Disclaimer: *Minimal Spoilers Ahead. Tread with Caution*
More Disclaimer: *This movie has been out for a month now. How have you not seen it?*
The Pixar corporation has a mixed history when it comes to sequels. On one hand, there was the magic of the Toy Story sequels. Both Toy Story 2 and 3 managed to find a perfect balance of nostalgia, charm, and effective storytelling.
On the other hand, Cars 2. Spy cars ... really? It was as if the script of a wonky game of Mad Libs with the story's message of "just be yourself" being muddied with recycled plot points and half baked characters. But I digress.
So the success of Finding Dory was up for debate. Would Pixar display there usual brand of CG magic or would Finding Dory be a quick cash grab milking the sweet teat of the predecessor's success?
When June 17th rolled around, theaters were packed, mostly with eager fully grown millennials hoping to attach a car battery to the nipples of their childhoods. Coming in at #1 at the box office that weekend, Finding Dory swam away with a nifty sum of $135,060,273 dollars. Finding Dory was also favorable with both critics and audiences alike, scoring a 94% on popular movie review website Rotten Tomatoes. And if you can't trust Rotten Tomatoes, then who can you trust?
But Finding Dory is more than just an animated movie that just happened to do well. And while relying slightly on the nostalgia of Finding Nemo, Finding Dory has its own identity and speaks on an issue that is rarely brought up in children's films.
Dory is one of the first animated film leads to have a disability. While sometimes her memory loss is played up for comedy, you still feel her frustration as she deals with trying to cope and complete tasks. You also feel her bottled up resentment, constantly feeling like a liability towards to the people around her. Especially when it is revealed (spoiler) that it was Dory's own forgetfulness that got her separated from her parents. But as the movie goes on Dory learns that using her own unique way of doing things isn't a bad thing, that her disability doesn't make her less of a person (fish?), but just makes her different.
Growing up with a younger brother with special needs, this film hit me to my very core. This movie shows the behind the scenes of loving a person with special needs, that there's always an undercurrent of anxiety of how they're going to adjust to life on their own and how people are going to treat them. We can all agree that the world can be an ugly and nasty place, especially to those who don't fit the status quo. An especially powerful scene is when (spoiler) right before baby Dory is swept away by the undertow, her mother is breaking down, expressing her fear of daughter not being able to make it on her own. (Spoiler) Her parents once reunited with their daughter soon learn that they should have more faith in her capabilities.
Finding Dory puts the spotlight on a topic that is rarely addressed and is an instant classic.
