Finding Marlin

Finding Marlin is a 2023 American 3D computer-animated comedy adventure drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Directed and co-written by Andrew Stanton with co-direction by Angus MacLane, the screenplay was co-written by Victoria Strouse and Stanton. The film is a sequel to 2016's Finding Dory, and the 3rd installment of the Finding Nemo franchise. Finding Marlin focuses on Marlin, who journeys to reunite with his parents and Coral from the first movie. Along the way, he and a new piranha friend, Diego are taken to an New Zealand public aquarium, from which Nemo and Dory attempt to rescue them.

The film premiered in May 26, 2023 worldwide, four days before the 20th anniversary of Finding Nemo. Finding Marlin is also rated PG.

Plot
The film begins with a flashback of Marlin's childhood (Liam Knight), where his parents, Christopher (Hugo Weaving) and Sophia (Essie Davis), are having fun with him. He is eventually separated from them and is sent to the ocean where, in his eventual adult years, he eventually runs into Coral (Elizabeth Perkins) (Marlin's wife from the first movie), and start a new life.

In another flashback, the fish are playing with Marlin (present-day Marlin is voiced by Albert Brooks) and Coral and the two clownfish look at their new eggs. Soto (David L. Lander), the leader of a barracuda pack, watches the fishes with his trusted lieutenant, a piranha named Diego (Denis Leary). Soto intends to devour Marlin's wife, Coral, and their eggs, planning an attack for the next afternoon. The attack takes place after Soto slaps Marlin back into the anemone, with Diego pursuing Coral (who has hidden an egg that is damaged), but she escapes, swimming to the bottom of the ocean so that Diego returns to Soto with no fish; the pack gives up and takes the eggs (except for Nemo). Soon after, Marlin had many adventures with his 6-year old son Nemo (TBA) and their friend Dory (Ellen DeGeneres).

We cut to the present day, where Dory is living near Marlin and Nemo, exactly three months after the events of Finding Dory. Nemo runs into the Tank Gang who managed to escape from the Marine Life Institute (and got out of their plastic bags) and Gill (Williem Dafoe) accepts it. Later, Marlin and Dory go on a field trip to help Mr. Ray (Bob Peterson) supervise the fish minors when they watch a Sardine migration. Mr. Ray dissuades the kids from coming near the undertow, while Marlin notices the undertow and falls into the undertow itself, eventually knocked unconscious. Upon regaining consciousness, he becomes worried at remembering something but can't recall what it was. Back at the reef, he has another brainstorm that causes him to remember his family and Coral. Marlin gets help from Nemo and Dory, but Marlin is reminded that he doesn't wanna lose Nemo or Dory (again). Their destination is an aquarium in New Zealand.

With the help from Crush (Andrew Stanton) and the Tank Gang led by Gill, they make it to their destination. Marlin accidentally attracts the attention of a Megalodon, which chases him, Nemo, and Dory. When Dory gets hurt, Marlin feels bad for almost getting Dory eaten alive. Marlin decides to get help, but he runs into a piranha named Diego. Marlin finds himself near the Marine Life Institute in dirty water, where he is stuck in a six pack ring. Just when Dory and Nemo catch up to him, he and Diego are taken by humans and put into the Institute's Quarantine center, where the twosome encounter an octopus (Hank's cousin) named Fred (Sam Neill), who wishes to have Marlin's tag that causes him to be eligible to be transferred to China, where Fred wants to go to live out a life of peace and quiet and solitude. Marlin agrees to give Fred the tag if he assists him and Diego in finding Marlin's parents and Coral.

Meanwhile, Soto the barracuda and his pack find out that his lieutenant has been captured by humans. He gets very mad and decides that he and his pack will wait for Diego to come back.

