Roger Ross Williams’ Life, Animated is an emotional 90 minutes of a heart-warming story that will likely give your tear ducts a good workout. It’s also not a particularly good movie. This is a frustratingly directed film that details the life of Owen Suskind, a young man whose early predilection for Disney animated movies allowed him to revert out of his shell and prosper into young adulthood. Williams has adapted the non-fiction book by Owen’s father, Ron – a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist – who, alongside his wife Cornelia, feature prominently throughout telling in wondrous detail of the miracles that have come their way since discovering Owen’s passion with a viewing of The Little Mermaid...
It is easy to see why these films appealed to Owen from a young age, much as they do to many others. The feeling of bullied isolation faced by Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the fear of growing old in Peter Pan, the G-rated passions of Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, and the plethora of cheeky sidekicks who Owen identifies most strongly with. It’s also easy to see why they appeal to Owen because the subjects tell us why. Repeatedly. And when coupled with Williams’ frequent use of nosalgia-baiting film clips (a rare moment of Disney softening their licensing stance?) – which are also repetitive; some clips are shown upwards of five times – the film becomes an exercise in hand-holding.
With Disney films like Zootopia working on a multitude of levels, it's a shame that this documentary (not produced by Disney, it must be noted) reduces them and its subject to the most basic of functions. They are a way for Owen's family to enter his world so to speak, but if the film is to be believed, Owen's life is little else and he gets somewhat lost. It is content to observe when there was a real opportunity to navigate a thorny and complex issue.
Considering Owen’s story is one of independence in the face of adversity, it's frustrating that Williams doesn’t appear to trust audiences to find the humour and the sadness and the wonder in the story for themselves. Instead, he leads us directly to each one. The talking head sequences of Ron and Cornelia are unnecessary and only underline the film’s lack of confidence. Uncomfortable close-ups of Owen watching Disney movies, wonder and amazement stretched across his face, aren’t just basic manipulation, but feel awfully staged, too.
Life, Animated occasionally finds interesting beats among the rather standard narrative, like that of Owen’s brother, Walter, discussing his having come to terms with knowing one day he will likely have to care for Owen. Or the prickly minefield that is sex and romantic emotions. But every time Life, Animated appears to be going down one of these interesting paths, it quickly reverts to feel-good ease. And as this is a love-letter to Disney, a work of near deifying propaganda, don’t even waste a moment hoping for anything darker suggested or otherwise about Disney and their films.
Perhaps if Williams had utilized original animation more, there would be more to grab on to from a dramatic standpoint. In the film's strongest sequences, Owen details an original comic that he has created called "The Land of the Lost Sidekicks" and Williams renders Owen's black and white drawings on screen in beautiful painterly animation. Elsewhere, earlier stretch of the Suskinds' lives are seen in animated sketches. The vividness of these scenes captures more of what it is like to be a young man with autism and a fanaticism for cartoons than a dozen family testimonials telling us so.
Did I cry during Life, Animated? You bet I did. But that is because it is about a young man overcoming the shackles of disease through the power of art, not because it’s any good.
Release: Can be rented on iTunes.
Oscar Chances: Made the 15-title shortlist, but these more populist-leaning feel-good titles have had a harder time getting nominated in recent years. Would no doubt be a popular title and its subject matter could certainly appeal. But we have a suspicion the doc branch members are going to go with titles of a bit stronger social importance this year.