On the flight back to Singapore from our October visit home, O had yet to develop a liking for actual TV shows. (Now “Paw Patrol” is the favorite, in which case he is Marshall, daddy is Chase – I think? – and I am Everest. Yay, I am my favorite dog! haha) But since he received a few Dory-themed gifts last year, he really loved Dory as a character. However, watching the film was only mildly interesting for O, because he didn’t really get the story. (Today, the TV shows he likes always, always follow the pattern of “team of animals or transportation devices, potentially including some children, get a request for help, then they do the job while solving more or less interesting problems along the way”. For some reason, this episode pattern is ultimately relatable to O at this stage.
Back to “Finding Dory”, even though we saw the entire film on the flight, it was without sound and with many distractions such as food being brought and such. Later on, we were visiting some friends’s house and they also put on the movie. Again, I saw the film while being distracted (aka in conversation with them), so with both times I can puzzle together what exactly happened in the film, so I figured I shall blog about it.
Finding Dory
It’s been so long since I saw “Finding Nemo” that I completely forgot that Nemo was the one who disappeared and that it was Nemo’s father who was the actual protagonist of the film, looking for his son. Worse, I completely forgot Dory’s existence in the film. (Reminds me of “Paris, Texas”, another film with a father and a son, this time looking for his wife, a plot line I completely forgot about by the time I re-watched the film.) I think Dory’s story itself is more memorable than Nemo, at least for me, mostly because Dory’s anxiety about where she is from and who she is appears so lovably coming of age. (No wonder O couldn’t relate to her whatsoever.) I really enjoyed the not-really-plot-twist that she is from a huge aquarium.
I’m not sure if Dory was forgettable in “Finding Nemo” or it was just me being forgetful, but the sidekicks in “Finding Dory” are definitely not forgettable. Even O remembers the beluga whale who helps Dory by making an echo sound (he enjoys imitating that) and the eagle ray whom he calls “the teacher”, and I am especially into the deadpan humor and the brazenness of Hank, the octopus. Maybe it was like this in the original film, but I enjoy the plot device in which Dory encounters all kinds of sea creatures who are all helpful and nice. In the end, Dory even gets to dramatically save them all. (That part is a little contrived but it’s OK.)
Heck I suspect that “Finding Dory” is better than “Finding Nemo”, and I never thought any bigshot movie company could still pull that off.