'Finding Dory' trailer, cast news & release date: Ellen debuts new movie clip on 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show'

Pixar is finally following up the 2003 hit animated film "Finding Nemo" with next year's Finding Dory, a sequel that follows forgetful fish Dory on her journey to find her parents. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Pixar debuted the trailer for the 2016 film during Ellen DeGeneres' Thursday episode.

The trailer opens with father and son duo Marlin and Nemo finding Dory sleep swimming (the fish equivalent of sleepwalking) and talking in her sleep. What is presumed to be the following day, she exclaims to her friends, "I remembered something! That's not possible, is it?"

"Is it like a picture in your head, and then you think, 'I think I've seen that before?' I just used the word 'before' which means I'm remembering something!" the usually forgetful fish said excitedly. "My family! They're out there somewhere! I have to find them!"

Watch the trailer below.

"Finding Dory" brings back voice cast Ellen DeGeneres as Dory and Albert Brooks as Marlin, Nemo's father. THR reports that Diane Keaton and Eugene Levy have also been cast as Dory's parents.

Despite 12 years of waiting for the upcoming film, the story is set 6 months after the events of "Finding Nemo". In the film, Dory will find out that she was in fact born at the Marine Biology Institute of California, a large rehabilitation facility for marine life, and was set free into the ocean at a young age.

KSL reports that according to a Disney press release, "Emulating Dory's memory, the film's flashbacks are 2D animation."

The Guardian reports that according to Pixar president Jim Morris, "The movie will be mostly set at the California Marine Biology Institute, a huge complex of sea life rehabilitation and aquarium, where Dory was born and raised. We will get to meet new characters, like an octopus, sea lions, a beluga whale, among others."

These new characters come in the form of Ty Burrell ("Modern Family") who plays Bailey the beluga, Kaitlin Olson ("It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia") who plays Destiny the whale shark, and Ed O'Neill ("Married...With Children") who plays Hank the octopus.

The original script for Finding Dory saw the characters in a marine part, but after the release of the controversial documentary Blackfish, production decided to alter the setting to a sea life rehabilitation and aquarium instead. The Guardian also reports that Idris Elba and Willem Defoe will voice characters in the new film.

Finding Dory swims to theaters on June 17, 2016.