Pixar is Finding Dory for November 2015

Sequels aren't so much the norm in Hollyweird. They're the necessity. If something works, studio chiefs with a cigar in their mouth bark at their minions, "Get me another one of those!" after seeing the grosses Monday morning.

When it's a new James Bond they want, no complaints are heard. That is a property intended for multiple entries. It's a part of a well-oiled machine going in cycles every ten years. But when it's Pixar, something is wrong with the cosmic balance. Save for Toy Story (In that case they took their sweet time developing each one), their mantra was always original self-contained stories, like Disney Animation in its glory days. And it worked. They were better than reducing themselves to the quick cash-in follow-ups.

Then we got Cars 2, this summer Monsters University and come November 25, 2015, Finding Dory. The news of a Finding Nemo sequel isn't earth-shattering. We've known it was coming but centered on the sweet but memory loss-prone fish voiced by Ellen DeGeneres?

Nemo was as much about finding herself (in this case, her memory) then it was the search for the title character. She had her arc and it was complete like any good story. So hearing in the press release Pixar sent out this morning feels like one of those direct-to-video Disney sequels that in essence recycled the plot of its predecessor. I sincerely hope I am proven wrong.

Here's video of DeGeneres on her talk show making the announcement: