Can you imagine a movie that is bigger than Frozen or Zootopia? It doesn’t seem possible, but the opening weekend of Finding Dory, the latest animated movie from Disney-Pixar, grossed more than $136 million! More than double what Frozen brought in during its opening 3-days; and swimming past Zootopia’s $75 million for the same time period.
Dory returns with her own movie about finding her family, if she doesn’t forget where she is going. (©Disney-Pixar)
It’s no wonder. Our favorite memory-challenged royal blue tang fish is back after a 13 year hiatus, bringing us laughs as she makes every attempt to locate her family.
After Mr. Ray’s school kids trigger memories about her past, Dory employs her close friends Marlin and Nemo to help her find her parents somewhere off the coast of California.
In this follow-on to Finding Nemo, we are introduced to baby Dory as her memories of her parents pop in and out. Along the trip to California, we get to see some old faces such as Crush and Squirt, meet one of her childhood friends, Destiny, and greet a new friend, Hank, a cranky octopus (septopus?) who just wants to get to the Cleveland Aquarium and be left alone.
During this adventure, Marlin and Nemo find themselves separated from Dory and in an impossible situation. But Marlin’s reflection on “what would Dory do” made him realize how she helped him be a better fish and try new things. Taking this new-found knowledge, he and Nemo devise a plan get themselves out of their predicament. Dory has her own epiphany in understanding that there is always another way, as she experiences memory flashbacks of her parents. The story takes some unexpected turns at the Marine Life Institute and it appears that the truck is headed to the Cleveland Aquarium with some unwilling passengers.
We viewed this movie in 3D IMAX, so it was like watching everything in a giant aquarium. Really cool. It definitely gave a full immersion experience in this format. One last tip for this movie. If you aren’t one who normally sits through the credits, you simply MUST stay until the screen goes blank. There is a really interesting scene added after the credits that make it worth the wait.
Disney appears to be on a roll with hit movies outnumbering the “stinkers.” There are a number of Disney-Pixar and Disney Animation Studio sequels on the calendar (Frozen 2, Cars 3, Toy Story 4, Incredibles 2), and hopefully they keep up the fantastic story lines!
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