It's no Nemo, but Finding Dory has its charms

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      Featuring Ellen DeGeneres. Rated G. Now playing.

      Admittedly, Finding Dory’s Parents wouldn’t make a very good title for this sequel to Finding Nemo. But that’s really the subject here. Familiar hands, or fins, or whatever, are behind this reboot, including writer-directors Andrew Stanton and Angus MacLane, who also worked on the Toy Story series, among others.

      Ellen DeGeneres is back, of course, as the blue tang with “short-term remembering loss”. This time, however, this quirk is treated as a mild, if narratively crucial, disability. There’s a preamble explaining how baby Dory lost her mom and dad (Diane Keaton and Eugene Levy) before bumping into clown fish Marlin (Albert Brooks, again) to help him look for Nemo (now voiced by Hayden Rolence, younger than the guy who played him in the first flick).

      Now that father and spawn are reunited, it’s their turn to help the suddenly mindful Dory—prompted by certain humans at Disney and Pixar, no doubt—cross the Pacific to find the blue tang clan. This trek only takes a few minutes, but our gang has no problem adjusting to California, what with their Santa Monica accents and all. They end up at an oceanographic research centre (no Marine World-type concentration camp, thanks very much) with public tours amusingly hosted by Sigourney Weaver.

      This is where Dory meets the new film’s most entertaining character, a shape-shifting octopus expertly voiced by Ed O’Neill. Idris Elba and Dominic West offer some laughs, too, as cockney sea lions. But the 97-minute movie feels notably stuck as soon as it gets to Sigourneyville, resulting in gags and chase scenes you’ll swear you saw a few minutes earlier.

      If Dory lacks the imagination and surprise of its Nemosis, it still makes for a pleasant family outing, especially when paired with the gentle Pixar short, “Piper”.

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