“Look inside yourself Simba. You are more than what you have become.”
It can be difficult to make sense of the world- and we don’t all understand it the same way. We can use religion, ‘fate’, logic, mathematics, but whatever we use, it is imperative that it makes some sort of sense.
Sometimes it can be too overwhelming, too nonsensical, too hard, and we falter- but we get back up. But what happens when our brain perceives it as too much all of the time? What happens when the world never makes sense?
When Owen Suskind was three-years-old he was kidnapped- or this is how his father describes what happened. He completely stopped talking. He stopped being able to walk in a straight line. He wouldn’t look anyone is the eye.
Then, in devastating blow to his family, he was diagnosed with autism. Life, Animated is the documentary of his life, from bubbly child, to silent outsider, to independent member of society. And what helped him make this enormous leap? Disney films.
Owen had not spoken for four years when one day he used a line from The Little Mermaid to express how he was feeling. His amazing story starts from there. Life, Animated is heart-warming and important- a venture that sheds light on a condition that is often misunderstood.
Champion of the underdog, director Roger Ross Williams uses sketches, Disney clips, and remarkable source material -it is based on the book written by Owen’s father, Pulitzer Prize winner Ron Suskind- to portray a genuinely inspiring tale. In true Disney fashion it can be a little too neat at times, but its overarching message about autism is significant.
We are all the same, meandering through life, trying to make sense of it- of our feelings, of bad things that happen. It can just be more difficult for some of us than others.
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