If you’re awaiting Pixar’s November release The Good Dinosaur, add Sanjay’s Super Team to your movie bucket list. The latter is a short film that will feature our Hindu gods – Hanuman, Vishnu, and Durga – in superhero avatars.
Pixar
Inspired from Pixar’s studio animator Sanjay Patel’s childhood, Sanjay’s Super Team is about a boy who favours cartoons over religious observances, but who eventually ends up visualising Hindu deities in superhero avatars, somewhat reminiscent of Marvel’s squad of the Avengers.
Pixar
Sanjay Patel, who has also directed the film, was quoted in LA Times saying, “My parents’ whole world revolved around their gods, the Hindu deities. Our worlds were diametrically apart. I just wanted my name to be Travis, not Sanjay.”
LA Times
Patel has previously worked on films such as A Bug’s Life, The Incredibles, Toy Story,and 3 Monsters, Inc. Patel candidly expressed how he felt unsafe with his own identity while growing up and how Pixar’s Chief Creative Officer, John Lasseter deemed it fit to celebrate this aspect of Patel’s childhood on screen. Also, for kids who hail from cultural backgrounds such as Patel’s, this movie will be a welcome delight.
Pixar
What’s even more exciting is that the film has no dialogues. It’s actually set against the backdrop of a very “non-Western” soundtrack, directed by Oscar-winning sound composer Mychael Danna (Life of Pi).