Life, Animated

Back in the 1990s, the parents of a cheerful, babbling toddler named Owen Suskind faced an enigma when their three-year-old son lost his ability to speak and his motor skills, seemingly from one moment to the next. The eventual diagnosis was autism, and the specialists predicted he would probably never be able to talk again. For many years, this seemed to be the case – until Owen came out of his shell thanks to films he really loved, such as and , and suddenly started speaking – in whole sentence. Without anyone noticing, it seems that he started to understand his world through the Disney cartoons. Director Roger Ross Williams tells Owen’s inspirational story using impressive footage from the family archive and a series of wonderful animations based on drawings done by the young Owen, who is now in his early twenties and planning to live on his own in the very near future.