‘Finding Dory’ reworked after ‘Blackfish’ influence, more changes confirmed
While it took years to get the sequel to Finding Nemo to the big screen, the new film, Finding Dory, will take place just months after the events in the first film. Pixar President Jim Morris confirmed details at The Comic Con Experience in Brazil and hinted that the final script was influenced by the Blackfish documentary which bashed SeaWorld and their treatment of animals.
Finding Dory centers around an institute where Dory was born, and she travels back to the site of birth to learn more about her “fry-hood” and family. The park is described as “a huge rehabilitation complex for marine and aquarium life.” Apparently, Dory was born there, but was released back into the ocean at a young age.
The scenario is similar to one that Blackfish director Gabriela Cowperthwaite hoped to acheive with the SeaWorld film which led to the resignation of SeaWorld CEO Jim Atchison.
“The script for Finding Dory, which is still in the early stages of production ahead of its planned 2015 release, initially had an ending that involved a marine park, according to a Pixar employee. But as a result of the sometimes harsh Blackfish, directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, and the resulting publicity battle SeaWorld has had to fight, Pixar decided to restructure that part of the story so that the fish and mammals taken to its aquatic center have the option to leave,” wrote the New York Times back in 2013.
So, the details appear to point to agenda being accepted and incorporated into the new Pixar film.
The Guardian notes “It’s one thing to tweak a storyline here and there for a family-focused film, but this may be a slippery slope. Might we begin to see movie studios fear to set any of their cross-licensed properties within swimming distance of even a whiff of controversy? At a time in our culture where everything seems to outrage someone we may be headed toward 3D CGI animation spectaculars set in airless white voids. Nothing to offend in there.”
Maybe true, but a “gay” remark in How to Train Your Dragon 2 may have kept some parents home.
Finding Dory will add a ton of new characters: Dory’s parents Charlie and Jenny, voiced by Eugene Levy and Diane Keaton, as well as a funny beluga whale, Bailey, voiced by Ty Burrell. We’d also heard Idris Elba and Dominic West of The Wire provide their voices too.
Finding Dory arrives June 17, 2016.
