I just saw, "Life, Animated," a documentary, and it was REALLY, REALLY good and I would even say beautiful. I don't know how else to sum it up other than my mom and I going, "Wow" at the end of it. It was really, really incredible. We happened to see the premiere on A&E and my mom thought the title sounded interesting and we only saw one sentence in the "info" section so we didn't have expectations. We're really glad we saw it! Here's a synopsis though:
At three years old, a chatty, energetic little boy named Owen Suskind suddenly stopped speaking and disappeared into autism. Almost four years passed and the only thing that seemed to engage Owen were Disney films. Then one day, his father donned one of his son's puppets - Iago, the wisecracking parrot from Aladdin - and asked "What's it like to be you?" Suddenly Owen responded to his father using dialogue from the movie.
Directed by Academy Award winner Roger Ross Williams, Life, Animated tells the remarkable story of how Owen found a pathway to language and a framework for making sense of the world through Disney animated films. By evocatively interweaving classic Disney sequences with verité scenes from Owen's life, the film explores how identification and empathy with characters like Simba, Jafar, and Ariel create a context for him to understand his feeling and interpret reality. Beautiful, original animations further give form to Owen's rich dialogue with all the Disney classics as he imagines himself heroically facing adversity in a tribe of sidekicks. With an arsenal of narratives at his disposal, Owen rises to meet the challenges of adulthood in this moving coming-of-age tale.
I don't even think this synopsis does it justice because at its core it is about Owen, but I don't know what else to copy and paste here. Or maybe this?
A coming of age story about a boy and his family who overcame great challenges by turning Disney animated movies into a language to express love, loss, kinship and brotherhood.
It was interesting to see someone going through adulthood with autism, going from childhood to living on his own, and I can't imagine the heartbreak for the parents too. But the movie made you think about moving on, coming of age, "growing up," preparing for the future, things like that, and just one person's experience with autism. My mom and I went from being OK to being a mess throughout the movie, haha.
(And personally, it cemented my feelings for Disney and animated films and their importance. It was really inspiring and I was all, "I CAN'T! *tears*". It's just amazing to see the scenes you know so well being interpreted by someone else. And again, I relate to Disney films too ((or I bring Disney into MY life)), especially certain scenes, so I didn't think this idea was wild.)
(I also just want to say that Owen is a true Disney fan and he is hardcore. I need to step up my game.)
Anyway, great film, highly recommended!