5 things you didn’t know about Sanjay’s Super Team!! #GoodDinoEvent

While I stand by my reviews of The Good Dinosaur and how great it is, I have to say that getting to see the short, Sanjay’s Super Team, prior to the movie is reason enough for me to go see the movie again (and again!)  

Sanjay’s Super Team is a stark reminder of what it is like to be an immigrant in a new country.  It is eye opening as to what parents, first generation immigrants, go through as they raise their children in a foreign country.  Raising your children, and growing your family in a country, that you have taken as your new home, but deep down this new country is not your norm and you try to hold on to the traditions, the history, the ‘normal’ you are used to. 

You so badly want to keep all that is dear to you about your heritage close to you, but you also want to fit into the social norms of the country you now live in.

Sanjay’s Super Team portrays all of these emotions, of both the immigrant parent and the immigrant child, and it does it all in just seven minutes. 

I was moved to tears by this short.  Pixar has outdone themselves largely due to the magnificent input from Director Sanjay Patel, yes the short is ‘his story’, and producer Nicole Grindle.

After watching The Good Dinosaur on Sunday night, and seeing Sanjay’s Super Team, this interview was the one I was most looking forward to.  I wanted to meet the man who’s story was so beautifully portrayed in this short, and I wanted to thank him. 

1.  The images that the animated Sanjay draws in his note book were not drawn by Sanjay as a child.  

When he was asked about it he said he wished that they were but he and the production designer created them for this short.  For the end credits Nicole and Sanjay asked the crew members children to do the drawings, “And they took it really seriously” said Nicole.  Sanjay also joked that he has told them to never give away their art for free again!

2.  Sanjay Patel did not actually want to create a short that was about his life, his story.  

It was apparent from the minute Sanjay walked into the room that he is a humble, down to earth man.  He is soft spoken and comes across as a genuine, caring individual.  Therefore, I wasn’t completely surprised to hear that he didn’t want this story to be about him.  

Nicole started out by telling us that Sanjay has worked for Pixar for about 20 years and has worked on a number of films.  “He started out sort of turning his back on his father’s culture and wanting to fit in as an immigrant and embrace more traditional animation art.  And after about 10 years at Pixar he got the itch to do something else and was introduced to South Asian art.”  

Sanjay fell in love with it and did books outside of Pixar that were a big hit.  They were in shows at the Asian Art Museum, he was highly successful.  Pixar saw this and John Lassiter said he wanted Sanjay to do a short film.  This is where Sanjay was hesitant, he didn’t want to do this, but he was eventually persuaded to.  

Sanjay picks up saying, “I don’t feel like the story just kind of happened overnight.  It’s definitely like an evolution of me as an Artist and me as a dude.”

“I was really scared.  I mean that was the thing that when I really started to peel all of it back I was really scared to like bring me, my identity, my part of my culture and this thing that was so precious to my parents and my community and to work.”

Sanjay was trying to tell Pixar to trust him, that they didn’t want anything to do with this.  Now, “Three years later I’m completely shocked that we are able to tell the story and tell it in a way that was so sincere.”

Even when the President of Pixar asked me to like try to do this I was  like, “Dude we don’t do this here man. This is not part of our brand.”  And you know he politely contradicted.  He felt Pixar was always interested in telling new stories.

Then, I finally had a conversation with my father and he pointed out, Sanjay you know this studio had supported me and educated me for 20 years and he was like, “They’ve had this relationship with you and they’re finally asking you to try this thing and for you not to try would be bad karma.”

He said, “That it was my duty to at least try.  Win or lose.  That doesn’t matter.  That’s not part of the equation Sanjay, but is your duty to at least try.” And I was like, “Dang dad.” [LAUGHS]  So I tried. [LAUGHS]”

3.  Sanjay’s Super Team was originally pitched as a little boy in India who was ignoring the cultural stories that were all around him.

That was Sanjay’s original pitch to John Lassiter (once he agreed to work on the short), but John asked him where he was born, where was he raised.  When Sanjay told him he was raised in Whittier or in San Bernadino and he continued to say, “I spent every morning with my dad and his rituals and my rituals and he [John] really connected with both concepts.”