During their journey, Fred is eventually separated from Marlin and Diego, with Marlin and Diego being sent to a compartment containing a bottlenose dolphin named Flipper (David Wenham), who turns out to know Marlin from childhood. Flipper has a friendly neighbor, a narwhal named Horny (Anthony LaPaglia). Fred finds Marlin and Diego and attempts to renege their agreement, but Flipper points out that Marlin is from the Open Ocean exhibit and the directions to get there, so Marlin, Diego, and Fred resume their journey. Among the way, Marlin hears random words that trigger his memories, leading him one step closer to his parents and Coral.

Meanwhile, Nemo and Dory encounter a duo of walruses, named Alan (Martin Short) and Benson (Steve Martin), who are former patients of the Marine Life Institute. When telling them of their delima, Alan and Benson call upon their blue-footed booby friend, John (Torbin Bullock), to help them find Marlin. After Alan introduces John to Nemo and Dory, he starts pecking Nemo and Alan tells him to bring Nemo and Dory to Quarantine and Nemo is suggested to imprint by looking him and do a blue-footed booby call. Underwater, Nemo and Dory start making a plan about John and reaching above water, Nemo is curious to know which eye he should look at. One of them tells him to look at one of them. Doing a blue-footed booby's call, John put Nemo under him while Alan calls Gerald to bring a green bucket for John to pick up, but is soon warned by Alan and Benson to stay away from their rock while John carries Nemo and Dory in the bucket.

While being carried by John, Nemo is a little disappointed that John is confused and doesn't know where to find Quarantine and accidentally leaves Nemo and Dory on a branch, thus he starts eating popcorn that fell into a floor after Fred the octopus bumped into a girl who has a cup of popcorn while trying to get to the Open Ocean exhibit. Upon seeing John eat the popcorn, Nemo and Dory move the bucket and try to ask John to help them, but instead the two are launched in a tank with a toy fish inside. Then, Nemo and Dory wonder "what would Marlin do?" and try to escape the tank. Nemo and Dory launch themselves out of the tank and suddenly wander into the section where a giant clam annoys Nemo and Dory.

Marlin, Diego, and Fred use a baby stroller to get to their location (with some hiccups along the way) and they eventually make to their destination, where Fred drops Marlin and Diego into a huge tank. Marlin gives Fred the tag and they part ways. Marlin and Diego suddenly run into Coral, who managed to survive the barracuda attack. Diego secretly meets up with two of his pack mates, who pass a message from Soto, demanding that Coral is officially alive; Diego sends them back with a message to Soto, promising to bring Coral and Marlin to Soto. A crab tells Marlin that his parents went to Quarantine, and Marlin, Diego, and Coral bravely travel in a water pipe, where Marlin reunites with Nemo and Dory. Flipper and Horny locate Marlin, Diego, and Coral in the pipe thanks to the latter and guide them to Quarantine and Nemo and Dory tag along again, with Nemo giving his father a hug. Marlin also brings Diego, Coral, Nemo, and Dory out of the pipes.

While trying to go to the ocean, they reunite with Fred, and the gang head to Quarantine where fish tanks are being packed and are about to be relocated to China. The gang soon finds and enter the tank of many clownfish. However, Marlin finds his parents and introduces his friends to his parents. Nigel (the pelican from the first film) and John suddenly appear and bring the gang and some clownfish back to the ocean, and Fred comes with the fish. The Pelican friends (from the first film) named as Gerald, Floppy, Beaky and Freddy led by Nigel, also arrive to the sea of the ocean and bids farewell to Marlin and his friends.

The gang arrive to the ocean, and Diego, feeling remorse for betraying Marlin's trust, confesses his plans to Marlin, which angers the clownfish. Marlin pins Diego to a rock wall, intending to kill him for his misdeeds, but Diego, having had a change of heart, agrees to help Marlin escape the pack.

