Kids grow up with heroes they see on the silver screen, on the stage, in magazines, social media, and several other forms of media, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to hear that Pixar is going to release a short featuring their first non-white protagonist.
What does race have to do with heroes? Great question! According to the LA Times, Pixar Animation Studios artist, and Sanjay’s Super Team director, Sanjay Patel responds with, “It took me a long time to feel safe with my identity…I want to normalize and bring a brown boy’s story to the pop culture zeitgeist.”
He couldn’t have said it better and Hello Giggles agrees, reporting that the short, titled Sanjay’s Super Team, will be depicting the story of a young Indian boy in America, focusing on the boy’s daydream of an ancient Hindu version of The Avengers.
io9 reports that Patel combines his childhood heroes with the gods that his parents believe in for the short.
Patel’s introduction of an Indian protagonist is only one of two steps forward Pixar is taking this year. The LA Times reports that Peter Sohn, who is Korean-American, will be the first non-white feature film director for Pixar.
Sohn is the director of The Good Dinosaur, which is a dinosaur’s coming-of-age tale in a constantly-changing world.
Sanjay’s Super Team will be debuted at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June, which will take place in France. It will also be released in theaters this November right before the screening of The Good Dinosaur.