"Finding Dory," the sequel to the 2003 Pixar animated blockbuster "Finding Nemo," is finally upon us. The film has been 13 years in the making. On June 17, the prayers of many eagerly waiting children and adults everywhere were answered and it did not disappoint.

Finding Dory earned the honor of being the biggest domestic box-office opening for an animated film, bringing in $136.2 million in its debut.

Although advertised as a film with a young demographic, adults actually composed a good 26 percent of the audience ticket sales.

As my friend and I walked into the theater 30 minutes early, there were already a sizable group of families arriving at the same time. As the rest of the audience trickled in with excited, bouncing (and screaming) children in hand, I was nonetheless excited and internally squealed when the Pixar animated short came on. It was time.

Turns out, we were the only adults in the auditorium that were not accompanying a family of small children.

If you have not seen the film "Finding Dory," the rest of the article contains spoilers about the plot of the film. You have been warned.

During the course of the film, I couldn't help but think about the other successful Pixar films like "Up," "Inside Out," "Finding Nemo" and the moral lessons they promoted. It was not until walking out of the theater when I finally understood the underlying idea of the movie. I double checked with the Internet to see if anyone else had drawn the same conclusions as me. Turns out, I was not alone.

On the surface, "Finding Dory" appears to be a film with a cookie-cutter moral lesson of "Believe in yourself and you can achieve anything." Throughout the film, I noticed the real emotional power of the story came with Dory's experiences from her condition of short-term memory loss.

There is no villain in "Finding Dory" as there was in "Finding Nemo." Instead, Dory's personal struggles with her condition and low self-esteem seem just as terrifying as a concrete antagonist. As her short term memory loss led to her being separated from her parents as a child, Dory endeavors to find them as Marlin and Nemo set out to find Dory. Several of the main characters she encounters on her journey to find her family deal with their own differences.

Hank, the octopus (or septopus as Dory calls him) who helps Dory navigate the Marine Life center, only has seven tentacles and may be affected by agoraphobia, a condition that causes him to be afraid of the open ocean.

Destiny, a whale shark and childhood friend/pipe pal of Dory's, has difficulty navigating the physical course of the film due to her nearsightedness or myopia.

Bailey, a beluga who occupies the tank next to Destiny's at the aquarium, suffered a head injury in the past resulting in a low level of inadequacy as he believes he cannot communicate via echolocation.

No one mentions Nemo's weak fin, the reason why his father sheltered him in the first film, but it appears when Nemo chastises his father in a gift shop fish tank for underestimating Dory's ability to succeed because of her memory.

The true power of the film comes not only from its nostalgia but in its lesson that difference is something to be celebrated and appropriately accommodated. Through Dory's journey, she discovers her own independence, which is something that is encouraged by the other characters. She stops apologizing and everyone simply learns to give her room to challenge herself, but also step in and help when needed. She is eventually reunited from her parents and the main cast returns back to the ocean.

The community of characters at the end of the film supports one another and through that, the sea creatures achieve their own forms of a happy ending.

However, there were two characters who I found were bullied and met with open disdain by many of the characters. Gerald, a sea lion caricatured with Steve Buscemi-esque bulging eyes and a unibrow, does not speak and is bullied by the two main sea lions. Becky, a sea loon with disheveled feathers and unique squawking noises, is treated with disdain by some of the main characters, although she always showed up when summoned to transport the characters where they needed to go. If the moral of the film is to celebrate difference, the treatment and portrayal of these two characters raises some eyebrows and undermines the dominant narrative message.

Nonetheless, "Finding Dory" was a very enjoyable and heartwarming film and I highly encourage you to go out and see it if you have not already.