomever franchise may be more than just a movie–it’s straight up a lesson on dealing with children with special needs.
While the true Pixar trait of making you feel feelings you’ve pretended to not have your whole adult life remains prominent, Finding Dory easily plays up its laughs with colourful characters and larger-than-life personalities that make them entertaining and engaging.
Not that Pixar movies need the laughs to make them worth the watch (given that they’re easily the best movies around, best not to complain), but it is nice to have something counter the emotional weight of last year’s The Good Dinosaur.
Related: The Good Dinosaur Is Great!
While Finding Dory may not be the strongest sequel in Pixar’s pantheon–that honour belongs to the Toy Story franchise–it’s still an amazingly strong movie.
Here’s to hoping that Disney doesn’t ruin it by forcing a trilogy onto the franchise…
Pixar’s Finding Dory hits theatres on the 14th of June, ensuring a boom in the tissue paper industry.