Leading the pack away from Marlin, who they intended to ambush, Dory swims away with Coral; The pack, however, catches up with Marlin, Nemo, and Marlin's parents, who get help from Flipper and Horny so the two marine mammals escape from their tanks to help Marlin and his family. Soto catches up with them and corners Marlin, Nemo, and Marlin's parents, asking Diego to help bring the clownfish family down, as Dory, Coral, Flipper, Horny, and the Tank Gang watch. Diego defects from Soto and defends Marlin and his family at his own expense as Soto brings Diego down, wounding him. Soto then turns to Marlin, intending to attack him alone, but the clownfish, in vengeance, knocks a distracted Soto into a rock wall, causing several boulders to fall on Soto, crushing him. The other barracudas, Oscar, Lenny, and Zeke return to find their leader killed and flee the scene. Marlin and his friends and family then mourn for the injury caused to Diego, which they fear would be fatal, and bring him back to the Great Barrier Reef.

At the Great Barrier Reef, Marlin plays hide and seek with Nemo, Dory, the Tank Gang, Hank, Destiny, Bailey, Diego, Fred, Coral, Flipper, Horny, Crush, Squirt, Bruce, Anchor, Chum, Tad, Sheldon, Pearl, Kathy, Tad's parents, Sheldon's parents, Pearl's parents, Dory's parents, and Marlin's parents. Gill thanked Marlin for finding his family and Marlin and Gill start a friendship. Marlin later goes to the drop-off with Nemo, Coral, Gill, and Dory. At the drop-off, they see the different kinds of fish friends they had but they declare them, "unforgettable".

The whole cast

 * Albert Brooks as Marlin, a clownfish and Nemo's father.
 * Liam Knight as Baby Marlin.
 * Ellen DeGeneres as Dory, a Pacific regal blue tang.
 * TBA as Nemo, a young clownfish, Marlin and Coral's son. He was voiced by Hayden Rolence in the previous film.
 * Elizabeth Perkins as Coral, a female clownfish, Marlin's wife and Nemo's mother.
 * Hugo Weaving as Christopher, a clownfish and Marlin's father.
 * Essie Davis as Sophia, a clownfish and Marlin's mother.
 * Diane Keaton as Jenny, a Pacific regal blue tang and Dory's mother.
 * Eugene Levy as Charlie, a Pacific regal blue tang and Dory's father.
 * Ed O'Neill as Hank, an ill-tempered octopus who lost a tentacle, causing him to be referred to as a "septopus".
 * Kaitlin Olson as Destiny, a whale shark and Dory's childhood friend.
 * Ty Burrell as Bailey, a beluga whale.
 * Willem Dafoe as Gill, a moorish idol, who is the leader of the "Tank Gang."
 * Brad Garrett as Bloat, a porcupinefish.
 * Allison Janney as Peach, a pink starfish.
 * Austin Pendleton as Gurgle, a royal gramma.
 * Stephen Root as Bubbles, a yellow tang.
 * Vicki Lewis as Deb and Flo
 * Jerome Ranft as Jacques, a french cleaner shrimp.
 * Bob Peterson as Mr. Ray, a spotted eagle ray and Nemo's schoolteacher.
 * Denis Leary as Diego, a piranha and Soto's lieutenant. He is a friend of Marlin.
 * David L. Lander as Soto, the barracuda from the first film and the main antagonist.
 * Bill Hader as Zeke, a barracuda.
 * John Ratzenberger as Oscar, a barracuda.
 * Idris Elba as Lenny, a barracuda.
 * Frank Welker as the Megalodon. It resembles Bruce from the first film, but three times bigger.
 * Andrew Stanton as Crush, a 150-year old sea turtle that lives on the East Australian Current.
 * TBA as Squirt, a young sea turtle who is Crush's son. He was voiced by Bennett Dammann in the previous film.
 * David Wenham as Flipper, a common bottlenose dolphin and Marlin's childhood friend.
 * Anthony LaPaglia as Horny, a good but funny narwhal.
 * Sam Neill as Fred, an octopus.
 * Max Charles as Tad, a yellow long nose fish.
 * Raymond Ochoa as Sheldon, a seahorse.
 * Emily Hahn as Pearl, a flapjack octopus.
 * Geoffrey Rush as Nigel, an Australian pelican.
 * Martin Short as Alan, a walrus.
 * Steve Martin as Benson, a walrus.
 * Torbin Bullock as John, a blue-footed booby.
 * Barry Humphries as Bruce, a great white shark who attempts not to eat fish.
 * Eric Bana as Anchor, a hammerhead shark and Bruce's friend.
 * Bruce Spence as Chum, a mako shark and Bruce's friend.
 * Carlos Alazraqui as Bill.
 * Phil Proctor as Bob.
 * Jim Ward as Ted.
 * Katherine Ringgold as Kathy.
 * Mona Marshall as Pearl's mother.
 * Cree Summer as Tad's mother and a female fish.
 * Jodi Benson as Sheldon's mother.
 * John DiMaggio as Gerald, a pelican.
 * Rodrigo Santoro as a male fish.
 * Peter Siragusa as Boss Crab, a crab who doesn't like Marlin interrupting and eavesdropping while trying to find his family.
 * Rodger Bumpass as Freddy, a pelican.
 * Corey Burton as Beaky, a pelican.
 * Laraine Newman as Floppy, a pelican.

