“Finding Dory” is the runway movie hit of the summer. It is loosely based as a sequel to “Finding Nemo” and has grossed $479,600,783 world-wide as of August 26. Watching the movie with my five-year-old grand-daughter (who loved it) in 3D, I was struck by the quirky nature of the aquatic characters.
Each of the main characters displays a difference, a disability that plays into the storyline. Dory, a Blue Regal Tang, is separated from her parents as a minnow, and because of her “short term memory problem” faces long odds of finding her way home. She is assisted by patient old friends a clownfish Nemo and his father Martin who recognize that Dory has a knack seeing beyond the present. Circumstances bring them to a marine aquarium where Dory is convinced her parents live.
She is a determined little creature and works hard to meet her goals “Just Keep Swimming” she says. Along the way she meets up with an introverted, anxious septipus named Hank, a visually impaired shark named Destiny and a sonar impaired Beluga whale named Bailey. Each of the members of the “team” brings strengths in addition to their “disabilities.”
At Performance Learning this story could be our story. We assist kids who struggle in school and experience disappointment. We uncover their strengths and address their weaknesses to bring them to a place where they know that they can be capable students and more confidently take on new challenges.
As Dory remembers more and more of her past, her planning involves exotic escape strategies which lead to car chases and boat chases at the end. Finally, she finds her family and volunteers as an assistant to a class. The big finish is a scene where she goes to the edge of the Great Barrier Reef to look at a beautiful drop-off in the ocean where she exclaims that it’s, “Unforgettable.”
