Pixar’s quietest big announcement of the year raises more questions than it answers — about the franchise, about Ellen’s comeback, and about whether theatrical shorts are even a thing anymore.
Pixar is going back into the ocean. According to a Deadline scoop, Ellen DeGeneres is returning to voice Dory, the chronically forgetful blue tang who became Finding Nemo‘s breakout star, in a brand-new short film set in that universe. Production is reportedly just beginning. There’s no title. No plot details. No release plan. No other creative attachments confirmed. In other words, this is the kind of report that creates ten times more questions than it answers — which is exactly why it’s worth digging into.
Let’s talk about all of it: what we know, what we can read between the lines, and the much bigger question hovering over this whole thing — namely, where on earth (or in theaters, or on Disney+, or buried in a YouTube upload three weeks before Christmas) is this short actually going to live?
Ellen Is Back. Yes, That Ellen.
The most loaded part of this story isn’t the short itself — it’s the talent attached to it. Ellen DeGeneres has been, by her own admission, “kicked out of show business.” Her syndicated daytime juggernaut The Ellen DeGeneres Show ended in 2022 after 19 seasons, following 2020 BuzzFeed News reports of a toxic workplace culture, allegations of racism and intimidation, and the firing of three top executive producers. The fallout was severe enough that DeGeneres reportedly relocated to the English countryside, where CNN reported last year that she was raising chickens, walking through villages near Chipping Norton, and openly mulling whether a comeback was even possible.
Her 2024 Netflix special For Your Approval was her first real return to the screen, and she addressed the controversy head-on. This new Pixar short is now one of her first major non-stand-up screen credits since the cancellation. That alone makes it culturally noisy.
Disney and Pixar betting on Dory specifically is a pretty surgical move. There’s no version of “Ellen DeGeneres returns to public life” that’s not going to generate noise. But Dory? Dory is one of the most beloved animated characters of the last 25 years. She isn’t political. She doesn’t tweet. She just forgets things and is wonderful. By framing the comeback inside the franchise that arguably made DeGeneres a legitimate movie star — and for which she’s already voiced the character at theme parks, in pandemic-era Dory’s Reef Cam segments, and in promotional shorts — Pixar gets the warmth without inviting most of the discourse.
It’s also worth noting: 2016’s Finding Dory grossed over a billion dollars worldwide. Whatever the cultural temperature on Ellen the person, Dory the fish is bulletproof IP.
The Andrew Stanton Of It All
Here’s a connection worth pulling on. Finding Nemo (2003) was directed by Andrew Stanton. Finding Dory (2016) was directed by Andrew Stanton. And the next major Pixar release, Toy Story 5 (in theaters June 19, 2026), is directed by… Andrew Stanton.
Pixar hasn’t said who’s making this short. But Stanton being neck-deep in Toy Story 5 right now while the studio quietly turns the lights back on in the Marlin/Dory/Nemo universe is, at the very least, an interesting coincidence. Stanton has talked publicly about the Finding universe being personal to him. If this short is a passion project, a re-engagement with characters Pixar wants to keep warm, or a low-stakes way to test the waters for a possible Finding Nemo 3 — which scooper Daniel Richtman has hinted at while reacting to the Deadline report — Stanton’s fingerprints would not be a shock.
It’s pure speculation. But it’s the right kind of speculation.
So Where Is This Thing Going to Play?
Here’s where it gets genuinely complicated, because Pixar’s theatrical-shorts pipeline has basically dried up.
For decades, a Pixar short before a Pixar feature was a tradition. Lava before Inside Out. Sanjay’s Super Team before The Good Dinosaur. Bao before Incredibles 2. Then it just… stopped. Toy Story 4 in 2019 was the first Pixar feature in the modern era to launch without an accompanying short, with producer Lindsey Collins explicitly stating that the SparkShorts initiative — Pixar’s experimental Disney+ shorts program — had “replaced the need” to pair shorts with theatrical features. Lightyear (2022) skipped a short. Inside Out 2 (2024) skipped one. Elio (2025) skipped one. Hoppers(2026) skipped one.
The lone modern exception was Peter Sohn’s Carl’s Date, which played before Elemental in summer 2023. That’s it. One short paired with a feature in seven years.
Anyone wondering whether Disney still bothers pairing shorts with features in the streaming era should look at the Wish / Once Upon a Studio situation from 2023. Disney Animation made the dazzling 100th-anniversary love letter Once Upon a Studio and explicitly considered pairing it theatrically with Wish. They did not. Chief Creative Officer Jennifer Lee told ComicBook.com at the time that the team didn’t want people to “have to pay for the theater to see it” — so the short premiered on ABC, hit Disney+ the next day, eventually got attached to a limited Moana re-release, and was a bonus feature on the Wish Blu-ray. Internationally (Japan), it did play with Wish. But in the U.S., Wish went out alone.
Translation: even when Disney has a stunning, high-pedigree short ready to ride a feature into theaters, they often choose not to. Streaming wins.
Could It Ride Toy Story 5 Into Theaters?
This is the most fan-pleasing scenario, but the math is rough.
Toy Story 5 opens June 19, 2026, fewer than two months from now as of this writing. Pixar shorts typically take 12–24 months to produce. Deadline is reporting this Finding Nemo short is in early production right now. Unless there’s a much-further-along version of this project than Pixar is letting on — possible, but unlikely given how clean the report is on details — there is essentially zero chance this thing is finished, scored, mixed, and DCP-ready in time for Toy Story 5.
The Stanton synergy would be poetic. The timing is brutal.
Could It Ride Gatto Into Theaters? Now You’re Talking.
Enrico Casarosa’s Gatto — Pixar’s gorgeous, hand-painted Venetian mob-cat movie — is set for March 5, 2027. That’s nearly 11 months out. The production timeline lines up much more comfortably for a short to be ready.
And Disney has every commercial reason to want help.
Gatto moved up from a brutal June 2027 slot specifically to dodge Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse and Shrek 5. It’s an original story (Pixar’s 21st), in a brand-new hand-painted animation style, from the director of Luca. Pixar’s recent originals — Onward, Soul, Luca, Turning Red, Lightyear, Elemental, Elio — have a track record so spotty that Domee Shi told The Hollywood Reporter that Elio “got massacred at the box office.” A pre-show Finding Nemo short would be exactly the kind of “get butts in seats and remind families Pixar is fun” play that Gatto could use.
If I had to bet — and this is just informed guessing — Gatto is the much more plausible theatrical home. Plan B is a Disney+ drop, possibly tied to Finding Nemo‘s 25th anniversary (May 30, 2028, if you’re keeping a calendar). Plan C is Disney throwing it in front of a re-release of one of the Finding movies, the way they did with Once Upon a Studio and Moana.
The Real Read
Strip away the speculation and what you’re left with is this: Pixar is quietly extending one of its most reliable franchises, bringing back its most marketable animated star at the exact moment its most controversial human star is testing the waters for a comeback, with no plan announced for how anyone is supposed to actually watch it. That’s not an accident. That’s a studio keeping every option open — theatrical attachment, streaming exclusive, anniversary tentpole, Finding Nemo 3 mood-setter — and waiting to see which way the wind blows.
Just keep swimming, I guess.
