Narrative Matters: ‘Who decides what a meaningful life is?’ Life, Animated – a refreshing insight into an autistic person’s life

Abstract

Life, Animated (2016), directed by Roger Ross Williams is a documentary that centres around the life of Owen Suskind; an autistic person. In recent decades, the media has become a powerful tool that has been used to typify and inform public opinion surrounding autism. This article analyses the portrayal of autism in Life, Animated and draws out important learning points for clinicians, families, service users and the public.

Full text

Narrative Matters: ‘Who decides what a meaningful
life is?’ Life, Animated –a refreshing insight into an
autistic person’s life
Fiona Kehinde
1
, Jakub Nagrodzki
1
, Felix Clay
2
& Paul Wilkinson
2,3
1
School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
2
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK
3
Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
The media is a powerful tool that has been used in recent
decades to typify and inform public opinion on autism
(Nairn, Coverdale, & Claasen, 2001). The $354 million
blockbuster success of Rainman (1988) has been seen
as a blueprint for future representations of autism,
which has been much criticised since. This blueprint
consists of an individual with an extreme discomfort
with change, monotonic speech, difficulty understand-
ing social situations, unusual interests, special abilities
and a lack of affect (Osteen, 2008). Although this type-
cast may be accurate when considering the diagnostic
criteria for autism, it does not reflect the heterogeneity
and individuality seen within autism (Nordahl-Hansen,
Øien, & Fletcher-Watson, 2018). A dominant monolithic
narrative of autism in the media risks alienating and fur-
ther othering autistic individuals.
Life, Animated (2016), directed by Roger Ross Wil-
liams (Child, 2017), is a refreshing documentary that
takes another approach. The documentary centres
around the life of Owen Suskind; an autistic person. It
falls within a genre known as Pathography, an autobio-
graphical account of experiences of illness (Hawkins,
1999b). It is important to note that although autism is
not an illness, it is a clinically recognised disability; thus,
autobiographical accounts of autism may be considered
as pathography. Life, Animated beautifully and accu-
rately depicts Owen’s remarkable journey from early
diagnosis to adulthood and is based on his father Ron’s
memoir: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes and Autism. It
details Owen’s journey of self-discovery, self-awareness
and shares the way in which he is able to make sense of
the wider world, with the help of Disney animated films.
Pathographies can be an extremely useful tool in psy-
chiatry as they can increase the authenticity of the story-
telling and uplift rather than suppress the patient’s
perspective. The viewer understands how the individual
relates to the world around them and is able to embed
themselves within the patient’s own environment (Haw-
kins, 1999a). The patient group concerned is also able to
take ownership of their own narrative and contribute to
how the world might view them.
Life, Animated begins with an insight into Owen’searly
childhood and shows how pivotal his family, teachers
and therapists were in supporting and nurturing his
development. Enabled by the high levels of input and
support from clinicians and family members, we see
Owen’s development from a child with unmet needs to a
confident man who is adjusting to living on his own in
supported accommodation while maintaining a job at his
local cinema. The pervading themes running through the
documentary (stereotyping, relationships and life as an
autistic person) are handled sensitively and enable the
viewer to empathise with Owen as he navigates through
heartbreak, upheaval and finding a sense of purpose.
The documentary sets out to challenge biases associ-
ated with autism. It attempts to cast away notions that
autistic individuals are incapable of social interaction.
Owen’s life is the antithesis of this, as we see him make
lasting friendships, host a film club and engage in a
romantic relationship. Owen aptly states ‘people with
autism want to connect with the world, but we may be
misguided and don’t know how’. We are encouraged to
view autistic individuals differently: as people who also
enjoy being part of a community and engaging with
people.
Life, Animated dispels the perception that autistic
individuals lack empathy and compassion. We see Owen
displaying empathy and compassion in his interactions
with his brother. In one instance, he notices that his
brother Walter is sad on his birthday; Owen is able to
decipher that and attempts to explain the reasons why,
by utilising Disney references; ‘Walter doesn’t want to
grow up like Mowgli and Peter Pan’.
Another perception that Life, Animated tackles is the
stereotype that autistic individuals are savants: individ-
uals classified as having special abilities or high IQ’s
(Gambacurta, 2020). Films such as Cube (1997), Bless
the child (2000) and Rose Red (2002) have contributed
towards this and attributed an autistic individual’s value
to the special abilities that they have (Osteen, 2008).
This presents autism as something which needs to be
balanced with the material gain of special capabilities or
skills to be acceptable to the world. In fact, 46% of films
and TV series depict their autistic characters as being
a savants (Nordahl-Hansen, Tøndevold, & Fletcher-
Watson, 2018). The prevalence of savants within autism
is thought to be nearer to 0.06–10% (Treffert, 2009).
Thus, the media greatly overestimates the generalisabil-
ity of this narrative. Life, Animated shows Owen being
able to recite Disney scripts from memory, for some this
may be viewed as a savant quality. However, during Life,
Animated Owen’s therapist adds colour to this view by
stating that Owen’s needs for support remain signifi-
cant. Evidentially, a large proportion of autistic people
require support and help throughout their lives (Tsat-
sanis, 2005).
©2021 The Authors. Child and Adolescent Mental Health published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association for Child and
Adolescent Mental Health
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and
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Child and Adolescent Mental Health 26, No. 3, 2021, pp. 281–283 doi:10.1111/camh.12487

