Life, Animated

A warm, hopeful documentary that immerses you in one family's journey, blending joy and heartache with the magic of animation.

Directed by

Roger Ross Williams

Genres

Documentary

Starring

Owen Suskind, Ron Suskind, Jonathan Freeman

Tagline

When he fell into silence, movies gave him back his voice

Overview

At three years old, a chatty, energetic little boy named Owen Suskind ceased to speak, disappearing into autism with apparently no way out. Almost four years passed and the only stimuli that engaged Owen were Disney films. Then one day, his father donned a puppet—Iago, the wisecracking parrot from Aladdin—and asked “what’s it like to be you?” And poof! Owen replied, with dialogue from the movie. Life, Animated tells the remarkable story of how Owen found in Disney animation a pathway to language and a framework for making sense of the world.

How it feels

Warm, uplifting, earnest and melancholic. Measured and needs your attention.

About

Family, identity, isolation, coming-of-age

Content

Mild language. No violence, gore or sexual content.

Note

Written by AI, so it can be wrong. Full breakdown

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Watch the trailer on YouTube (opens in a new tab)