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While it may not be as engrossing as its predecessor, Pixar’s follow-up to its 2003’s animated smash-hit Finding Nemo – the studios’ most successful stand-alone film to date – still manages to find its own groove in the familiar but, painfully adorable aquatic sequel, Finding Dory.

Taking place a year after their last oceanic adventure, Marlin (voiced by Brooks), Nemo (Rolence) and Dory (DeGeneres) are now living a relatively happy and peaceful life together with the clown fish making sure that their absentminded single friend is made to feel comfortable, happy and safe in her new environment. However, things soon throw Dory – who is still struggling with her short-term memory loss – out of the loop when, during a field trip with Mr. Ray (Peterson), a long-lost memory of her birth parents – Jenny (voiced by Keaton) and Charlie (Levy) – is triggered, inspiring the blue tang to go on a search for her loved ones.   

Deciding that it’s probably best not to leave her alone, Marlin and Nemo soon join their friend on her journey from their home in Australia to the California’s Monterey Marine Life Institute which she vaguely remembers as being her home.  However, once they get there, Dory is separated from her buddies and without them there to keep her in check, Dory must rely on her intuition and the help of an escaped Octopus named Hank (O’Neill) and whale shark, Destiny (Olson), to find her way back home.

With the story of Marlin and Nemo pushed to the sidelines, steps into the title role with relative ease, with the film utilizing her memory challenges as a basis for both laughs and tears. The voice-work is equally engaging; DeGeneres embraces her role as the titular character with plenty of heart,  O’Neill shines as the cranky octopus, Hank, while both Burrell and Olson – Bailey-the-beluga-whale and Destiny-the-low-vision whale shark respectively – offer plenty of moments of both earnestness and hilarity. 

Helmed by the returning writer-director Andrew Stanton and co-director Angus MacLane, there is a lot of familiarity at play here, however, although the story – which has taken the producers thirteen years to bring to light – may not feel all that fresh, Finding Dory is still a delightfully entertaining and an admittedly funnier Pixar sequel whose beautifully-envisioned premise is packed colour, vibrancy and plenty of laughs to keep the viewers – especially the young ones – happy.