Just keep swimming… because Dory’s story isn’t over yet.
One of Pixar’s most beloved underwater stars is diving back onto the big screen with an all-new animated short.
Announced during Pixar’s presentation at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, “Loving Dory” will offer audiences another chance to spend time with everyone’s favorite forgetful blue tang. Directed by Pixar veteran Lou Hamou-Lhadj, the new short promises to explore another delightfully quirky chapter in Dory’s life as she unexpectedly falls in love… with a plastic bag.
While the premise is unmistakably whimsical, it also continues one of animation’s biggest strengths—giving audiences the opportunity to revisit beloved characters through smaller, more personal adventures that don’t always need the scale of a feature film.
Much like the growing collection of companion stories, shorts and character-focused projects appearing across the animation industry, these bite-sized adventures allow viewers to spend more time with the personalities they’ve come to love. Rather than advancing a massive franchise storyline, they instead spotlight the quieter, everyday moments that help these characters feel even more alive beyond their theatrical adventures.
It’s a storytelling approach Pixar has embraced before through projects like Pixar Popcorn and LEGO Pixar BrickToons, showing that even a brief return can deepen a character’s charm and expand the world audiences already know.
Though a release date has yet to be officially announced, the Annecy presentation also featured a preview of Pixar’s upcoming original feature “Gatto,” making it likely that Loving Dory will accompany the film when it arrives in theaters next spring.
More than two decades after “Finding Nemo” first captured hearts around the world, Pixar continues proving there’s always another story waiting beneath the surface—sometimes it’s simply about slowing down and spending a little more time with the characters who have become part of our lives.