Finding Dory sticks to the shallow end of the pool
June 2016
When Dory, the amnesiac /æmˈniːziæk/ страдающий амнезией blue tang голубой хирургat the heart of Pixar's latest movie, has a flash of her own past, the camera locks in on фиксироваться her fishy face as the world spins around вращаться it, becoming a blur that resolves into сводиться кa familiar tableau. That's what it's like watching Finding Dory, which moves fast enough to give us the illusion that we're getting somewhere, but finally drops us right back where we started.
We cry because this is where we’re supposed to
Perhaps that's only fair, since going home is what Finding Dory is about. In 2003's Finding Nemo, Dory's short-term memory impairment /ɪmˈpeəmənt/ патологияwas a running gag фирменная шутка: "It runs in my family – at least I think it does." But the sequel shifts to Dory's point of view, and from that vantage точка зрения, взгляд, ракурс, it's terrifying. The movie opens with a scene from Dory's childhood, as her parents cheerily struggle to find a way for their special-needs с индивидуальными особенностямиchild to exist in the world. "What if I forget you?” Dory asks them. "Would you ever forget me?"
Returning writer-director Andrew Stanton, who shares screenplay credit with Victoria Strouse and Bob Peterson, wastes no time lunging нападать, нанести удар/lʌndʒ/ for the tear ducts слезный канал, and his aim is true. But that tendency to assert упрочить emotional impact rather than earning it is a good illustration of Pixar's conundrum /kəˈnʌndrəm/ парадокс, ребус: the more successful their movies become, the greater the imperative долг, неотложная задача to repeat them, and the more they repeat them, the more they become routine. We cry not because the movie has tapped into завоевать, затронутьour deepest hopes and fears, but because this is the part where we're supposed to.
Finding Dory both inverts вывернуть наизнанку and retraces возвращаться к the original film. This time, Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres) is the protagonist, clownfish Marlin (Albert Brooks) and Nemo (Hayden Rolance) the supporting cast, and instead of a parent searching for his son, Dory focuses on a daughter searching for her parents. Instead of into the open ocean, this quest leads us into the controlled environment of the fictional Marine Life Institute, a coastal Californian preserve where injured aquatic /əˈkwætɪk/водяной, водный creatures are rehabilitated and returned to the wild, and Sigourney Weaver's calming voice booms греметьperiodically from loudspeakers. (The setting was reportedly shifted from a more conventional aquarium after Pixar's writers watched the documentary Blackfish.) Where Nemo's perils опасность, проблема were physical, Dory's are also psychological: in addition to leaping between tanks искусственный водоем and dodging увертываться the thrusting навязчивый fingers of children in a "please touch" pool, Dory has to navigate the featureless terrain /təˈreɪn/ пустота of her own mind, a space even vaster and more intimidating пугающий than the ocean itself.
Waterlogged
Pixar's story factory excels at writing to theme, but in Finding Dory, the parts don't always seem to match up соответствовать. The movie is a grab bag сборная солянка, масса of incidents, with Dory navigating a series of obstacles and picking up new pals друг along the way, including an agoraphobic octopus named Hank (Ed O'Neill), a near-sighted близорукий whale shark (Kaitlyn Olson), and a beluga whale (Ty Burrell) who's lost confidence in his echolocation skills. But the moment Hank scoops Dory out достать of a tank with a coffee carafe /kəˈræf/ графин and starts squiring увиваться her around the aquarium's hallways, the movie feels like it's lost its grip on reality связь с реальностью, реалистичность, even of the animated talking-fish variety. Later, the octopus drives a truck.
Finding Dory sticks to the shallow end of the pool
What made Finding Nemo great is that it's both a children's movie about parenting and an adult movie about childhood. It played off обыгратьthe almost unbearable fear of separation, and though it was structured as a lighthearted adventure, you never forgot that with a tweak of the dial с течением времени, it could have turned into pure tragedy. (In an alternate universe, Marlin watches his wife and children get murdered and becomes a vigilante crimefighter следящий за общественным порядком, борец за справедливость.) Finding Dory, to indulge the inevitable aquatic metaphor, sticks to the shallow end of the pool держаться на мелководье, splashing about frantically неистово, бешено but never getting its hair wet.
One advantage of all that treading water стояние на месте is the opportunity to admire the view. More than 20 years after Pixar's Toy Story, vanishingly few computer-animated films can make a claim to being beautiful, but Finding Dory is one of them. Its underwater world is infused with shimmering мерцающий light, and the Marine Life Institute's curved glass моллированное, гнутое стекло throw criss-cross поперечный, перекрестный shadows across the tank floors. It also features Pixar's most intensive and thoughtful use of 3D, which enhances the vertiginous /vɜːˈtɪdʒɪnəs/ swirl головокружительный водоворотof Dory's flashbacks воспоминание and the vastness of the empty ocean. Even better is Piper, the short film that proceeds it, the wordless story of a downy chick пушистый птенец learning to make its own way in the world. You could stare at Dory's reflections for hours, or lose yourself in the soft texture of Piper's sea-flecked пятнистый, рябой feathers.
Losing yourself in Finding Dory's story, well, that's another kettle of fish совсем другое дело. DeGeneres, so brilliant as the first film's comic relief разрядка смехом, struggles to hit the dramatic notes задеть за живое, поднять драматическую темуthat Dory's lead status requires, and the movie does, too. Sequels don't have to be retreads /ˈriːtred/повторение: Pixar's own Toy Story 2 expanded and enriched its predecessor's world. Dory works its way up to an image of genuine emotional weight, but it also makes much of what's come before seem like merely killing time. Dory's catchphrase фирменная фраза is "Just keep swimming," but the movie feels like it's just paddling in circles ходить по кругу.