Finding Dory
Finding Dory is a 2016 American animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed by Andrew Stanton, co-directed by Angus MacLane, produced by Lindsey Collins, and written by Stanton and Victoria Strouse. The second installment to the Finding Nemo franchise, the film is a both a sequel and spin-off following the events[a] of Finding Nemo (2003). Ellen DeGeneres and Albert Brooks reprise their roles from the first film, with Hayden Rolence (replacing Alexander Gould), Ed O'Neill, Kaitlin Olson, Ty Burrell, Diane Keaton and Eugene Levy joining the cast. The film focuses on the amnesiac fish Dory (DeGeneres), who journeys to be reunited with her parents (Keaton and Levy).
Finding Dory
- Andrew Stanton
- Victoria Strouse
Andrew Stanton
Lindsey Collins[1]
- Jeremy Lasky (camera)
- Ian Megibben (lighting)
Axel Geddes
- June 8, 2016 (El Capitan Theatre)
- June 17, 2016 (United States)
97 minutes[2]
United States
English
$200 million[3]
$1.029 billion[4]
Disney planned to make a sequel to Finding Nemo since 2005, tasking its new studio Circle Seven Animation after disagreements with Pixar. Though it never went into production, a script was uploaded to the official Raindance Film Festival website that includes elements of the unmade script. Disney's acquisition of Pixar in early 2006 led to the cancellation of Circle Seven's version of the film. A Pixar-made sequel was announced in April 2013 as the schedule for a November 2015 release. The fictional Marine Life Institute depicted extensively in the film is based on the production team's research trips to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Marine Mammal Center and the Vancouver Aquarium. Thomas Newman returned to compose the score.
Finding Dory premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on June 8, 2016, and was released in theaters in the United States on June 17. It received widespread praise from critics, like its predecessor, for its animation, emotional weight, voice acting and humor. The film earned $1.029 billion worldwide, finishing its theatrical run as the third-highest-grossing film of 2016 and the fourth-highest-grossing animated film at the time. Finding Dory set numerous box office records, including the biggest opening for an animated film in North America and the highest-grossing animated film in North America. The film received a win at the 2017 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite Animated Movie.
Plot[edit]
Dory, the regal blue tang, gets separated from her parents, Jenny and Charlie, as a child. As she grows up, she gradually forgets them due to her short-term memory loss. She eventually meets and joins the clownfish Marlin, looking for his son, Nemo.[b]
One year after meeting Marlin and Nemo, Dory lives with them in their reef as their next door neighbor. One day, she remembers her parents and that they lived at the "Jewel of Morro Bay, California". She embarks on a journey to find them again and Marlin and Nemo accompany her.
With the help of Crush, their sea turtle friend, they ride the California Current to California. Dory accidentally awakens a giant Humboldt squid that almost devours Nemo. Worried, she leaves to look for help and is captured by staff members from the Marine Life Institute.
Dory is placed in quarantine and tagged. She meets a brusque but well-meaning seven-legged octopus named Hank. Dory's tag marks her for transfer to an aquarium in Cleveland, Ohio. Hank, who fears being released back into the ocean, agrees to help her find her parents in exchange for her tag. In one exhibit, Dory encounters Bailey, a beluga whale, and her childhood friend Destiny, a nearsighted whale shark, who used to communicate with Dory through the pipes as kids. She finally remembers how she was separated from her parents: she was accidentally pulled away by an undertow current into the pipes and out into the ocean.
Meanwhile, Marlin and Nemo attempt to rescue Dory. With the help of two California sea lions and a common loon named Becky, they get into the institute and find her. Other blue tangs tell them that Dory's parents escaped years ago to search for her and never came back, leading Dory to believe that they are dead. Hank unintentionally drops Dory into the drain, flushing her out to the ocean. She comes across a trail of shells; remembering that her parents would set out similar shell trails to help her find her way back home, she follows it to a brain coral, where she reunites with her parents. They tell her they stayed close to home and spent years laying down the shell trails for her in the hopes that she would eventually find them again.
Marlin, Nemo, and Hank end up in the truck taking various aquatic creatures to Cleveland. Destiny and Bailey escape from their exhibit to help Dory rescue them. Onboard the truck, Dory persuades Hank to return to the sea with her, and together, they hijack the truck and crash it into the sea, freeing all the fish. Dory, along with her parents and new friends, returns to the reef with Marlin and Nemo, whom she now considers family, and they all settle into a new life together.
In a post-credits scene, the Tank Gang (from Finding Nemo), still trapped inside their plastic bags, reach California after floating across the Pacific Ocean for a year. To their dismay, they are picked up by staff members from the Marine Life Institute.
Finding Dory (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
June 14, 2016
DeepSleep Studios
Newman Scoring Stage
Sony Pictures Studios
The Village
68:20
- Thomas Newman
- Bill Bernstein
Release[edit]
Theatrical[edit]
Finding Dory premiered on June 8, 2016, at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles.[35] The film was initially scheduled for release on November 25, 2015,[21] but was later pushed back to June 17, 2016.[36] In theaters, Finding Dory was accompanied by a short film, Piper (2016).[37] The film was re-released for Labor Day Weekend on September 2.[38]
Home media[edit]
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released Finding Dory for digital release on October 25, 2016, and on Blu-ray (2D and 3D) and DVD on November 15.[39] Physical copies contain behind-the-scenes featurettes, audio commentary, deleted scenes,[40] and two shorts: Piper and Marine Life Interviews; it featured interviews with the inhabitants of the Marine Life Institute about their encounters with Dory.[39] The film made a revenue of $91.5 million from home media sales with 5.5 million units sold, making it the second best-selling title of 2016 behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens.[41] Finding Dory was released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on September 10, 2019.[42][43]
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
Finding Dory earned $486.3 million in the United States and Canada and $542.3 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $1.029 billion.[4] It was the third-highest-grossing film of 2016 and the fourth-highest-grossing animated film of all time.[44][45] It had a worldwide opening of $185.7 million, which is the sixth-biggest of all time for an animated film, and an IMAX global opening of $6.4 million.[46][47] On August 16, it earned $900 million in ticket sales,[48] and on October 9, it passed the $1 billion threshold.[49] Deadline Hollywood calculated the film's net profit as $296.6 million, accounting for production budgets, marketing, talent participations, and other costs; box office grosses and home media revenues placed it fourth on their list of 2016's "Most Valuable Blockbusters".[50]
Possible sequel[edit]
Discussions of a sequel began in June 2016, as Stanton announced his intent to have approaches to worldbuilding across sequels similar to the Toy Story franchise, given the introduction of new characters.[146]