Trailer Trashin’: Return to the Sea in the New Trailer for Pixar’s Finding Dory

Happy March, dear readers! The Oscars are behind us now, and Disney’s Zootopia comes out this Friday. Speaking of which, this week’s Trailer Trashin’ takes a look at the second trailer for Disney/Pixar’s Finding Dory.

Premise: Six months after the events of Finding Nemo, Dory (voice of Ellen DeGeneres) suddenly recalls her childhood memories. Remembering something about “the jewel of Monterey, California,” she sets out to find her family, accompanied by Nemo (voice of Hayden Rolence) and Marlin (voice of Albert Brooks). She arrives at the Monterey Marine Life Institute, where she meets Bailey the beluga whale (voice of Ty Burrell), Destiny the whale shark (voice of Kaitlin Olson), and Hank the octopus (voice of Ed O’Neill), who becomes her guide.

My take: Like most living human beings, I love Pixar movies. And after two original films last year, the next offering from the good folks at Pixar is a sequel to Finding Nemo (2003), one of their most beloved films. This is the second trailer for Finding Dory, and while I’m not expecting it to be as good as the first, it does look like a fun time.

Most of the main characters from the first film are back for the sequel, and with the exception of Nemo, are voiced by the same actors. Obviously, the focus this time is on Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), the Pacific regal blue tang with short-term memory issues. Dory is accompanied by the father and son clownfish Marlin (Albert Brooks) and Nemo (Hayden Rolence). Also back are Mr. Ray (Bob Peterson), the spotted eagle ray who was Nemo’s school teacher, and Crush (Andrew Stanton), the surfer-dude sea turtle. Other returning characters not seen here are Gill (Willem Dafoe) and Deb (Vicki Lewis), two of members of the “Tank Gang” from the first film. The major new characters, most of whom are seen at least briefly in the new trailer, include Dory’s parents Jenny (Diane Keaton) and Charlie (Eugene Levy); Ty Burrell as Bailey, a beluga whale; Kaitlin Olson as Destiny, a whale shark who is Dory’s adopted sister; and Ed O’Neill as Hank, “an ill-tempered octopus.” Idris Elba, Dominic West, and Michael Sheen are also in the cast, but their characters have not been revealed yet.

Beyond the basic set-up, we don’t know much about the story so far. Dory looking for her parents is interesting, but it doesn’t grab you as immediately as Marlin looking for his son in the first film did. That said, I’m sure there’s a lot we aren’t being shown yet. The use of Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill” did stand out a bit, because it’s been used in so many trailers for romantic comedies. But the jokes all seem to be landing, and I like what we’ve seen of the new characters so far. And that ending bit, with Hank sneaking into the kitchen sink and accidentally turning on the disposal for a second, made me crack up.

While Pixar’s films have overall been very good, the studio has a somewhat mixed track record when it comes to sequels. Toy Story 2 (1999) and Toy Story 3 (2010) are considered classics, Cars 2 (2011) is seen as a misfire, and Monsters University (2013) is somewhere in the middle. But what we’ve seen so far of this one looks promising. When Finding Dory comes to theaters in the middle of June, I’m definitely interested in checking it out.

ANTICIPATION: Got a whale of a tale to tell you, lads, a whale of a tale or two…

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Timothy Monforton

Latest posts by Timothy Monforton (see all)

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