A beaming Ellen DeGeneres arrived for the Hollywood premiere of Disney Pixar’s Finding Dory on Wednesday, a film speculated over for 13 years and which she thought would never be made.
The US talk show host and comedian reprises her role as Dory, an absent-minded and chatty blue tang fish in the sequel to the Oscar-winning animated 2003 film Finding Nemo.
“I’m just excited that it is finally here because I never thought it would happen. Honestly, it was a joke that I was talking about it so much that I kind of gave up,” DeGeneres said of the film which opens in theatres on June 17.
Studio bosses will be aware such a long gap can be a real buzz-kill, with numerous follow-ups to huge blockbusters bombing at the box office because the appetite for their themes and characters faded with time.
{{/usCountry}}Studio bosses will be aware such a long gap can be a real buzz-kill, with numerous follow-ups to huge blockbusters bombing at the box office because the appetite for their themes and characters faded with time.
{{/usCountry}}Dory director Andrew Stanton, who was also behind Nemo, said Pixar had been clear when they were in negotiations for the buy-out by Disney that they would only make sequels if they had “a story that really holds up.”
Read: How Finding Dory hopes to avoid the curse of the overdue sequel