We’re still a year-and-a-half out from Disney and Pixar’s long-awaited sequel Finding Dory, but Omelete (via Collider) has talked to Pixar President Jim Morris about the Finding Nemo follow-up and he’s revealed some interesting details about the plot and setting.
Apparently Finding Dory picks up six months after the first movie, with Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) living a quiet life among the clown fishes. After going with Nemo on a class trip to see manta rays migrate back home, her home sickness leads the forgetful Dory on a quest to find where she came from.
“The movie will be mostly set at the California Marine Biology Institute, a huge complex of sea life rehabilitation and aquarium, where Dory was born and raised,” Morris says. “We will get to meet new characters, like an octopus, sea lions, a beluga whale, among others.”
Diane Keaton and Eugene Levy voice Dory’s parents, and the setting was apparently changed early on after Pixar screened Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s controversial Sea World documentary Blackfish. Setting the film at a Marine Biology Institute instead of an aquatic park will hopefully put the filmmakers on the right side of history.
Finding Dory features returning favorites Marlin, Nemo and the Tank Gang, among others. Set in part along the California coastline, the story also welcomes a host of new characters, including a few who will prove to be a very important part of Dory’s life.
Findng Nemo helmer Andrew Stanton returns to the directors chair for the animated film, which features the voices of Ellen DeGeneres, Albert Brooks, Diane Keaton, Eugene Levy, Willem Dafoe, Dominic West, Ty Burrell and Idris Elba. Walt Disney Pictures will release the film on June 17, 2016.
