Cartoons help open autism barrier
Doc details boy’s transformation
Owen Suskind had largely retreated into silence in the years after his autism began to manifest, around age 3. Three painfully mute years later, and after countless rapt hours spent watching Disney animated movies, a word broke through. “Juicervose!” His parents, Ron (a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist) and Cornelia, initially thought he was asking for juice. But he wasn’t. He was repeating back a line from The Little Mermaid, a scene he often rewound to watch again, where Ursula the sea witch sings Poor Unfortunate Souls. She sings, “It won’t cost you much, just your voice!” (“juicervose”)
It was just the first phrase from a Disney film that Owen would go on to mimic, but it was the first hint of his rediscovery of language. For the Suskinds, it was a lifeline back to their son.
A few weeks later, Ron picked up a puppet of Iago, the parrot from Aladdin, and had his first conversation with his son in years — albeit one doing his best Gilbert Gottfried impression.
The Roger Ross Williams documentary Life Animated, playing at the Tribeca Film Festival, chronicles Owen’s remarkable growth, aided by the colourful, underdog sidekicks of Disney movies.
The film, inspired by Ron Suskind’s book Life Animated: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes and Autism, is about both Owen’s impressive maturity and the power of movies, of stories, to connect.
The film has been a hit on the festival circuit, where 19-year-old Owen has bounded down theatre aisles, high-fiving cheering crowds. Williams won the directing award at the Sundance Film Festival, and the film picked up the audience award at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.
Owen, the most ardent of movie lovers, is now a star himself.
“I’ve never experienced anything like I’m experiencing with this film,” Williams says.
“What I hope is that it not only gives parents hope, but it inspires everyone to realize the potential of people living with autism. There are all these gifts they have to offer to the world.”
Speaking by phone from Los Angeles, Owen cheerfully greeted this reporter.
“Hi Jake,” Owen said. “That’s also the name of the hilarious, awesome, cool, wisecracking kangaroo rat from Disney’s The Rescuers Down Under.”
Owen had what’s called “regressive autism,” which reveals itself only once a child is a toddler. Life Animated captures Owen at a universal crossroads: He’s graduating from school, moving out of his parents’ house, finding (and losing) a girlfriend and getting a job at (where else?) a movie theatre.
He speaks knowingly about why Disney films so resonate for him.
“I live in these characters and they live in me,” he says.
“It speaks to me. It helps me with my own life, to find my place in the world, to touch a lot of people.”
Owen’s passion has affected others, too. Gottfried and Jonathan Freeman (voice of Jafar in Aladdin) are among the Disney voice actors he’s met. Freeman cried.
“He didn’t see the meaning in the film that Owen saw,” Williams says.
“He said Owen opened his eyes to the beauty of the film.”