‘Finding Dory’ almost measures up to the heart-tugging original

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The “septopus” Hank (voiced by Ed O’Neill) follows Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) in “Finding Dory.” | Pixar/Disney

This is the year of the Long-Time-Coming Sequel.

We had a 12-year gap between “Barbershop 2: Back in Business” and “Barbershop: The Next Cut.”

There was a 14-year spread between the release of the first “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” and the sequel last March.

A full 20 years separate the original “Independence Day” from its follow-up story, arriving in theaters June 23.

And this week, some 13 years after the phenomenal success of the unique and beautiful and lovely and wonderful “Finding Nemo,” the forgetful blue tang from the original gets her own adventure in “Finding Dory.”

Once again, the magic-makers at Pixar have created a gorgeous underwater (and occasionally above-ground) universe populated by a diverse collection of marine creatures, many of them sounding just like popular sitcom actors and TV personalities and movie stars.

And once again, there’s a heart-tugging story involving parents and children and the true meaning of family, and I’ll be damned if I didn’t find myself gulping hard at some of the more emotionally involving moments. How do they make us care so much about bug-eyed fishes! Curse you, Pixar geniuses!

“Finding Dory” is also an admirable message movie sure to be used as a teaching tool to show children (and remind adults) that just because someone has special needs doesn’t mean that person doesn’t have special, unique abilities.

It’s a solid, entertaining, well-paced sequel featuring terrific voice work, a clever script and some ingenious action sequences. It just doesn’t quite reach the soaring heights of inspirational storytelling and elevated humor of the original.

Ellen DeGeneres gives terrific voice and heart to Dory, an earnest blue fishie with short-term memory loss that makes her basically “Memento” of the Sea. Mere seconds after Dory says something or hears something or learns something, there’s a better than 50/50 chance she’ll have forgotten it.

In a backstory featuring Sloane Murray as the impossibly cute little Dory, we learn how Dory was separated from her parents Charlie and Jenny (Eugene Levy and Diane Keaton, respectively, and you don’t get voice casting any better than that).

Flash forward to about one year after the conclusion of “Finding Nemo,” with worrywart clownfish Marlin (welcome back, Albert Brooks) living happily ever after with this son Nemo (newcomer Hayden Rolence) — while Dory takes up residence “next door” in a shell of brain coral, plagued by short-term memory loss and yet obsessed with finding the parents she lost so many years ago.

Dory’s quest to find her parents takes her across the Pacific Ocean to the Marine Life Institute off the California coast, with Marlin and Nemo along for the ride, because let’s face it, they’re clownfish, and the life of a clownfish isn’t all that exciting if you don’t have some sort of quest to fill your days. (Also and of course more to the point, by now they consider Dory family.)

Ed O’Neill has the juiciest new character role as Hank, a crusty, scheming octopus — he’s lost a tentacle, so he’s referred to as a septopus — who befriends Dory with ulterior motives but finds he might have a heart after all. (Actually, as Dory points out, he has three hearts. As “Finding Dory” progresses, not only does Dory’s memory improve, she seems to find a reservoir of intelligence out of nowhere.) It’s a robust and funny performance by O’Neill.

O’Neill’s “Modern Family” son-in-law, Ty Burrell, is a kick as Bailey, a beluga whale; Kaitlin Olson is Dory’s childhood friend, the whale shark by the name of Destiny; Idris Elba (who was also heard in “Zootopia” and “The Jungle Book” this year) is funny as a sea lion named Fluke.

Slight problem: In terms of character and personality traits, Bailey, Destiny, Fluke and a handful of supporting fish and mammals aren’t all that distinct from one another. They’re all variations on sweet and slightly goofy and willing to pitch in to help Dory find her parents.

I did love how writer-director Andrew Stanton, co-director Angus MacLane and co-writer Victoria Strouse kept coming up with ways to bounce Dory and her clownfish sidekicks from one water-based locale to another, from the vastness of the Pacific Ocean to the relatively confined spaces of Monterey’s Marine Life Institute to an aquarium to a water pail to even tighter quarters. These situations make for some wonderfully choreographed comedic action pieces.

As for Dory’s short-term memory loss, of course we’re not getting a realistic representation of how someone battling such a condition would navigate the world. For all its heart and humanity, this IS a movie about talking fish, and if some analysts and critics take issue with “Finding Dory” for inexact science, well, they must be a lot of fun at cocktail parties.

★★★

Walt Disney Studios presents a film directed by Andrew Stanton and written by Stanton and Victoria Strouse. Running time: 95 minutes. Rated PG (for mild thematic elements). Opens Friday at local theaters.

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