 Today I'm debating Finding Nemo versus Finding Dory and there's just no time anymore for witty introductions. Fire up the ocean, pun counter, and let's get this watered down episode on its way. I enjoy Finding Nemo. It's not my favorite of the Pixar Family adventures, and I wasn't clam, marine, for a sequel, but I was optimistic. I'm glad it turned out as good as it did. The gang doesn't change much between installments. Marlin, Nemo, and Dory, voiced by Ellen DeGeneres, lead the charge with a couple of reoccurring favorites like Crush and Mr. Ray. I think the first picture has a better supporting cast, especially from the fish tank friends. William Defoe is a grizzled veteran fish named Gil, Allison Janney is Peach, and everybody loves Raymond star Brad Garrett as Bloat. Make for a very fun day at the pool. It was a shame the sequel didn't bring any of these guys back, along with a team of sharks or Nigel the Pelican played by Jeffrey Rush. Finding Dory does, however, have a nice set of new characters. We have the idiotic seals and the crafty octopus hank voiced by Ed O'Neill. Nemo actually switched voices between movies in the first played by Alexander Gold. I assume that pesky puberty kicked in over the 13 year stretch, so Hayden Rollins was brought on to continue the voice. Has it really been 13 years? Where the shell has the time gone? I'm getting old. Other big name actors pop up here and there, such as Diane Keaton, Idris Alba, Eugene Levy, and my favorite being Sigourney Weaver herself. Huge fan of Always Sunny's Caitlin Olson and Modern Family's Ty Burrell, and they're terrific as a couple of friendly whales. However, things get pretty awful when they continuously do the whale voices with Dory. It was cute and made sense in the first movie. It didn't overstay its welcome because the giant whale Dory was trying to communicate with couldn't speak fish English. In the sequel though, the two whales she's talking to, they speak perfectly fine. So the fact that all three of them are using that annoying little voice for 10 minutes, it just overstays its welcome. It's not very good. I expect more from the writers and not something this shallow. All of that just for that one pun. Unlike the other Pixar movies, Finding Nemo and Finding Dory never really had me crying with laughter. Instead I was just crying of sadness. These are heart-tugging films at their finest. Heck, these flicks would tug at all three of Hank's hearts. Now octopus has three hearts. Dory taught me that. Shell, I continue. In our first adventure, Marlon's son Nemo gets fish-napped and held hostage in a dentist's office tank. Marlon pairs with an unlikely friend as they race across the vast ocean to retrieve his son. The story is simple, but it's not just a surface level film. Things are much deeper than that. The movie opens with Marlon losing his wife and all but one child, so he raises Nemo on a very tight leash. He's all the guy has left, so losing him as he lost so many others is not an option. This of course brings out the real story of Finding Nemo, which is acceptance and moving on. In order to really save his son, he's gotta let him go a little bit. He's gotta trust him, learn to accept that Nemo can do things for himself. And here come the tears! Here we go! Finding Dory could have very easily mimicked this idea like so many other sequels do, but instead flips the script and has Dory search for her lost parents. The opening is touching and brilliant, leading right into the events of the first film, and the final moments of the movie are visually striking. As a parent, seeing those seashells spread across the ocean floor is about as emotional and powerful as one can get, just the tears are coming again. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, Adam. There are big standout moments in both fish tales. The introduction of the surfing turtles, the chase with the sharks, the Pinocchio situation with that whale, and the father-son reunion all spring to mind. Dory has plenty of these, too, from the somewhat forced squid escape to the great use of Hank and his many ways of blending into his surroundings. The final act was a lot of fun, too, with a group of animals hijacking a truck to get Dory back home. In summary, both these stories kick a lot of bass. I didn't claim these were good puns. The fish look like fish, the water looks wet, what else can I say? I've praised the talented Pixar over and over again on this show. The visuals are always top tier and they're not afraid to push things to their limits. Finding Nemo has aged quite well while finding Dory fits right into that universe. Nemo struggles with appearance the most during the dentist portions, mainly with the human figures. That's the biggest step up in the new movie. Character models are all better detailed, but otherwise the movies blend swimmingly together. Typically Pixar likes to use Randy Newman for their scores, but this time they said H2No to that, instead going with Thomas Newman. Second Newman. There's two of them. He doesn't dump things down for children as the music ranges from happy to straight up haunting at times. I'm glad he returned for the sequel, bringing with him that same level of energy. Let's head on over to the conclusion and wrap this bad boy up with a fin. That means the end. It's rare when a sequel can overtake the original. Does Dory succeed in this? No, I don't think so. Does it fail? I don't think so either. Both of these are really special pictures and complement each other perfectly. Much like the Toy Story series, Pixar has something great on their hands here. Let's hope they end it just as good as that other trilogy did. What do you think though? Does Dory overtake the original or were you led down? Cast your vote, comment below and remember, fish are friends, not food. Oh yes and also more than just reviews, this is Movie Feuds. I feel like we've really grown over the course of this episode and I can call you a buddy. Possibly even a chum. That's 13.