Ranking All The Pixar Sequels From Worst To Best

In so many ways, Finding Dory felt like it was destined to be a clunker.

It was following the exact same gameplan that got the Cars franchise into such questionable territory: taking a comedian-voiced lovable sidekick and elevating them to the leading role. But miraculously, Pixar pulled off something truly special with their Nemo follow-up.

The real genius of Finding Dory lies in what could have easily been its undoing: Dory's short-term memory loss. Having a protagonist with such a disability can get very old, very quickly. But the film brilliantly plays this to its advantage, making audiences feel Dory's pain at knowing she is forgetting things. The entire plot of the film centers around Dory desperately trying to retain information. So along her search to try and find her parents, viewers feel for her at every misstep, which only makes it all the more rewarding when she finally finds them.

Finding Dory's emotional beats are even more effective than the first film's, as are its comedic ones. The humor embraces the outlandish in unique ways, with new characters such as Becky or Gerald serving as especially bright highlights.

But at the end of the day, Dory's success all comes down to DeGeneres. Whereas Cars 2's Larry the Cable Guy buckled under pressure, Finding Dory's Ellen DeGeneres soars here, delivering the best performance of her career.