MOVIES | Finding Dory toddler review.

Well, it appears I haven’t had enough to do. Or rather, I’ve had way too much to do, so I decided to panic/procrastinate/put my head in the sand and distract myself with a project of no import.

Toddler movie reviews! That’s right! The Smeetch recently sat through her very first movie (sort of). And then I “interviewed” her about it. And then I cut that interview together into a ridiculous video.

I think I might make this a series. Smeetchy at the Movies, I’m calling it.

Anyway, some thoughts on Finding Dory, from a parent’s perspective:

(Not that the Finding Dory toddler review below isn’t enough, but just in case).

Finding Dory is lots (lots lots lots) better than Finding Nemo. I know we all liked Nemo back in the day, but if you were to rewatch it now, and consider the perspective of an actual child while doing so, I think you’d see what I mean. Finding Nemo is for grown-ups. It’s thinly veiled grown-up content, pretending to be for children. By contrast, Finding Dory really is for kids.

Like every movie ever made, it’s imperfect. The jokes about neuroticism are too difficult to explain, there are some scary bits, and perhaps most importantly, there are some problematic questions about family and biology that arise. All that said, my child is a mere 21 months old, so we didn’t really have to deal with any of that.

I would recommend Finding Dory for todder-or-baby viewing.

We don’t do a lot of “screen time” so I think that’s saying something. (And for the record, it’s not that I oppose active, engaging screen time, it’s that I find most of the options to be insufferable.)

Anyway, what I think of Finding Dory really doesn’t matter. It’s what Smeetchy thinks that counts. So without further ado, here is the very first episode of Smeetchy at the Movies.