In light of a recent documentary which level's powerful allegations against the practices at Florida-based marine park, SeaWorld and its treatment of orca whales, Disney's Pixar Animation has reportedly changed the scripted ending of its next movie, a sequel to "Finding Nemo" titled "Finding Dory."
***WARNING, the remainder of this article contains mild spoilers about the original draft of the script.***
Finding Dory will feature Ellen DeGeneres reprising her award-winning role as the friendly but often forgetful fish Dory from the first film. The Guardian reports the original screenplay for the sequel first featured and ending involving a marine park similar to SeaWorld. Apparently, following the scathing documentary titled "Blackfish," directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, which alleges that the poor treatment of the whales has led to a hostility toward humans while in captivity. The result has been a number of deaths and tragic incidents involving trainers.
The film's allegations hit home so hard for the creators of the film that the studio decided to rewrite the ending to eliminate marrying a happy ending with any kind of SeaWorld-like atmosphere.
The film centers on an orca named Tilikum, the whale responsible for the three fatalities since being put in captivity in 1983. Among these fatalities includes animal trainer Dawn Brancheau at SeaWorld Orlando in 2010. Brancheau was pulled into a tank and mauled to death by the whale. Meanwhile SeWorld has denied the accusations against it and are accusing Cowperthwaite of producing an "inaccurate" and "misleading" film according to the Guardian.
IGN reports "Finding Dory" will feature the forgetful fish on a spacey mission to find her family. She leaves unannounced forcing Nemo and his father to chase after her on another adventure while she tries to find the place she came from. Apparently the film once ended at a SeaWorld-type resort but that has been changed to avoid associating Pixar Animation with the scandal at SeaWorld.
Finding Dory opens November 25, 2015. The documentary "Blackfish" was released this year, the trailer appears below.
