Finding Nemo Sequel In the Works?

You've probably heard the peculiar news that popped up Tuesday morning regarding a sequel to one of Pixar's most beloved films, Finding Nemo. A story by Deadline claims that Andrew Stanton (director of the original Nemo as well as Pixar's WALL-E and the recent Disney live-action film John Carter) is currently back at Pixar developing a Finding Nemo 2.

According to Deadline, Stanton hopes that by making a sequel to his Oscar-winning animated film to make up for the $200 million loss that his live-action directorial debut John Carter cost Disney (although the film's bad marketing is likely to blame, not Stanton), the company would give him another chance at directing another live-action film.

I, along with many others, find it incredibly hard to believe that Stanton would be agreeing to do a sequel to Nemo (one of the studio's finest films in my opinion) just for the sake of getting to possibly do a, say, John Carter 2. It just doesn't seem right, given that Pixar has stated it will only produce sequels if it has a story just as good as or even better than the original. Deadline does state, however, that Stanton "has a concept the studio loves", but we're still unsure about how much of this story is actually true. If we really are getting a Finding Nemo 2, however, then Andrew must have come up with a heck of a story.

The Hollywood Reporter later stated that Lindsey Collins (co-producer on WALL-E and producer of John Carter) will be producing the Nemo sequel, and that Victoria Strouse is supposedly writing. Again, nothing has been officially confirmed by neither Pixar nor Disney.

I had always somewhat dreaded the idea of a sequel to Finding Nemo, as it is a perfect stand-alone film and even has the words "the end" in its final shot, but when I think about it now, a Nemo 2 might not be quite as bad as I imagined it in the past. I am confident that Pixar has not lost its touch and still has the ability to make films that can be forever cherished by audiences around the globe, so if Andrew Stanton really does have an idea so great that it deserves to be made into a film, so be it. I have no doubt that it would be a great film. Although I would much rather see a sequel to The Incredibles, as I am sure most people would too.

Finding Nemo 2 would no doubt break box office records, possibly even beating Toy Story 3 for the title of highest-grossing animated feature of all time. After all, the original Nemo held that record until the Toy Story threequel came along in 2010.

The news of Stanton working on a Finding Nemo sequel was met with uproar on the Internet when it broke on Tuesday. Most die-hard Pixar fanatics weren't too keen on the idea of a Nemo 2, but many others seemed to be overjoyed at the idea of a sequel. "Finding Nemo 2" quickly rose to the top of the list of worldwide trends on Twitter, and stayed on there for the rest of the day. Of course, many ignorant people quickly jumped to the conclusion that Finding Nemo 2 had been officially announced, and seemed to all of a sudden think the same about a Toy Story 4 and Monsters, Inc. 2. Although we do indeed have another entry into the Monsters franchise coming next year, it's been a while since it was announced that the film would be a prequel titled Monsters University, and a teaser trailer for the upcoming film was even released last month. "Toy Story 4" and "Monsters Inc. 2" soon joined the Twitter trends list. But just to clear things up, contrary to popular belief, Toy Story 4 and Monsters, Inc. 2 are in no way whatsoever being produced at the moment.

Andrew Stanton himself soon tweeted:

"Didn't you all learn from Chicken Little? Everyone calm down. Don't believe everything you read. Nothing to see here now. ‪#skyisnotfalling"

Now this isn't entirely denying the fact that Nemo 2 isn't indeed being worked on at Pixar, but it is implying that some element of the news reported on Tuesday may not be completely true; whether it be that a Finding Nemo 2 is coming our way, or simply that Stanton is doing the film just for the opportunity to do another live-action flick.

I guess we'll have to wait for official confirmation from the studio.