Finding Dory Review: 7 Ups And 3 Downs

4. It Doesn't Try Too Hard To Reinvent The Wheel

A lot of people are going to complain about the fact that Finding Dory is basically a redone Finding Nemo with some new elements added, and while that is somewhat reductive (see the other side of this list), it is in no way fatal because of what we get in place of innovation at times.

Pixar ingeniously use a new framing device - of flashbacks to Dory's devastating formative years as it's discovered how she ends up being lost - to give us an insight into what it's like living from her perspective. We get more of her tagi-comic act, more of her disarming charm and more of the easy chemistry Ellen Degeneres' performance brings.

And in wider terms, the universality of the themes being explored - particularly the nagging, harrowing fear of abandonment that looms over the film like a pitch black squall - and the redemptive power of love and family are worth exploring again. Plus, if character models work, there's no sense in reinventing them too much is there?

It's not like sequels that port the established characters into a weird, unfamiliar environment and an alien experience ever work, is it?