Finding Dory

Finding Dory is Pixar's seventeenth feature film. It is the sequel to Finding Nemo. It was released in theaters on June 17, 2016,  and celebrates Pixar's 30th anniversary. The Pixar short Piper is attached to the film.

Plot
One year after reuniting Nemo with his father Marlin, Dory has become a helping hand in raising Nemo. One day, while with Nemo's class, Dory remembers that she has a family. She longs to find her parents, though she finds it hard to rely on her short-term memory loss. The only thing she remembers is that they lived at the Jewel of Morro Bay.

Marlin and Nemo accompany Dory in her quest. With the help of Crush, they ride the water current to California. On arrival, they are forced to flee from a predatory giant squid that nearly devours Nemo. Afterwards, Marlin tends to his son, and is sour toward Dory for getting them into the mess. Hurt, Dory travels to the surface to seek help and is rescued by the Marine Life Institute after being caught in six pack rings, becoming separated from Marlin and Nemo.

Dory is sent to the Quarantine section and tagged. There she meets a grouchy, seven-tentacled octopus named Hank. Dory's tag shows that she will be sent to a permanent aquarium in Cleveland. Due to a traumatic ocean life, Hank wants to live in the aquarium, so he agrees to help Dory find her parents in exchange for her tag. In one exhibit, Dory encounters her childhood friend, Destiny, a nearsighted whale shark who communicated with Dory through pipes, and Bailey a beluga whale who believes he is unable to echolocate. Dory learns that the regal blue tangs are being moved to Cleveland. She subsequently has flashbacks of life with her parents, and struggles to improve her memory, which help her solve certain situations.

Marlin and Nemo attempt to rescue Dory. With the help of sea lions and a common loon named Becky, they manage to get into the Institute. Dory finally remembers how she became separated from her parents: she had overheard her mother crying out of concern for her, left her home to retrieve a shell in hopes of cheering her up, and was pulled away by the undertow.

Dory reunites with Marlin and Nemo in the pipe system. Back in Quarantine, they locate the tank of blue tangs, who tell her that her parents escaped to search for Dory and never came back. Dory believes her parents are dead. Hank retrieves Dory from the tank, leaving Marlin and Nemo behind. He is then apprehended by one of the employees and accidentally drops Dory into the drain that takes her to the ocean. Dory comes across a trail of shells, remembering that when she was young, her parents had set out a similar trail for her so that she could always follow it and find her way back home. At the end of the trail, Dory finds her parents, Charlie, and Jenny, and joyfully reunites with them. They tell her they have spent years forming trails of shells for her to follow in the hopes that she would eventually find them.

Marlin and Nemo end up in the truck that will take the fish to Cleveland. Destiny and Bailey help Dory in rescuing them. Dory persuades Hank to come back to the ocean with her, and they hijack the truck and crash it into the water, freeing all the fish. Dory leads a new life in the reef with her parents, Marlin, Nemo, Destiny, Bailey and Hank.

In a post-credits scene, the Tank Gang, still trapped in their now algae-covered plastic bags, reach California after a year of floating across the Pacific. They are then rescued by volunteers.

Voice Cast

 * Ellen DeGeneres: Dory
 * Albert Brooks: Marlin
 * Ed O'Neill: Hank
 * Hayden Rolence: Nemo
 * Diane Keaton: Jenny
 * Eugene Levy: Charlie
 * Ty Burrell: Bailey
 * Kaitlin Olson: Destiny
 * Willem Dafoe: Gill
 * Vicki Lewis: Deb
 * Idris Elba : Fluke
 * Dominic West : Rudder
 * Bob Peterson: Mr. Ray
 * Andrew Stanton: Crush
 * Bennett Dammann: Squirt
 * Bill Hader : Stan
 * Kate McKinnon: Wife Fish
 * Torbin Xan Bullock: Becky / Gerald
 * Sigourney Weaver: Herself
 * Brad Garrett: Bloat
 * Allison Janney: Peach
 * Austin Pendleton: Gurgle
 * Stephen Root: Bubbles
 * Jerome Ranft: Jacques
 * John Ratzenberger: Husband Crab Bill
 * Angus MacLane: Sunfish "Charlie Back and Forth"
 * Alexander Gould: Passenger Carl
 * Katherine Ringgold: Chickenfish