Trivia

 * Hayden Rolence no longer voices Nemo because Hayden Rolence has grown up (but Nemo is still a kid).
 * Finding Marlin is rated PG because it has Mild thematics, scary scenes, violence and some action.
 * Tad, Sheldon and Pearl have new voice actors Max Charles, Raymond Ochoa and Emily Hahn.
 * Finding Marlin is the first 2-hour long Pixar movie (the running time is 2 hours and 15 minutes).
 * Finding Marlin is also the sixth movie to include blood, the first being Finding Nemo, the second being The Incredibles, the third being Up, the fourth being Brave and the fifth being The Good Dinosaur.
 * It includes blood because the part where Soto gets crushed by some boulders, and after his death, blood leaks out of him.
 * Bob, Ted, Bill, Nigel, Gerald, Bruce, Anchor and Chum will appear in this movie.
 * This marks the first appearance of Tad, Sheldon and Pearl's mothers, they were voiced by Cree Summer, who voiced Kida in Atlantis, Jodi Benson, who voiced Barbie in Toy Story 3 and Mona Marshall, who voiced Shelia in South Park.
 * In the credits, Arlo from The Good Dinosaur can be seen swimming (just like Mike Wazowski in the credits of the first movie).
 * The song heard in the credits is "Beyond the Sea", the song that played in the credits of Finding Nemo.
 * For some ways, it is mostly similar to the 2016 film, Finding Dory because:
 * Both have main characters finding their families.
 * Both have main characters guided by a different animal.
 * The blue-footed booby character from this film and Becky from Finding Dory are both clumsy.
 * Both main characters are young at the beginning (Marlin in this movie, and Dory in Finding Dory).
 * Marlin's childhood friend is a dolphin, and Dory's childhood friend is a whale shark.
 * Marlin, Dory, and Nemo go to the EAC again.
 * A predator tries to eat one of the main characters (in Finding Dory, a giant squid tries to eat Nemo; In this movie, a Megalodon shark tries to eat Dory).
 * For some ways, it is similar to the 2002 film, Ice Age because:
 * The barracuda is named after the main antagonist from Ice Age, along with the pack.
 * Diego the piranha meets up with two of his pack mates in the Open Ocean exhibit.
 * The scene where the barracudas attack the reef is similar to the scene in Ice Age where the saber-toothed tigers are attacking the humans.
 * When the gang returns to the ocean, Marlin tries to kill a traitorous Diego by pinning him on a wall for confessing his plans to bring Marlin and his clownfish family to Soto the barracuda.
 * The scene where Marlin knocks a distracted Soto the barracuda into a wall and a bunch of boulders crush Soto to death is similar to the scene in Ice Age where the main antagonist gets stabbed by icicles.