I remember when "Finding Nemo" was released thirteen years ago (Feel old, yet?), people liked to joke and say, “What if Pixar made a sequel where Dory ‘finds’ her memories?” Well, joke no more.
Earlier this month, Pixar released the theatrical trailer to "Finding Dory," the first in a wave of upcoming sequels that includes "Cars 3," "Toy Story 4," and "The Incredibles 2."When I watched the trailer, I really wanted to feel like excitement was going to burst out of my chest, but instead, I just felt…sad. I’ve realized that out of all the Pixar sequels, the world under the sea is the one I’m least looking forward to.
The main reason is because "Finding Nemo" is arguably the most complete Pixar movie. From start to finish, Pixar crafts a beautiful masterpiece about a father and son who grow closer by being apart. Within the film, Marlin and Nemo’s relationship reaches its peak, so any future story about them would be like if Peter Jackson decided to make a film titled, “The Adventures of Frodo and Gandalf in the Grey Havens.”
And that’s why the sequel focuses on Dory. The problem with that, though, is Dory was never intended to be a headline character. In "Finding Nemo," she’s mainly the comic relief to offset Marlin’s uptight personality, delivering hilarious moments like speaking whale or “P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney”. Turning her into the main focus runs the risk of repeating the "Cars 2" mistake, which was to force a comic supporting character into a more serious character study. Previous Pixar films like "Toy Story," "Up," and "Ratatouille" are instant classics because they reveal the protagonists’ insecurities and highlight their character developments.
Does Dory need any character development? Debatable. In "Finding Nemo," it seems Dory has two main fears: loneliness and her short-term memory loss. The first is resolved in her friendship with Marlin and Nemo. The second, though, is unsolvable. As a result, no matter what director Andrew Stanton comes up with in order to push Dory to seek her origin story, it’s going to feel a little contrived rather than natural.
Speaking of which, I also feel Dory’s memory loss is a severe hindrance to the way in which the film reveals information to her. The movie is trying to work backward, but Dory herself creates a paradox that prevents her from retrieving information on her own. Therefore, the only way for her to learn about her past is for other characters to tell her, which ironically acts in complete opposition to "Finding Nemo." Each plot point furthers Marlin’s understanding about himself without explicitly saying what it is he’s learning. In "Finding Dory," each plot point and character will most likely have to be literal for Dory’s benefit. Already, the sequel’s trailer made me uneasy about how many of the scenes were just references to the original film, such as Crush and the other Sea Turtles, speaking whale, and the fish tank.
As for Dory herself. I’m not convinced that knowing her backstory is actually a good thing. It’s not that I don’t care; I just think her mysterious character in "Finding Nemo" is what makes her endearing. We don’t have a complicated history of her and we don’t need it. All we know about Dory is what she presents onscreen: a kind, optimistic, and loyal friend to Marlin when he needs one most. There’s also something to be said for a film leaving things unknown—consider the suitcase in "Pulp Fiction," for example. The unknown leaves it up to the audience to use their own imagination to invent new adventures for the characters they love. Maybe that’s why some people aren’t fans of "Monsters University" (though, I am, personally), because it tries to answer unexplained elements of the universe and only creates more problems.
That being said, I have limited material on which to base my opinions. When I do watch "Finding Dory," I could easily be proven wrong, and I desperately hope that to be the case. I only worry that it’s not going to happen. I suppose the best thing to do is take Dory’s advice and “just keep swimming.”