I don’t know about you, but I find this trailer depressing. Not the usual emotional reaction you expect from a short Pixar clip about fish, but then again, the studio is known to embed morbid messages in their stories. Up was actually about a journey to the afterlife, WALL-E highlighted the gluttony of mankind, and Cars… well, Cars just served to remind us that even the geniuses at Disney have a shit occasionally. But yes, I’m definitely picking up some dark undertones here.
For starters, the music that reintroduces us to the characters is awfully melancholic. And I know what you’re thinking: it’s the same riff we hear in the first film. But combined with the trailer’s predominately gloomy setting and the fact that Dory’s first words are ‘Don’t cry, Mummy. Don’t cry,’ there’s a strong indication of misery. That will no doubt please the thousands of horny teenagers looking to comfort each other in cinema screens.
But from what we see in this trailer/teaser/advert for Australia/whatever it is, it’s clear that the film is, in some way, about Dory’s family. The somnolent opening breaks into something far livelier and anemone-coloured, as it’s revealed that the formerly forgetful Blue Tang fish is suddenly starting to remember things. So, unlike Nemo, we’re ‘finding’ Dory in a figurative sense, which is like, really deep ‘n’ shit.
It does make me wonder what sort of scarred past Dory must have to make this film worth making. Maybe her siblings were crushed under a loose piece of coral, and then she caught her dad having an affair with the goldfish next-door. But I doubt it. That would be terribly contrived.
You probably think I’m being a snarky arsehole, mocking a children’s film trailer, but the truth is I’m neither for nor against this sequel being made. I just happen to think this is a messily structured teaser, and that makes it harder for me to get excited about it. However, they did a similarly awful job with the Finding Nemo trailer fifteen years back, and look how that turned out! So ignore me. Just be glad I got through this entire ‘review’ without making a fish pun. Oh okay, I’ll throw one in for the halibut.