Andrew Stanton

Pixar comes to Criterion.

How ‘Finding Nemo’ defined your favorite animation studio

Pixar’s ‘WALL-E’ turns 10 today and we’re looking back what makes it an animated classic.

Will wonders from D23 never cease? In addition to Star Wars, Infinity War and Spider-Man, Disney’s Big Hero 6 is returning to our screens. Sneak a peek at the fall TV premiere with the opening credits sequence for the upcoming series!

It wasn’t long ago we learned that Stranger Things creators the Duffer brothers had called on producer Shawn Levy to fulfill a similar directorial obligation as the first year, though the full roster remained unclear. Now, we’ve learned Finding Dory and Nemo director Andrew Stanton will direct several episodes, as will another newcomer to the series.

This past summer's Finding Dory made a big splash at cineplexes (pardon me while I self-immolate), enchanting kid- and adult-aged viewers alike while running up the year's highest domestic gross. On the unfortunate side, however, the de rigueur short runtime of children's programming meant that some bits of the film had to be left on the cutting room floor like so many discarded fish eyeballs. Today, one lost sequence from Pixar's latest smash has been recovered and brought to the viewing public's attention.

By now, Finding Dory is one of the biggest hits in the history of Pixar. But did you know it’s also one of the biggest animated movies of all time and one of the 50 highest grossing films of any kind ever? That’s just one of the facts we found in the depths of the internet for this new episode of You Think You Know Movies!

“I like that the title of your outlet has one of our characters’ names in it.” Those were the first words spoken by Andrew Stanton, director of Finding Nemo, WALL-E, and John Carter, as we start our phone interview about his newest creation, Finding Dory. And he’s right. By coincidence, ScreenCrush shares half a name with Crush, one of the scene-stealing sea turtles from both Nemo and Dory (voiced, as it turns out, by Stanton himself).

Like every other Pixar release, Finding Dory opens with a short film. This one is called “Piper”; it’s about a little bird learning to hunt for food among the scary ocean waves. It’s a terrific showcase for Pixar’s latest advancements in computer animation, which in recent years has taken on the qualities of great nature photography. The sunlight sparkles against the water, which ripples and flows with uncanny accuracy, and when the little bird kicks a pile of sand in a crab’s face you can practically count the individual grains.

There was a lot of initial skepticism about the idea of a Finding Nemo sequel. What are you gonna do? Have Nemo vanish again? How many times can a fish get lost?