‘Finding Dory’ doesn’t have the same heart as ‘Finding Nemo’

It's been 13 years since Nemo was found in what is often called one of the best of the lofty Pixar canon.

It was a sweetly simplistic tale of an overly cautious father (who happens to be a clownfish), torn apart from his young son, and the lengths to which he is willing to go in order to make sure the young one returns home safe and sound.

Since "Finding Nemo" wrapped up so tightly by the film's end, it was not a film that necessarily called out for a sequel. But absence apparently made the filmmakers' heart grow fonder (and perhaps a number of films that did not connect as strongly with audiences), so the filmmakers decided to take another dive into familiar waters with one of the most beloved stars of the original.

So here we are in 2016 setting out to look for the family of Ellen DeGeneres' character for this sequel: "Finding Nemo 2: Enter the Blue Tang Clan."

Actually, it's "Finding Dory," and the forgetful fish takes center stage as she begins to get flashes of her childhood, in which her parents (voiced by Diane Keaton and Eugene Levy) help her deal with her short-term memory loss in case she ever wanders from their view, which she inevitably does.

The scene is a tender one, but it doesn't quite land the punch to the gut the studio pulled off in the opening in "Up."

Flash forward to just about a year after young Nemo was found, and Dory becomes fixated on finding the parents she only slightly recalls, bringing Marlin (again voiced by Albert Brooks) and Nemo (voiced by Hayden Rolence) with her.

They wind up at the Marine Life Institute (originally Sea World before the "Blackfish" controversy), a tourist attraction that rescues oceanic animals, tends to them and releases them back into the ocean if well, or sends them to a facility in Cleveland if they cannot make it on their own.

Dory befriends a new school of pals, including a crusty octopus named Hank (voiced by Ed O'Neill), a whale shark named Destiny (voiced by "Always Sunny in Philadelphia's" Kaitlin Olson), and a beluga whale named Bailey (voiced by "Modern Family's" Ty Burrell).

They all unite in an attempt to reunite Dory with her long-lost parents.

If it sounds familiar, it is. And by any other studio, it would be a triumph. But swimming in the shadows of "Nemo," "Dory" is merely a faint reminder of the original. Dory, as entertaining as she was in "Nemo," was a perfect supporting character. But brought to center stage, her antics begin to wear thin after a while.

She has a number of amusing lines, but her memory affliction seems to spark rather opportunistically, and the climactic reunion seems to stretch things to the breaking point.

It's certainly solid family entertainment by most standards, but it does not hold the necessity for repeated viewings as did "Nemo" since its release. It's certainly got the heart, soul and gills of "Nemo," but all on a much smaller scale.