John believed in the concept, the story, from minute one and he helped Sanjay build on the idea.  

And the first note from John was like, Sanjay just tell your story about you and your dad.”  He’s like, “If you just tell that as honestly as possible people will connect to it.”  And so I just can’t diminish John’s support and his stewardship to not like kind of– I don’t wanna’ say like sell it out or cheese it up, but like he just made it so authentic and so true.

He gave me permission to say things that I wouldn’t say otherwise just because I think growing up in this culture I was always so afraid of exposing my identity, my parents identity, my parents community. My normal was always to just try to fit in and so it took John Lassiter to say to me like, “No Sanjay your story, your parent’s story has value here.  You have permission to tell it.”  I’m super grateful.”

4.  Sanjay’s Super Team IS impacting life for immigrants in the United States.

Today’s mindset regarding immigration is often explosive, there are so many misconceptions surrounding immigrants and their lives in the United States.  Irrespective of the reason for this, having immigrants, regardless of when they came here, tell their stories, like Sanjay did, will only serve to help bridge the gap of misunderstanding and fear that exists around people who don’t look, dress, and act like everyone else. 

When asked how he sees his short impacting kids from his culture and background, Sanjay says he is excited!  While he actually grew up in the United States and his friends were like everyone else, he was one of the few ‘brown’ people, his friends were white, black and Hispanics. 

Sanjay and his friends just played, they did what was ‘cool’ and they went about their lives like all kids do.  However, Sanjay hid from his heritage, while not necessarily making a conscious decision to do it, he lived his life as best as he could to fit into the world he was growing up in.

However, with Pixar choosing to make a short surrounding the life of an immigrant in the United States, Pixar is taking the lead in showing that even though people are different then ourselves they are not to be feared.  Their cultures and their way of lives should be embraced and celebrated. 

If we show this to our kids, if we make the effort to teach them that acceptance of differences is so important we can steer the way forward, we can steer the next generation to a world of love and co-existence.   Sanjay say’s it best;

That kids of all sort of cultures and identities will like embrace and it just felt really exciting that we could tell this part of the story and have Pixar kind of be the ambassador to it.  We’ll make it cool for all kids.

And suddenly I know people from my community will feel less alone or different and maybe will feel way more included.  I think it’s friggin’ awesome man. [LAUGHS]

5.  There are two reasons there is no dialogue in Sanjay’s Super Team

This was to keep with Pixar’s tradition in their shorts.  Nicole said; “We try as much as possible not to have a lot of dialogue because it is a tribute to the pure art of animation and you know visual story telling.  So that is part of the tradition.”

Sanjay added that while there is a little bit of Hindu spoken at the end, which was actually spoken by Sanjay’s father for the short, there really wasn’t much dialogue at his home growing up.  Staying true to that was important to him.

 

I cannot express to you enough how deeply Sanjay’s Super Team impacted me.  I am a first generation immigrant, my daughter is a Minnesotan born, American little girl, as is her Mommy Jeanna.  I am often so conflicted with how I will teach her about her heritage, how will I show her what is important to other South African’s, how will I teach her to understand the fact that I say I am truly PROUDLY SOUTH AFRICAN, but living in The United States now.  

Until I had a child of my own these feelings, these emotions, the feeling of being disconnected from everything I’ve known growing up, none of that crossed my mind and thought process like it does now.  I came here as a young, excited, ready to take on the world barely 19 year old, now I am a wife and a mother.  Now I am in the same position as Sanjay’s father was.  While my traditions and heritage are vastly different then Sanjay’s – the ultimate result is the same, to cherish and teach our children what is important to us.

Go out and see The Good Dinosaur so that you have a chance to watch Sanjay’s Super Team!!

You will NOT be disappointed!!

 

Disclosure: I attended this event as part of an all-expense paid press trip for Disney.  However, all opinions are completely my own. #GoodDinoEvent