Finding Cattella

Finding Cattella is the 2020 sequel to 2005's Finding Meow-Meow. It is the first Pixar film not to be released theatrically due to COVID-19.

## Synopsis

Cattella goes on a cruise ship to find the family she lost many years ago.

## Plot

Cattella, a cat, gets separated from her parents, Harold and Janice, as a child. As she grows up, Cattella attempts to search for them, but gradually forgets them due to her short-term memory loss. In a flashback (from *Finding Meow-Meow*), she joins Carl – another cat looking for his missing son Meow-Meow – after accidentally running into him.

One year after meeting Carl and Meow-Meow, Cattella is living with them on their reef. One day, Cattella has a flashback and remembers her parents. She decides to look for them, but her memory problem is an obstacle. She suddenly remembers that they lived at the "Jewel of New Zebity , California" across the city when Meow-Meow mentions the name.

Carl and Meow-Meow, along with the pets from the Littlest Pet Shop/Dental Office accompany Cattella on her journey. With the help of Crush, their Cheetah friend, they ride the California Current to California. Upon arrival,  the gang board a cruise ship and meet Heidi, a golden dog who works on the ship. They get settled in bunks and chat at night, but later the girls get stuck in the ship’s dumbwaiter so the boys have to save them. Later the pets wake up in a cart and discover humans on the boat along with twins, Whittney and Brittney.

Heidi enters an underground crypt. Zoe follows her, and learns that Heidi is after a "family heirloom". With Zoe's help, she evades the booby traps around the object and escapes.

The animals make their final destination on the cruise to find Cattella’s parents.  Other cats tell them that Cattella's parents escaped from the institute a long time ago to search for her and never came back, leaving Cattella to believe that they have died. Devastated, she falls off the ship and drifts away. Meanwhile, a human named Fisher Biskit appears and reveals himself to be the owner of the ship as a setup to take revenge on the Pettopia Police Officers for rejecting his idea for a machine that allows him to talk to animals. While wandering aimlessly, she comes across a trail of shells; remembering that when she was young, her parents had set out a similar trail to help her find her way back home, she follows it. At the end of the trail, Cattella finds an empty box with multiple shell trails leading to it. As she turns to leave, her parents arrive. They tell her they spent years laying down the trails for her to follow in the hopes that she would eventually find them. Cattella quickly returns to the ship and helps the other pets sabotage Fisher Biskit’s plan. They also ask Heidi to come join them and she delightfully agrees. They are able to steer the ship away from Pettopia. But then Fisher Biskit pushes the self-destruct button counting down to self-destruct. The animals grab Fisher Biskit and get off the boat with him just before it explodes. He is grateful for them saving him and has a change of heart. He later declares in court to be a better person. The pets return home to a beautiful skyscraper to enjoy the view.

## Cameos

* The Pizza Planet Truck appears at The Creamed Pancake.
* A Woody doll appears in Zoe's bunk-room.
* A113 appears on one of the ship's buttons and in court at the end.

## Trivia

* This is the last Pixar sequel following John Lasster's departure from Pixar in 2019.
* Due to the corona virus, this film had to be released digitally instead of having its theatrical release.
* This is the seventh Pixar film to begin with the protagonist as a child in the beginning, after *Up*, *Brave*, *Monsters University*, *The Good Dinosaur*, *Finding Dory* and *Pettopia*.
* This is the first Pixar movie to use the normal Disney fanfare since *Cars 3*.
* Fisher Biskit is given one of the shortest appearances of a Pixar villain.
* This is the first Pixar film directed by Andrew Stanton not to be composed by Thomas Newman as well as the second Pixar sequel to change composers, after *Cars 2*.
* This is the second Pixar film to be released on June 24, after *Cars 2*.
* This is the fifth Pixar film to have a female protagonist, after *Brave*, *Inside Out*, *Finding Dory*, *Pettopia* and *Incredibles 2*.
* This is the first Pixar film since *Finding Dory* to be made in 1.85:1 aspect ratio.

## References to *Finding Meow-Meow*

* The scene of Carl and Cattella meeting is shown again.
* The scene where the girls get stuck in the dumbwaiter is similar to Meow-Meow getting stuck in the first film.
* The events of the first film are mentioned several times.