How awful must it be for parents when a lively, alert 3 year old loses his hard-fought speaking abilities? When he stops speaking altogether, like in the case of Owen Suskind, the protagonist of this documentary? Doctors diagnose him with a severe developmental disability, autism. Years go by in which Owen isolates himself and gets bullied by other children. Father Ron Suskind and his wife Cornelia work hard on getting Owen out of the “autism prison.” Their biggest ally: the Disney films that Owen loves watching on VHS. It’s the only thing that can calm him down, the only thing that makes him happy. One day Ron takes a Jago doll, the loud parrot from ALADDIN and the parrot asks his son: “what’s it like being like you?” Own reacts, speaks. The first words in years. It’s as clear as it is stupefying: Own can only talk with the help of Simba, Jafar, and Ariel. LIFE, ANIMATED recapitulates Owen’s story of suffering and freedom, it shows how Owen moves out at 23 to live with his girlfriend in a supervised apartment. It’s less about autism and more about the unreasonable demands of the so-called adult world and the expulsion from the paradise of childhood, parental love, and solidarity.

At the end of the captivating film, which is also about the power and magic of cinema, Owen utters a tear-inducing line: “my childhood is over, but that’s not so bad.”

Matthias von Viereck

Translation: Elinor Lewy