Finding Dory (2016, out now on DVD) is populated with animations of sea and marine animals. There is a shark, an octopus, a marlin, and birds, all helping out, in some way, to assist Dory, a small blue tang fish, to find her parents.

Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) has gotten lost. This is played out in “real life” if you like. Anyone can get lost somehow. When a fish, though still a fish, in a movie animation gets lost, we can probably understand.

Dory is lost, but others clamber on board to help her with her sole purpose: to find her blue tang parents Jenny (Diane Keaton) and Charlie (Eugene Levy).

Years pass and Dory hasn’t given up on her quest to find her primary family. Tragically, Dory got lost when very, very young. She grows up quickly and finds friends who are willing to give a helping hand.

To succeed in a place of peril is challenging, but for Dory, it may have an added difficulty.

Unlike the other fish, Dory has a disability: short term memory loss. The disability won’t help her in getting around easily. She will forget where she has been. However, she can recall her family, and wants to find them.

The fact that Dory has a disability quashes all other complaints about the story. In other words, there is not much of a place to complain about the story (though I may complain about how it’s done in places).

In the final analysis, coming together to help get what someone with a disability needs is admirable.

This makes Finding Dory a lesson, for anyone in the world, about helping people with disabilities, especially children with disabilities. No matter what it takes.

Finding Dory, the sequel to Finding Nemo (2003), has a run-time of 90 minutes.

The film features:

Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) Nemo (Alexander Gould), Marlin (Albert Brooks)

Andrew Stanton (writer/director/producer of Pixar animations including co-directing and writing Finding Dory)