"20/20" Features the Incredible Story of A Young Man with Autism and How Animated Movies Help Him Communicate

"Finding Owen: A Boy's Story" Airs on "20/20," Saturday, May 13 on ABC

"20/20" tells the incredible story of Owen Suskind, a young man with autism featured in the recent documentary "Life, Animated." In 1994, when Owen was almost three years old, he started to withdraw and eventually stopped speaking. At the time, not much was commonly known about autism, and Owen's parents, Ron and Cornelia, took him to a specialist who diagnosed him. Despite full time intensive speech and language therapy, Owen remained silent and the only activity that comforted him was watching Disney animated movies. Then a few years later there was an astonishing breakthrough: on his older brother's 9th birthday Owen told his parents, "Walter doesn't wanna grow up like Mowgli or Peter Pan." After barely speaking for years, Owen put together a complex and insightful sentence, and it was at that moment Ron and Cornelia realized Owen understood the world through animated movies. Now understanding the key to communicating with Owen, his verbal skills began to improve and eventually led to him moving out, having a girlfriend, going on job interviews and more. ABC News correspondent Deborah Roberts' report includes interviews with Owen, Ron, Cornelia, Walter and Academy- Award winning Director Roger Ross Williams who gives viewers a glimpse at the making of "Life, Animated." The hour also examines the "affinities," passions or areas of extreme interest, of other autistic children and the scientists who are studying how therapy focused on these affinities can improve the lives of autistic children and their families. "Finding Owen: A Boy's Story" airs on "20/20" SATURDAY, MAY 13 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network. (Rebroadcast. ABC OAD: 11/25/16)

"20/20" is anchored by Elizabeth Vargas and David Muir. David Sloan is senior executive producer.