Film Review: Finding Dory

“Finding Dory” is a sequel to “Finding Nemo” a movie where a clownfish named Marlon travels across the ocean to find his son Nemo who has been taken by scuba divers.  Along the way he runs into a fish named Dory who suffers from short term memory lost and travels the sea with Marlon on search for his son.  “Finding Dory” has the viewer jumping between emotions just as “Finding Nemo” did.  In the second installment of the the franchise we see our favorite forgetful blue bodied yellow tailed fish on the hunt for her home and family.  She is joined on her journey by Marlon a clownfish that we were introduced to in “Finding Nemo” and his son Nemo.  In their travels across the ocean to seek out Dory’s long lost family the puzzle pieces that happen to be Dory’s memory start to come together.  They come across old friends and make new friends, and go through a life threatening situation.  With her unsuspected smart choices and good wit Dory gets a lot further in her quest than anyone could’ve expected.  I recommend everyone to see this heart warming movie that puts you on a rollercoaster of emotion and if you have not seen the first installment of the franchise “Finding Nemo”, that is a must see as well.

This movie passes the requirements for both the Mako Mori test and the Bechdel test.  For the bechdel test there are two female characters that have a conversation about something other than a man.  This movie also passes the mako mori test because the main character is a female and the movie tells her story, therefore she has her own narrative and it does not support a male’s story.  Dory is an unexpectedly strong character who discovers her problem and figures out a way to fix it.

Finding Dory passes my gender bias test by during somewhere in the franchise the female character supports the male’s story and the male character supports the female’s story.  In Finding Nemo, Dory supports Marlon’s story by tagging along with him and helping him find his son, but in Finding Dory Marlon and his son Nemo help Dory on her journey so therefore they support her story .