Since Joe Ranft, the voice of Jacques, died in 2005 during production of Cars, Jacques was voiced by Jerome Ranft (Joe's surviving brother), similar to Red's case in the Cars film series. Alexander Gould did not voice Nemo, as he had long hit puberty since the release of the first film. He was instead voiced by Hayden Rolence.

Production
In 2005, after disagreements between Disney's Michael Eisner and Pixar's Steve Jobs over the distribution of Pixar's films, Disney announced that they would be creating a new animation studio, Circle 7 Animation, to make sequels to the seven Disney-owned Pixar films (which consisted of the films released between 1995 and 2006). The studio had put Toy Story 3 and Monsters, Inc. 2 in development, and had also hired screenwriter Laurie Craig to write a draft for Finding Nemo 2. Circle 7 had since been shut down after Robert Iger replaced Eisner as CEO of Disney and arranged the acquisition of Pixar.

In July 2012, it was reported that Andrew Stanton was developing a sequel to Finding Nemo, with Victoria Strouse writing the script and a schedule to be released in 2016. However, the same day the news of a potential sequel broke, director Andrew Stanton posted a message on his personal Twitter calling into question the accuracy of these reports. The message said: "Didn't you all learn from Chicken Little? Everyone calm down. Don't believe everything you read. Nothing to see here now. #skyisnotfalling" According to the report by Hollywood Reporter published in August 2012, Ellen DeGeneres was in negotiations to reprise her role of Dory. In September, it was confirmed by Stanton saying: "What was immediately on the list was writing a second Carter movie. When that went away, everything slid up. I know I'll be accused by more sarcastic people that it's a reaction to Carter not doing well, but only in its timing, but not in its conceit." In February 2013, it was confirmed by the press that Albert Brooks would reprise the role of Marlin in the sequel.

In April 2013, Disney announced the sequel Finding Dory for November 25, 2015, confirming that Ellen DeGeneres and Albert Brooks would be reprising their roles as Dory and Marlin, respectively.

Ellen has made a long campaign for a sequel on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

In a Los Angeles Times interview, Stanton talked about the sequel's origin: "There was polite inquiry from Disney (about a Finding Nemo sequel). I was always 'No sequels, no sequels.' But I had to get on board from a VP standpoint. (Sequels) are part of the necessity of our staying afloat, but we don't want to have to go there for those reasons. We want to go there creatively, so we said (to Disney), 'Can you give us the timeline about when we release them? Because we'd like to release something we actually want to make, and we might not come up with it the year you want it.'"

The film's ending was revised after Pixar executives viewed Blackfish, a documentary film which focuses on dangers of keeping orca whales in captivity. Initially, some of the characters would end in a SeaWorld-like marine park, but the revision gave them an option to leave. On September 18, 2013, it was announced that the film would be pushed back to a June 17, 2016 release. Pixar's The Good Dinosaur was moved to the November 25, 2015 slot in order to allow more time for production of the film.

Rating
Finding Dory received a PG rating (for mild thematic elements) by the MPAA. This is the sixth Pixar movie to be rated as such in the US after The Incredibles, Up, Brave, Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur. It is also the first Pixar sequel to have another rating other than the original film's rating (G).

Soundtrack
The soundtrack, which is composed by Thomas Newman, is scheduled for release on June 17, 2016, with the inclusion of a cover of Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable" by Sia.

Attached Short Film
The short film Piper, directed by Alan Barillaro, was attached to the theatrical release of Finding Dory.

Possible sequel
In June 2016, Stanton mentioned that while nothing is yet planned, he does not rule out the possibility of a third film, saying that he likes introducing new characters.

Trivia
See Finding Dory Trivia.