20 Incredible Facts About Finding Dory

Is there anyone out there who didn't love Dory when she first splashed onto screens? With the character's film, Finding Dory, finally out, fans are clamoring for any details about it that keeps the movie alive.

We were invited to attend a preview screening and sit down with a slew of the film's crew including: Andrew Stanton, director; Angus MacLane, codirector; Max Brace, story supervisor; Steve Pilcher, production designer; Don Shank, sets art director; Jeremy Lasky, director of photography — camera; Ian Megibben, director of photography — lighting; John Halstead, supervising technical director; Jason Deamer, character art director; Mike Stocker, supervising animator; Jeremie Talbot, characters supervisor; and Lindsey Collins, producer.

We learned a lot of interesting tidbits about the film, like how long it took to create Hank to the new technology Finding Dory has that Finding Nemo didn't. Keep reading to find out more fun facts, and when you're done, learn more about the Pixar campus.

Hank the "septopus" was a lot harder to create than people can imagine.
Disney

Hank the "septopus" was a lot harder to create than people can imagine.

  1. Hank, the octopus, is the first kind of animation that Pixar's ever done. It was a back and forth collaboration between art and animation to get the tentacles just right. It took about a year to create a Hank that was worthy of showing it to the directors.
  2. One shot of Hank alone took six months to create. (Spoiler: it's the tank scene).
  3. Hank is the hardest kind of animation the studio has ever produced.
  4. Since they placed the mouth at the bottom of Hank's face (nearly invisible), the animators gave more expression to Hank's eyes and brows.
Finding Dory has been brewing in Stanton's mind for a long time.
Disney

Finding Dory has been brewing in Stanton's mind for a long time.

  1. Several members of the crew, including the director, visited Monterey Bay Aquarium in California to study and get inspired by Dory's new home.
  2. The idea for Finding Dory came about when the director, Stanton, watched Finding Nemo for the first time in 2010. As he was watching, he didn't know if Dory could ever find Nemo and Marlin again after getting lost. That's when he knew he had another story to tell.
  3. Stanton always knew Dory's backstory and saw her as a tragic character.
  4. The most difficult part about the movie was making Dory a main character and coming up with ways for her to self-reflect, despite having short-term memory loss.
  5. During the writing process of Dory, the writers worked hard to make sure Dory showed some wisdom and didn't come off as too silly.
  6. The most impossible parts of the story were Hank and Dory. Hank was created to get Dory moving across one setting, the Marine Life Institute.
Get ready for a whole lot of Dory.
Disney

Get ready for a whole lot of Dory.

  1. Stanton wanted a movie that celebrates Dory's disability and challenges as a superpower.
  2. The cinematographers made sure that the audience stuck with Dory throughout the film and were constantly experiencing new adventures as she was. For example, there's a scene where Dory is dropped into a tank. The way the film is shot, the viewer is with Dory in the tank, versus panning away and showing that scene from afar.
  3. Humans were de-emphasized as much as possible to keep the story to Dory. This was done by making them silhouettes or using other techniques.
  4. The scene where Dory is first placed into the Marine Life Institute took 146 takes, 13 months, and 18 artists and animators involved to render and complete.
  5. The storyboarding process on Finding Dory lasted for approximately three and a half years.
  6. A key difference between Finding Nemo and Finding Dory are the types of struggles the main character faces. Both have external and internal problems, but Dory's internal one is a lot more personal as she deals with her short-term memory issue.
  7. You won't see much of today's world as the movie only takes a place a year after Finding Nemo.
  8. Stanton wants the movie to feel like you're being told a story about someone you know really well.
  9. The film made a point to focus more on the mother and daughter relationships aspect between Dory and her mother.
  10. This film has more female characters than Finding Nemo. The reason? More female writers.