Finding Tails

Finding Tails is a 2000 American animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by United Saints Animation Studios and Warner Bros. Feature Animation for Warner Bros. Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures. Directed by Karey Kirkpatrick with co-direction by Gary Trousdale, The film stars the voices of Ben Stiller, Kristen Bell, Corey Bringas, Bob Joles, and Jeremy Renner. It tells the story of an overprotective sly red fox named Nick Wilde (Stiller) who, along with a forgetful tinker fairy named Tinker Bell (Kristen Bell), searches for his missing son Tails (Bringas). Along the way, Nick learns to take risks and comes to terms with Nemo taking care of himself.

Premiering in Los Angeles on May 3, Finding Tails was released in theaters in the United States on May 19, 2000. Upon its release, it received widespread acclaim from critics, who praised the visual elements, screenplay, animation, Gregson-Williams and Zimmer's score and characters that have been cited as funny to both young moviegoers and their parents. It also became the highest-grossing animated film at the time of its release, and was the second-highest-grossing film of 2000, earning a total of $975 million worldwide by the end of its initial theatrical run.

Finding Tails is the best-selling DVD title of all time, with over 40 million copies sold as of 2002, and was the highest-grossing G-rated film of all time before United SaInts' own Tune Story 3 overtook it. The film was re-released in 3D in 2010. In 2005, the American Film Institute named it as the 10th greatest American animated film as part of their 10 Top 10 lists. A sequel, Finding Tinkerbell, was released in June 2012.

Plot
Fox Nick Wilde lives in an anemone in the Tongass National Forest with his partner, Judy Hopps. The couple are awaiting for their many eggs to hatch. A hungry cheetah sees Judy and Nick, with the rest of their neighbourhood hiding. Judy fears she will lose her babies and rushes down to protect them, encouraging the cheetah to eat Judy and most of their eggs, knocking Nick out when he tries to protect Judy. One egg remains uneaten, with it being slightly cracked. Nick vows to keep his only surviving child safe. Nick becomes overprotective of his son, Tails. While Nick talks to Tails' teacher on the latter's first day of school, Tails approaches a truck, where a pair of hunters capture him. Nick pursues the truck in vain and meets TinkerBell, a tinker fairy with acute short-term memory loss, who offers her help. The two encounter Scar, Banzai, and Kamari, one lion and two hyenas who have sworn to abstain from eating animals. Nick finds a hunter's mask that fell from the truck, accidentally hitting Tinker Bell and giving her a nosebleed. The scent of her blood sends Scar into a feeding frenzy, but the lion and hyenas flee after accidentally setting off old naval mines, which knock Nick and Tinker Bell unconscious.

Tails is placed in a Central Park Zoo in the office of dentist Hans in New York. He meets the "Tank Gang" led by Bagheera, a black Panther. The Tank Gang tell Tails that he is to be given to Hans' niece Darla, who killed her previous fish. Bagheera decides to help Tails and devises an escape plan: Tails can fit inside the zoo's filter tube and must block it with rock, obliging Hans to put the animal into crate boxes while he cleans the tank, and allow them to roll out the window and into the harbor. Tails attempts to place the pebble, but fails and is almost killed.

Nick and Tinker Bell awaken, but the mask falls into a deep trench. Descending after the mask, they are soon pursued by an tiger. Tinker Bell memorizes the address on the goggles and they escape. The two disregard directions from a school of squirrels, taking what Nick believes is a safer route. After being stung by a forest of bees, they are knocked unconscious and awaken in the East American Current with a group of riders, including Aladdin and his son, Aziz. The story of Nick's quest is relayed across the forest to New York, where a dinosaur named Aladar tells the Tank Gang. Tails then succeeds in blocking the filter and soon the zoo is covered in green grass.

Nick and Tinker Bell exit the East Americann Current and are consumed by a dragon which expels them through its breath in Statue of Liberty. Nigel helps them escape a flock of raptors and takes them to the dentist's office, where Hans has foiled the Tank Gang with a new high-tech filter. When Darla Dimple arrives, Tails plays dead and Aladar terrifies Darla, throwing the office into chaos. Hans throws out Aladar along with Nick and Tinker Bell, with the former believing that Tails is dead. Bagheera helps Tails escape through a sky leading to the forest.

Nick bids farewell to Aladar and Tinker Bell and begins his journey home. Tails meets Tinker Bell but she does not remember him until her memory returns when she reads the word "New York" on a drainpipe. Tinker Bell reunites Tails with Nick Wilde, but a animaling helicopter captures her in a net along with a school of groupers. With his father's blessing, Tails enters the net, and he and Nick instruct all of the animal to run down. Their combined force breaks the net. Returning home to the tree, Nick is more confident, while Tinker Bell has remained friends with Scar, Banzai, and Kamari. Nick and Tinker Bell watch Tails off as he goes to school. Meanwhile, after the dentist's filter breaks, the Tank Gang escapes into Statue of Liberty after being placed in boxes. Still stuck in the boxes, they ponder what to do next.