This post contains some minor spoilers for the feature Pixar film Finding Dory.
Those dedicated folks who have meticulously charted out all the connections between every Pixar movie ever are back at it again with an analysis of how Finding Dory ties into the overall Pixar timeline and universe. For the uninitiated, the original Pixar Theory was developed by Jon Negroni and details how every Pixar film exists in the same grand universe and on the same grand timeline. It’s a unified theory that might as well exist in science textbooks. Oh wait, it actually has literally been expanded into a textbook.
Now, Jon Carlin of the Super Carlin Brothers has added his own Finding Dory chapter to the theory in a video that looks at how the record-smashing sequel fits into this wild world of Pixar. The timeline part is obvious: Finding Dory takes place one year after the events of Finding Nemo. Easy enough! Occurring in 2003 and 2004 respectively, that places Finding Nemo and Finding Dory in the post-Toy Story 2 era and the pre-Ratatouille era on the theory’s timeline.
The Pixar Theory also details an ongoing struggle between humans, machines, and animals that’s generally depicted in all of the films. Carlin’s theory for why the species of Finding Nemo and Finding Dory seem even more intelligent than some of Pixar’s land-dwelling animals is that, because they’re underwater, they’re even more isolated from the destruction of humans and machines. Look, Pixar scholars go deep. But Pixar goes deep, too. Finding Dory also depicts one of the Pixar universe’s recurring villains: pollution.
To learn more than you probably ever wanted to learn about Finding Dory, check out the full video below.