Last fall, the Milwaukee Film Festival wrapped up its 2015 edition in the Oriental Theatre’s glorious main hall with "Raiders!," an amusing DIY salute to film and fandom.

About 340 days later, in what should be a surprise to exactly no one coming from an organization dedicated to movies, those themes have apparently stuck as the 2016 Milwaukee Film Festival opened Thursday evening much the way the last rendition closed: with a documentary tribute to finding meaning at the movies, this time via "Life, Animated," a sweet and lovely moving picture – in all meanings of the phrase – that earned the tear-filled puddles left behind by the opening night crowd (our collective apologies to the theater’s cleaning staff).

Owen Suskind began growing up like any other happy child, smiling and playfully sword-fighting with sticks against his father in the backyard. When Owen turned 3 years old, however, he was, as his journalist father Ron (whose book provides the film’s source material) puts it, "kidnapped" – not by a person but by his own mind, suddenly becoming withdrawn and unable to communicate with his young friends and his growingly concerned parents. The diagnosis: autism – at that time, in the early ’90s, still very much a medical question mark.

However, after months of silence and fearing he’d be locked away from the world, forever in his own mind, Owen starts to communicate again thanks to an unexpected teaching tool: his beloved Disney movies, using quotes and characters to convey complex emotional thoughts – and even learning how to read from the opening credits.

That’s certainly the big hook of Owen’s story, and it’d be easy for a documentary to stop there and leave the audience with an Upworthy video-esque sense of simplistic inspiration and triumph. However, Roger Ross Williams’ documentary moves beyond the easy and obvious uplift, jumping ahead to Owen in present day, about to graduate from school and move out on his own into the real world.

There, like anyone else entering adulthood, Owen must come to terms with the fact that life is often far from the neat and happy scripted tidiness of a Disney movie, in ways both amusing – his older brother Walt assumes the awkward role of trying to explain the parts of relationships that don’t show up in animated films, save for "Sausage Party" – and heartbreaking.

One admittedly wishes that a movie called "Life, Animated," focusing about the real-world impact of animated films, would bring some of its own filmmaking creativity to its story – especially when it comes to its own animated sequences. Moments recapping Owen’s early setbacks and breakthroughs unfortunately look like rough black-and-white Microsoft Paint scribbles, and while there are a few pleasant moments later adapting one of Owen’s Disney-inspired short stories, they won’t provide much inspiration of their own.

Save for a few other scattered sequences where Owen interacts at the screen along with a beloved Disney creation, Williams’ general approach is simple and standard – and considering many of those scenes are oddly staged and a little on the pangingly obvious side ("Peter Pan" for establishing his early anxiety about growing up), perhaps that’s for the best.

Fortunately for Williams, "Life, Animated" doesn’t technically require much extra oomph to hit the audience’s heartstrings, as Owen’s story of family, the power of creativity and a young man finding his own special way through the challenges in his head and in his path is naturally moving and emotionally potent all on its own. The Disney films make for a pretty universal conduit, as well; for viewers’ young and old, there’s still a spark of childish glee in seeing the bright and colorful wonders back on the big screen again (I missed you, Flounder!) and, in a brief cameo, seeing the voice actors, like Gilbert Gottfried, behind the beloved characters surprise our understandably giddy lead.

Yet in a film full of animated characters, Owen manages to be the brightest, most endearing and most colorful one to grace the screen. From his sunny declarations (when explaining that his girlfriend will live in the apartment above his, he blissfully calls them "neighbors in love") to his general bright-eyed-sensibility humor, he’s a delight and an inspiration with whom to spend 90 minutes.

The rest of the family also creates a lovely supporting cast (on moving day, a search for a lost charm ends in maybe the truest dad moment of relieved frustration), telling an inspirational story that still acknowledges everyone’s journey and struggle is still very much in progress. After all, Owen still finds himself loudly muttering quotes and lines to himself while walking around to help him process everything the world is throwing at his brain. He isn't what the world considers "normal," but as a Disney movie from earlier this summer preached, he can still navigate the world and find his place in it.

And while Williams doesn’t linger too hard on those brutal realities or technical details, Owen and the family’s brief realizations that the future and the unknown is now – that Owen will have to be more self-sufficient than ever, that his parents won’t always be there and Walt will one day carry much of the weight of the entire family – hit just right, open-eyed but still optimistic. 

Of course, the fact that his message and triumphs come from the world of film just further warms the heart – even for this fire-hardened obsidian-hearted cinephile. The most moving part of "Life, Animated," in fact, is one of its quieter moments, just watching a room of Owen’s fellow autistic Disney-lovers glue their eyes to a screen playing "The Lion King" and then discussing what the film means to their particular lives. It’s a tribute to the movies – even ones often dismissed as simply for kids – not just as entertainment, but as communication, connection, self-reflection and self-discovery.

Early on in the movie, Owen’s parents talk about how they were concerned their son would never be able to relate to the people and the world around him. By the end of "Life, Animated," you could feel a whole room of strangers prove those early fears wrong.  

"Life, Animated" = *** out of ****