Life, Animated Page #2

Synopsis: Owen Suskind was a boy of considerable promise, until he developed autism at the age of 3. As Owen withdrew into his silent state, his parents almost lost hope that he find some way to interact with his world in some meaningful way. However, that way was found through animated films, especially those of the Walt Disney Company, which provided Owen a way to understand the world through its stories to the point of creating his own. This film covers the life of Owen and how he manages to become as functional as possible with the help of Disney and his family to the point of having his own life. However, Owen soon learns as well that there is more to real life than what Disney can illustrate in animation even as his family prepares itself for an uncertain future with him.
Director(s): Roger Ross Williams
Production: A&E IndieFilms
  Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 13 wins & 23 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.5
Metacritic:
75
Rotten Tomatoes:
94%
PG
Year:
2016
92 min
$244,031
Website
544 Views


They don't ever talk again."

And we just looked down at him

and the kid playing on the rug,

looking at his hands,

and the doctor saying,

"So let me explain

what autism is."

Look what we have

here! What is this, Owen?

What do you have here?

Hey, what do these look like?

Oh, let's get this away.

All right.

All right, we need to stop sillies.

You need... Owen.

I first met Owen

when he was three years old.

At that point, I think that Ron

and Cornelia were devastated.

I think that it shattered

their ideal vision

of who this child

is going to become.

The image of autism

in the early 1990s,

uh, was not terribly flattering.

So they're looking

for any glimmer of hope

that there are other

possibilities out there

besides an adult that

will be forever dependent.

The child with autism

is easily overstimulated.

They don't filter

the constant stimuli

that come in on a daily basis.

This world is just too intense

for their brains,

and that's always

what I felt about Owen,

especially when

he was a tiny baby.

You know,

the vacuum cleaner would go on,

the visual stimulation,

the auditory stimulation.

So imagine how difficult it would

be to just do the simplest things

if you have this

constant noise in your brain.

Owen, Owen, Owen.

Owen, look.

When your child goes

into their adult living,

they've also been in an environment

where the adults have

been telling them a lot.

So now it's gonna be

your turn in a couple of months

to start you telling them things

about what you want to do

and what, you know,

what you're comfortable with...

What you don't want to do,

what you do want to do.

So a lot of those choices that maybe

you only had one or two choices here,

now you're gonna have

lots of choices.

I have some concerns

as far as safety.

Owen tends to walk with

his chin down and plow ahead,

like when he comes out

between cars in a parking lot

- or going to cross the street.

- Yeah.

Hey, Owen, what would you say is

your greatest concern about next year?

That I have to do stuff all on my own.

- That's a concern?

- Yeah.

- To change, right?

- To change.

But is it worth it not having

a staff live with you?

- A little bit.

- I bet.

How do you feel?

I would say a little nervous

'cause it's a new thing for me,

doing my own things on my own.

Yeah, well, this is the big step.

This is your step

through the adult door.

Now you're no different than me.

So you kind of...

All these decisions are gonna be you.

They're gonna be for me.

You got to remember,

even though it might seem

like you're kind of on your own,

and there's no dorm counselor...

Yep.

We're still just a call away, right?

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Ron Suskind

Ronald Steven "Ron" Suskind (born November 20, 1959) is an American journalist and author. He was the senior national affairs writer for The Wall Street Journal from 1993 to 2000, where he won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for articles that became the starting point for his first book, A Hope in the Unseen. His other books include The Price of Loyalty, The One Percent Doctrine, The Way of the World, Confidence Men, and his memoir Life, Animated: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes, and Autism. Suskind has written about the George W. Bush Administration, the Barack Obama Administration, and related issues of the United States' use of power. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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