Finding Dory havoc, before crashing it into the sea, freeing all the fish. Dory, along with her parents and new friends, return to the reef with Marlin and Nemo. In a post-credits scene, the tank gang from the first film, still trapped inside their (now algae-covered) plastic bags, reach California one year after floating across the Pacific Ocean. They are eventually picked up by staff members from the Marine Life Institute. Prior to work on "Finding Dory", Disney had planned to make a "Finding Nemo" sequel without Pixar's involvement, through Circle 7 Animation, a studio Disney announced in 2005 with the intention
Finding Nemo – The Musical new songs written by Tony Award-winning "Avenue Q" composer Robert Lopez and his wife, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, would "combine puppets, dancers, acrobats and animated backdrops" and open in late 2006. Years later, Anderson-Lopez explained that she had written a compact 15-minute "a cappella" version of the story of Oedipus; someone at Disney read it and recognized her talent for condensing material, and offered her the opportunity to make a pitch for the "Finding Nemo" project. Tony Award-winning director Peter Brosius signed on to direct the show, with Michael Curry, who designed puppets for Disney's successful stage version of "The Lion King",