Life, Animated

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

2016 1h 31m EN

👍

7.4

SOLID

★7.4TMDB · 148

Documentary

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

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.

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

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Cast

Owen Suskind
Himself
Ron Suskind
Himself
Jonathan Freeman
Himself
Gilbert Gottfried
Himself

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Roger Ross Williams
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 10 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

CRAFT

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Roger Ross Williams, shot by Thomas Bergmann. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Original score by Dylan Stark. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor David Teague shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Owen Suskind and Ron Suskind and Jonathan Freeman carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "When he fell into silence, movies gave him back his voice".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt3917210 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Roger Ross Williams directs. Thomas Bergmann behind the camera. Dylan Stark scores. David Teague cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 10 years ago.
2Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
3Directed by Roger Ross Williams, shot by Thomas Bergmann. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Dylan Stark. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor David Teague shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Owen Suskind and Ron Suskind and Jonathan Freeman carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "When he fell into silence, movies gave him back his voice".
8IMDB entry: tt3917210 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography: Thomas Bergmann
Original score: Dylan Stark
Editing: David Teague
Runtime: 91 min · 1h 31m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: Life, Animated (2016)

Awards

Sundance U.S. Directing Award: Documentary

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Roger Ross Williams

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Selected frames

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Reno2017-02-26
★ 8/10
Where the sidekicks rules... This is life and it is animated. We all grew up watching animations believed they are real. They are our first friends and also the first step to understand between the real and unreal. So what happens if you have never got as far as to know they are simply the fictional characters. This film is not about that, but there's a reason to I bring that up in here. This film is about a boy named Owen Suskind, who developed autism at the age of 3. Since then the journey of his life has been very hard, especially for his family who had tried to understand and find a solution for it. But until at one stage of his childhood, after years of observation, they have found a way to connect with their lost son in his own world as the way he desired to meet/accept them at last. It was not the permanent cure they have been looking for, but it enabled an access to what so far we had struggled to make that kind of progress. All we common people know is that autistic people are sensitive, but genius or mastered in one particular thing they love the most. There's a pattern, and we have to jump in onto it to clear the way to bring both the worlds together. This had been done in the past, so in the present, but this film gives a new perspective to learn new methods. This is not some medical achievement, but the desperate Owen's family found a way. That's a lovely family, they never gave up on him. His big brother as well, trying to teach the grownup's form of love was honest and realistic. Beyond that, his plan for their future together, which eventually one day would come. I know that some of the scenes were recreated from the Owen's life, just for this documentary film. Particularly, I was impressed by the romance parts which reminded me 'Gabrielle'. But hearbreaking at certain satge. ❝I created a story about sidekicks searching for a hero in my head, and I called it 'The Land of the Lost Sidekicks'.❞ I don't know who did the animation for this, but I loved it all. They used them to narrate the tale very beautifully. There are many fans in the world who love the sidekicks from their favourite films/animations. Even sometimes, I love them more than the film's heroes. If you do as well, try this, but this film is not about them and they were mostly the blurred animation version. Or you can say, except the film clips, the remaining original animations were simple sketch and acceptable quality. In reality, I don't know the whole life story of Owen, but according to this film, what I learnt, I truly admire his father Ron. He's lucky to have such a father. This film was based on the book he wrote of the same name. And the whole family's effort given a new life to Owen. This film is nominated for the Oscars in the Best Documentary Feature list. But I'm not sure it'll win. Anyway a big thanks to the filmmakers to bring this up. I know Disney is aware of this film since they allowed their contents to use in it. They can make a feature film out of it, a neat biopic. That would be a great honour for such a big fan of their works. But I'm particularly interested in the Owen's vision about his 'The Land of the Lost Sidekicks'. It's nothing less than the Marvel's 'The Avengers', but for the kids and for the fans of Disney's 2D animations like me from the pre 2000. This film is not under-appreciated, but under-recognised as of now. So I hope you put this into your watch list. It is a good family film, a message in it. We're surrounded by all kinds of people, so it does not matter if the film is not for us, at least you will learn something out of it. That's the any documentary film's notion, as always. You might have seen films about autism like 'Rain Man' to 'I Am Sam' to many more and this one is real as most of them are. Definitely worth giving it a try. 8/10

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