There's been a bit of splish-splashing in some quarters that Finding Dory doesn't offer as much sub-aquatic treasure as its adored-to-the-gills predecessor, 2003's Finding Nemo.
If you're hoping for more of the same right here then you better sling your hook: to these eyes Dory is just as sweet and even more exciting than what director Andrew Stanton and stars Ellen DeGeneres and Albert Brooks gifted us 13 years ago.
Plus (and this is a very big plus), Modern Family and Married With Children's Ed O'Neill has dived in this time too, and his character turns out to be one of the greatest in Pixar history.
Picking up a year after events in Finding Nemo, Finding Dory sees DeGeneres' lovable blue tang with short-term memory loss embark on her own quest to reunite with long-lost family.
While it's hard to imagine, everything looks better this time 'round
Dory being Dory, recollections are a bit fuzzy but Marlin (Brooks) and give-it-go son Nemo (Rolence) haven her fin. So, too, does Hank (O'Neill), a 'septopus' who makes "Mr Grumpy Gills" Marlin look like a Zen Master of serenity.
And Dory will need all the help she can get, because this adventure goes all the way to the Marine Life Institute. If you thought the breakout from the dentist's aquarium in the first movie was the great escape then come aboard explorers - you ain't seen nothing yet.
Director Stanton had said there wouldn't be a sequel to Finding Nemo but his change of heart came from exactly the right place: he started to worry about how Dory's disability was affecting her life. Setting to work with co-director Angus MacLane and the screenwriters, Stanton has once again crafted a story that is all about family, friendship and teamwork, but this time adds a whole lot more about overcoming obstacles and why we all have to "just keep swimming".
While it's hard to imagine, everything looks better this time 'round, with the seabed and Marine Life Institute kinetic kingdoms to behold. To get an idea of just how far things have come since 2003, Pixar would not have been able to even create Hank for Finding Nemo, such was the complexity of animating the character. You'll be so glad Stanton waited because Hank is a masterpiece who deserves his own movie without a decade-and-then-some wait. A hero is born.
And in the week that another hero, Jason Bourne, is back on screens, you get an ending in Finding Dory that's every bit as gripping as anything Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass have come up with in the past. Seriously. For the last half-hour of this movie Stanton and co crank up the pace so much that breathless babbling is entirely justified. Hopefully you too will be exhausted by the end, and maybe a bit sad that it's over all so soon.
Time to clear some shelf space beside The Godfather Part II, The Empire Strikes Back and Aliens - this will be watched just as often.
Harry Guerin
