Oscarless Animated Films Part 1

Oscarless Animated Films Part 1: Finding Dory (2016)

In the sequel to the groundbreaking animated feature Finding Nemo, Dory, along with Nemo and Marlin, goes on an epic quest to the Marine Life Institute in California to find her parents. Along the way, Dory befriends an octopus named Hank (Ed O'Neil), a beluga whale named Bailey (Ty Burrell), and a whale shark named Destiny (Kaitlin Olson).

While Finding Dory may not live to expectations of previous Pixar films like Up, Toy Story 3, or Inside Out, the film offers dazzling animation, some likable and funny new characters, and an environmental theme that will make you wonder if this movie is a prequel to WALL-E. It also has Pixar's most technologically complex character to date: Hank the octopus.

I also like the fact that Dory, along with her parents Charlie and Jenny, originally lived in an aquarium. It makes sense that Dory was domesticated, since in the original film, Dory knew what a root beer float and a hammer were.

If I were to nitpick at one thing, it confuses me that certain invertebrates in this movie, like sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and even anemones have faces. In the original film, Marlin even said that sea cucumbers don't talk.

Maybe in the world of Finding Nemo/Dory, in some oceans of the world, echinoderms (the family that consists of starfish, urchins, and sea cucumbers) and cnidarians (jellyfish and anemones) have faces, but in other oceans, they do not.

Finding Dory may have not gotten the Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature, but it did win the KCAs for Best Animated Movie, Best Voice Actress (given to Ellen), and Best Squad.
Well, that's all I have to say about our first Oscarless Animated Feature. Next week, I will talk about the underappreciated DreamWorks film Rise of the Guardians, just in time for Easter!