'Finding Nemo' sequel 'Finding Dory' to star Ellen DeGeneres for 2015 release

The film will feature the comedian as the voice of Dory again

Disney Pixar has announced that Finding Dory, the sequel to Finding Nemo, will be released in November 2015.

The follow-up to the 2003 film will feature the voice of comedian Ellen DeGeneres, who played Dory in the original.

Speaking publicly for the first time about the film, DeGeneres said she had waited a long time for Pixar to develop the second film, but wasn’t “mad it took this long”.

“I know the people at Pixar were busy creating Toy Story 16. But the time they took was worth it. The script is fantastic. And it has everything I loved about the first one: It’s got a lot of heart, it’s really funny, and the best part is—it’s got a lot more Dory,” she said.

Dory is a blue tang fish with short-term memory loss who accompanies Nemo’s father Marlin in Finding Nemo as he searches for his lost son.

Finding Dory will be set one year on from the first film and will feature returning favourites Marlin, Nemo and the Tank Gang. Writer Andrew Stanton said the storyline will focus on Dory as she is reunited with her family.

“One thing we couldn’t stop thinking about was why she was all alone in the ocean on the day she met Marlin. In Finding Dory she will be reunited with her loved ones, learning a few things about the meaning of family along the way,” he said.

Finding Nemo won the 2003 Academy Award for best animated feature and made more than £600 million in global box office sales.

Alexander Gould, 19, who was the voice of Nemo, said recently he was “devastated” that his voice had become too deep to play the part again.