This documentary follows a family and its struggles to break through to their autistic son and brother, which they eventually do through the medium of Disney movies. The film follows the autistic son as he leaves home to live on his own in an assisted living facility, while it recounts the evolution of his condition and its effects on the family.
"Life, Animated" is a perfectly fine film and one that I enjoyed without feeling especially strongly about it. It's an interesting if not fascinating peek into the world of autism, but the parts of the film I found most compelling were the brief interviews with the older brother, who is terrified at the prospect of a future where he is single- handedly responsible for taking care of his brother. There was a whole other documentary to be made out of that.
And the Disney company couldn't have asked for a better commercial. At first I was amazed that the filmmakers were able to get rights to all of the Disney clips shown throughout, but then I thought about how much free publicity the company would get from this film alone and was no longer surprised.
A nominee for Best Documentary Feature at the 2016 Academy Awards.
Grade: B+
"Life, Animated" is a perfectly fine film and one that I enjoyed without feeling especially strongly about it. It's an interesting if not fascinating peek into the world of autism, but the parts of the film I found most compelling were the brief interviews with the older brother, who is terrified at the prospect of a future where he is single- handedly responsible for taking care of his brother. There was a whole other documentary to be made out of that.
And the Disney company couldn't have asked for a better commercial. At first I was amazed that the filmmakers were able to get rights to all of the Disney clips shown throughout, but then I thought about how much free publicity the company would get from this film alone and was no longer surprised.
A nominee for Best Documentary Feature at the 2016 Academy Awards.
Grade: B+