Trivia / Finding Dory

• Acting for Two: In the Canadian French dub, not only is Dory once again voiced by Anne Dorval, but the latter replaces Sigourney Weaver as the local celebrity whose voice can be heard in the institute's recorded messages.
• Acting in the Dark: Pixar kept the cast in the dark about the story, only providing actors with the lines they'd be saying on the day of recording. Because of this, Ed O'Neill had no idea how pivotal his role would be and played Hank as a minor comic relief character^note He thought he kept getting called back because the writers were constantly rewriting the part and never realized that his lines would be strung together to become a major supporting character.
• California Doubling: A rare animated example. The Marine Life Institute seems to be a mishmash of various aquariums. The presence of Destiny and Bailey strongly suggest Georgia Aquarium, the heavy kelp forest and sea lion presence just off the shore is indicative of the Monterey Bay while the three paneled live sea tank in the institute is similar to the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Kelp Forest exhibit, and the streets mentioned during the finale^note Gilman, Ashby, and Powell are the three freeway exits that pass by Emeryville, home to Pixar Studios. This is especially odd because the film is supposed to be set in Morro Bay, which is a real life location in California.
• Celebrity Voice Actor:
  • Albert Brooks and Ellen DeGeneres once again as Marlin and Dory. A running gag on the latter's talk show has her constantly pushing the Dory character in conversations to the point where Disney would have no choice but to make a sequel, and she's elated that it came true.
  • There's also Idris Elba, who was on a roll with Disney in 2016, as he had voiced Chief Bogo and Shere Khan in addition to Fluke the sea lion. Here, he's reunited with his The Wire costar Dominic West, who plays Fluke's friend Rudder.
  • Sitcoms are well represented with Kaitlin Olson (Destiny) from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Ty Burrell (Bailey) and Ed O'Neill (Hank) from Modern Family.
  • And, of course Sigourney Weaver as... Sigourney Weaver. It's worth noting that it's the second time Sigourney Weaver lends her voice in a Pixar movie, as she already voiced the Axiom's computer in WALL•E.
  • Pixar 'good luck charm' John Ratzenberger as a crab mowing his grass and Pixar pal Bill Hader as a bass named Stan.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: The "women with the baby stroller" suspected of being a lesbian couple... except they don't have a baby stroller. Hank just bumps the stroller he hijacked into one of them, knocking over the sippy cup containing Dory, and she picks it up to give it back to the "baby," only for her and her friend to bolt when they see Hank in the stroller pretending to be one. Granted, this was only from certain trailers that were cut to make it seem as if the women were feeding their own baby.
• Dueling Movies: It was in a direct duel with The Secret Life of Pets, which also has animals in captivity and features Albert Brooks in a supporting role.
• Kids' Meal Toy: Subway sold a set of six 3D scene makers.
• Milestone Celebration: The film marks one by being released in the year of Pixar's 30th anniversary.
• Refitted for Sequel: In the original movie, Marlin's backstory and the death of his wife was going to be told through multiple flashbacks in the course of the movie, but the idea of telling his backstory in flashbacks was scrapped as it was felt that Marlin would be too unlikable if the audience didn't know right away why he was too overprotective of Nemo. According to Andrew Stanton, as with the original film, they planned to tell Dory's backstory at the start of the movie, but ironically, telling her backstory in the beginning didn't work, thus they brought back the idea of telling the main's character backstory in the form of flashbacks over the course of the film.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Hayden Rolence replaces Alexander Gould as the voice of Nemo, Gould's voice having deepened in the 13 years since Finding Nemo's release^note though Gould does appear in Finding Dory under slightly different circumstances - as a truck driver.
  • Bennett Dammann also replaces Nicholas Bird as the voice of Squirt.
  • Jacques is now voiced by Jerome Ranft, replacing his brother, the late Joe Ranft.
• Pet Fad Starter: After the previous movie caused this effect for Clownfish, precautions were taken against a repeat of the phenomenon with this movie. Signs◊ were put in pet stores advising against adopting saltwater fish like Dory for beginner aquarium owners, by pointing out how expensive and difficult taking care of them is.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Eugene Levy and Diane Keaton, two actors known for playing neurotic characters, play characters that are mostly successful at taking care of a kid with short term memory loss.
  • Kaitlin Olson's character on Always Sunny, Sweet Dee, is one of the worst people you will ever meet, so a sweetheart like Destiny is a complete 180.
• Referenced by...: The seals make a cameo in this video of Destripando La Historia.
• Role Reprise: With the exception of Alexander Gould (Nemo) and Nicholas Bird (Squirt) who aged out of their roles and Joe Ranft (Jacques) who was killed in a car crash in 2005, all of the Finding Nemo actors reprise their roles for this film.
• Sequel Gap: 13 years after Nemo.
• Shrug of God: About if the two women at the aquarium are a lesbian couple or not.
• Spoiled by the Cast List: The actors playing the Tank Gang have their names and actors listed in the credits before their only appearance in The Stinger.
• Throw It In!: The voice actor for Baby Dory recorded one of her early lines as "I have short-term remembory loss" (she was four-and-a-half at the time). This Malapropism was so cute and natural that Pixar decided to keep it.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The ending of the film was rewritten after the creators saw the documentary Blackfish, which advocates against the treatment of animals in marine parks.
    Louie Psihoyos: After seeing Blackfish, they retooled the film so that the sea creatures now have the choice to leave that marine park. They told Gabriela [Cowperthwaite] they didn't want to look back on this film in 50 years and have it be their Song of the South.
  • The "Sleep-swimming" scene from the teaser was originally part of the movie and was much longer.
  • In original versions of the movie, all of Dory's flashback sequences were part of one single scene which would've told all of her backstory at the beginning of the movie, but after a test screening, they decided to tell her backstory through flashbacks over the course of the movie.
  • Originally Dory's parents would've suffered from short term memory loss, which would make Dory's line that her memory loss runs in the family as a fact, but this was changed as Andrew Stanton realized it could be frustrating to have all of Dory's family forget what each other said through the movie.
  • There was originally a "Parents School Day" sequence, in where Dory was going to start feeling nostalgic for her family.
  • While the Tank Gang do show up in the movie as part of the after-credits scene, they originally had a bigger role, where they would've encountered Dory, Marlin, and Nemo after escaping the giant squid and they would have helped Nemo and Marlin to rescue Dory from the Institute.
  • Hank at one point was going to have an obsession for hot sauce.
  • Bailey at one point was going to be female and Destiny's sister, and the sisters would have been on bad terms before they reconcile at the end.
  • Destiny was originally a killer whale instead of a whale shark; This was most likely changed due to the aforementioned Blackfish influence. Adding to that, Destiny was originally going to be Dory's "adopted sister" (how that would have worked out is anyone's guess), but the script was rewritten to make them just childhood friends instead.
  • The giant squid originally had dialogue trying to lure Dory into his clutches by pretending to be her uncle.
  • In the last few minutes of the film commentary, the crew jokes that the end of the film would pan out to show a Barracuda swimming towards Marlin and Dory at the drop-off point.
  • In January 2013, while on Ellen's show to promote Struck by Lightning, Chris Colfer was in Squee over the film finally being announced, and practically begged for a part even if it was just a one scene gag. Referencing a line from the first film when Dory mumbles "sea monkey has my money..." in her sleep, Colfer pitched a scenario where Dory encounters said sea monkey.
• You Sound Familiar: Carl is voiced by Alexander Gould, who previously appeared as the titular character in Finding Nemo.

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