First Take: Finding Dory- Pixar officially begin their renaissance years

Spoiler free as usual. Because being at the very first public showing rocks.

SYPNOSIS:

The friendly-but-forgetful blue tang fish begins a search for her long-lost parents, and everyone learns a few things about the real meaning of family along the way.

Finding Nemo is the film that ushered in Pixar’s golden age- it followed Monsters Inc, and it was released before The Incredibles. Now, Finding Dory continues their tradition of making brilliant family films, exhibiting all of the qualities that made the original so adored by both children and parents alike.

The plot isn’t just a simple rewrite of the 2003 classic, instead focusing on the idea of Dory finding herself through the search for her parents. This is a great move by directors Andrew Stanton and Angus MacLane, as it builds on a solid foundation by exploring Dory’s backstory without being too reliant on the original film. Performance wise, Ellen DeGeneres just knocks it out of the park alongside the returning cast members from the first film, with all of the new talent (including Idris Elba, Dominic West, Bill Hader and many other big names) making their mark on what will be without question the biggest release of the summer film season. It’s animated in the usual Pixar way, and it clearly shows through a vibrant colour palette that just reminds you of the original film as well as showing the technological advances over the years- and that handily brings me on to the short film that Disney have attached to Finding Dory. Before the main film, the 6 minute short Piper entertains audiences very well with a very likable narrative, and it reminded me of For The Birds- the very film that was attached with Monsters Inc. Pixar have had a varied run over the last few years (last year we had the brilliant Inside Out as well as the mediocre Good Dinosaur), but they are well and truly back with a bang.

THE VERDICT

Finding Dory has actually lived up to the hype that a film of this nature recieves- it’s a brilliant film that reminds you of how good the original was in 2003, and I’m going to be controversial- it might be marginally better. With a top cast working from a top script, Pixar are ready to dominate the summer holidays, and they already have- the showing after mine very nearly sold out. I can already smell an Oscar when February’s awards season begins.

Rating- 5/5