According to The LA Times after viewing the documentary Blackfish (a film that looks into what caused a killer whale to fatally attack SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau in 2010), Pixar has possibly decided to alter the ending of the Finding Nemo sequel, Finding Dory.
After watching Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s film Blackfish back in April, John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton (director of Nemo and Finding Dory) met with the filmmaker to discuss the documentary.
According to Louie Psihoyos (director of the Oscar-winning film The Cove) who heard about the meeting through a colleague in the animal rights movement that lives near Pixar’s Emeryville campus:
“At the end of the [Pixar] movie, some marine mammals are sent to an aquatic park/rehab facility — a SeaWorld-type environment…”
“After seeing ‘Blackfish,’ they retooled the film so that the sea creatures now have the choice to leave that marine park. They told Gabriela they didn’t want to look back on this film in 50 years and have it be their ‘Song of the South.'”
Pixar has declined to comment on the meeting, but Cowperthwaite confirmed she had screened the film at the animation studios’ campus. She went on to say that the employees were “deeply impacted” by her movie.
“These are obviously people who are dedicated to researching every topic they cover…”
“Whether ‘Blackfish’ affects their creative decisions, I can’t say.”
As with many other studios the plot for Finding Dory isn’t set in stone yet and could undergo many revisions before the film makes its way into theaters in the fall of 2015. Who knows how much Blackfish may ultimately influence the final product.
So what do you all think? Have you seen Blackfish yet? Let us know in the comments below.
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