Over 13 years after the original was released, the long-awaited sequel to Finding Nemo is almost here. Finding Dory hits theaters on June 17th, and Nemo herself, Ellen DeGeneres, premiered a new trailer on her own talk show earlier today.
The movie finds the forgetful fish Dory suddenly remembering that she has a family somewhere out in the ocean. Together with her cautious friend Marlin (Albert Brooks) and his son Nemo (Hayden Rolence), she sets out on a journey to reconnect with her relatives. (Soundtracked by Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill”, no less.)
While we’re sure the nigh-infallible Pixar has found a way to make this journey a fun follow-up to the 2003 original, the trailer unfortunately plays on fans’ sense of nostalgia. And in the cheapest possible way, too, as nearly every joke is a rehash from the first film. Marlin riding the currents with a surfer dude sea turtle? Check. Dory trying to speak whale like a cuter version of that thing you do when you meet someone who doesn’t speak English? Check. Lead character getting captured and brought to a place where we typically see fish but they don’t really belong (a dentist office in the original, an aquarium touch pond here)? Check.
At least we get some of Ed O’Neill as a panicky, sneaky octopus named Frank. Watch the trailer below.
Out June 17th, Finding Dory stars DeGeneres, Brooks, Rolence, O’Neill, William DaFoe (Gill), Vicki Lewis (Deb), Ty Burrell (a beluga whale named Bailey), Kaitlin Olson (a whale shark named Destiny), and Diane Keaton (as Dory’s mother Jenny).