Another central theme explores what the day-to-day
life of an autistic person is like. It forces the viewer to
expand their view, contrary to the narrative expounded
by media and popular culture. The viewer can observe
the differing levels of need and ability between Owen and
his autistic friends. In truth, not all journeys are the
same.
Disney plays a large part in Owen’s development and
personal journey. While viewers may assume that Dis-
ney represents Owen’s restricted range of interests, part
of the diagnostic criteria for autism, it represents so
much more than that. Disney becomes a form of escap-
ism, to help Owen get through difficult times and process
difficult situations. Clips of Owen packing before he
moves out of his family home and then watching Bambi
on his first night alone without his parents are particu-
larly powerful. Disney becomes the medium which Owen
uses to communicate. His family embraces his love of
Disney and, over time, was able to reduce his reliance on
Disney scripts to communicate. This highlights the role
a supportive family plays in communication and lan-
guage development.
In Life, Animated, we also get a glimpse at the sibling
relationship. At an early age, I (FK) was confronted with
the complexities of the mind as my older brother is autis-
tic. Growing up, I noticed that the world stigmatised peo-
ple who did not quite conform to its standards of
normality. Ward, Tanner, Mandleco, Dyches, & Free-
born, 2016 reported a variety of positive and negative
effects that growing up with an autistic sibling had on
young people and highlighted that many felt protective of
their autistic sibling. This is reflected in the documen-
tary. Just like Walter, I wanted to protect my brother
and change how the world engaged with people with
neurodevelopmental conditions. During the documen-
tary, Walter also expresses a degree of uncertainty about
the future and alludes to the fact that one day the
responsibility of taking care of Owen will fall to him. The
transition siblings of an autistic child can make from
being siblings to caregivers over time is neatly brought to
light.
Life, Animated is a light-hearted and warm docu-
mentary, much like the Disney films that Owen loves.
However, maintaining this light-hearted approach risks
trivialising the deeper challenges associated with an
autistic person’s life. For example, Owen’s breakup
and subsequent outward emotions of pain are pre-
sented in a largely comical way. There is a danger that
these powerful emotions could be discredited by the
viewer, when in fact autistic individuals are at a
greater risk of developing mental health conditions
such as depression or anxiety (Rydzewska et al., 2018).
Another example is when Owen loses a Mickey Mouse
pendant given to him by his girlfriend. There was an
opportunity for the documentary to explore the emo-
tional connection that Owen has developed to the pen-
dant but this was not taken. Losing the pendant
represented a loss of an important object that helped
to give comfort and structure to Owen. The minimisa-
tion of Owen’s emotions in the documentary may leave
families of autistic individuals feeling like the docu-
mentary is incomplete.
Another criticism of Life, Animated is that the docu-
mentary largely focusses on Owen’s family and their per-
spectives. While there are some advantages to this as it
offers a fresh viewpoint often ignored by Hollywood films,
it risks filtering our understanding of autism and
shrinking Owen’s own control of the narrative. For
example, Ron’s perspective is that Owen’s autism sud-
denly appeared when he stopped communicating with
the family; however, it is now widely understood that
Owen’s neurotype would have been present at birth
(Kapp, 2019). It was Owen’s need for support that chan-
ged over time. This is an example of how our insights
from the documentary may be skewed by the lens of
Owen’s family.
On the whole, Life, Animated offers a rich, enlighten-
ing and compelling insight into an autistic person’s life.
The story retains its authenticity because it is led by
Owen and his family. In this documentary, we see the
highs and lows of an autistic person’s life. The documen-
tary debunks unhelpful myths and presents a far more
accurate view of autism. Owen’s father Ron used his
experience to develop an app which enables carers to
communicate with autistic people through the use of
avatars. The app also enables carers to share movie clips
to aid with emotional and social expression. Through
Life, Animated, the viewer can begin to answer the ques-
tion ‘Who decides what a meaningful life is?’In essence,
autistic people lead a life that is worth living, with mean-
ing, purpose and highs and lows just like any other per-
son. We watched and discussed the film at a meeting of
the Cambridge Mental Health Film Club in January
2020 (Nagrodzki, 2020), and the film’s personal perspec-
tive helped viewers debunk unhelpful myths and see a
far more accurate view of autism. We would encourage
readers to share discussion of this film with colleagues,
patients and carers.
Acknowledgements
No external funding has been used in the creation of this paper.
F.K., J.N., P.W. and F.C. were involved in the conception, design
and analysis. All authors were involved in drafting, writing and
final approval of the article. All authors agree to be accountable
for all aspects of the accuracy and integrity of the work. The
authors have declared that they have no competing or potential
conflicts of interest.
Ethical information
No ethical approval was required for this article.
Correspondence
Fiona Kehinde, School of Clinical Medicine, University of
Cambridge, Addenbrooke’s Hospital Hills Rd, Cambridge,
CB2 0SP, UK. Email: fiona.kehinde@hotmail.co.uk
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