My husband and I took our son to see Finding Dory this weekend. I wasn’t sure what to expect - I love Finding Nemo, and I remember seeing it at the theater when I was studying for the biggest exam in my life.
Fast forward over a decade and then some, and now we own it on DVD for our son to watch it. He loves it. Whenever he sees an aquarium, he looks to see if he can find Nemo and he looks for Dory, too 😊 He likes looking at fish in general - when we stayed at the Aulani, he participated in a program called Fish Are Friends, Not Food.
With that, we thought he’d enjoy the sequel to Finding Nemo. And we weren’t disappointed. The three of us greatly enjoyed it, especially my son. It ranks up there as one of the best movie-going experiences for him. The plot itself is very simple and I think my husband summed it up accurately when he said that the absence of an antagonist added to our son’s overall enjoyment of the movie.
When we first met Dory in Finding Nemo, we learned that she has short term memory loss. She doesn’t remember anything long term, including her family. But in Finding Dory, she starts having flashbacks about her parents and her childhood.
We, as the audience, join her in an adventure as she tries to find her parents across the ocean. We meet her parents (through the flashbacks) as well as other new characters along the way, like Destiny (a whale shark), Bailey, (a beluga whale) and especially Hank (an octopus, or as Dory calls him, a septopus). We learn why Dory is able to speak whale. And we also learn valuable lessons along the way. Dory’s catchy (no pun intended!) saying in Finding Nemo was Keep Swimming. And that continues in this movie.
What I particularly liked about the movie are the messages that the movie conveys: working together to help a friend in need, being different is okay, don’t let fear stop you from doing things, and my favorite, don’t give up.
The fact that the movie was released over Father’s Day weekend is an added bonus, since the movie is primarily about Dory trying to find her parents. I’ll admit that I was misty eyed at the end of the movie. And I’ll probably think of the movie every time I see seashells now 😊
There’s also a super cute short at the beginning of the movie called Piper which shouldn’t be missed!