Overview
- Pixar announced Loving Dory during its Annecy presentation on Friday, June 26, revealing an in-progress short that returns to the Finding Nemo/Dory reef.
- The short’s central conceit shown at Annecy is Dory falling for a drifting plastic bag she mistakes for a jellyfish, a gag the filmmakers framed with gentle environmental notes.
- Directors Lou Hamou-Lhadj and producer Mary Alice Drumm said the roughly 50 percent complete film is being made by a small team of about 10 people and is intended for theatrical exhibition.
- The production is trialing a new in-house 'perform mode' real-time puppeteering interface that lets animators stage rough performances and generate editable motion curves for faster previs and blocking.
- Pixar confirmed returning creative and music collaborators and said the original voice cast will reprise roles though onstage naming was limited; outlets report Ellen DeGeneres is expected to return and the studio has not yet confirmed which upcoming feature the short will play before, with Gatto reported as a likely candidate if timing allows.