Jay F, one of the animation lecturers and Patrick all recommended watching this, so I had very high expectations.
Rightly so! What an incredibly insightful film, and from the perspective of an adult. So interesting to see how the boy in this film grew up learning how to interact with the world through Disney films. I've never been a huge Disney fan (I don't even remember watching many) so I don't think I related to this documentary as much as Molly and Jay F did, but I did find it inspiring and eye-opening to the reality of growing up with autism.
The little I knew about autism already was through my Psychology A Level studies and I have realised how generic and scientific that understanding was. I didn't really understand the human element and, like most people, generalised the 'symptoms'. I expected that everyone with autism had difficulty making eye contact or empathising with others but it's much more complex and varied than that. Every experience is unique.
I knew about 'Theory of Mind' and thought that was all there really was to autism, a lack of this undesrtanding/perspective, but like most theories, theory of mind doesn't explain the whole story.
The main message I got from this is that autism is not something that is suffered. It's not a disability and there are so many people who are affected by it. Everyone has their own ways of interpreting the world and dealing with sensory input, there are things (like Disney films) that can guide individuals through challenges like making friends.
This documentary was a bit cheesy and twee at times, focussed on this 'miracle' 'breakthrough' and how 'heartbreaking' it is. It was very americanised and dramatic but it definitely had good and honest intentions.
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