Beyond the Sea

Max argues that Finding Nemo is the disability-friendly movie I'm looking for:

Your history was made in Finding Nemo. Nemo has a crippled fin, but his main problem is his relationship with his dad; Dori's memory problems are an obstacle for her, but they're only one aspect of her character. There's even a conversation in the beginning between a group of kids in Nemo's "school" about how each of them has a disability or quirk of some sort.

I feel conflicted about this. I kind of agree, and I think metaphor is useful in teasing out societal issues. But something like disability, which is grounded in the human body and how we see it, is really hard to express by translating it into another species. Nemo's cute despite--and in fact because of--his dumpy little fin, but able-bodied people often react to disabled people with curiosity, stares, if not outright revulsion. Our emotions and assumptions about how people are supposed to look, and function, are much more complicated than the things we feel when we look at chubby little animated fish.