First look: Hindu gods star as superheroes in Pixar short 'Sanjay's Super Team'

Pixar Animation Studio’s much awaited feature, The Good Dianosaur, will be out in November, but it will not be the only movie that the studio will be releasing that day. Along with it, Pixar will also release a short film, Sanjay’s Super Team. [caption id=“attachment_2332826” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Sanjay’s Super Team. Disney/Pixar[/caption] Derived from the personal experiences of the studio’s animator Sanjay Patel’s childhood, who also directed the movie, the short features a boy who is more interested in cartoons than his family’s religious practices, but who ultimately envisions the Hindu gods Hanuman, Durga, and Vishnu, as a sort of ‘Avengers’-like super-team, reports Slash Film. Patel grew up in San Bernardino in the 1980s as a child of immigrant parents from Gujarat, India. “My parents’ whole world revolved around their gods, the Hindu deities,” said Patel, 41, who joined Pixar in 1996 as an animator on A Bug’s Life and has worked on several films including Toy Story, 3 Monsters, Inc. and The Incredibles, in an interview with the LA Times. “Our worlds were diametrically apart. I just wanted my name to be Travis, not Sanjay.” “It took me a long time to feel safe with my identity,” Patel said. “But [Pixar Chief Creative Officer] John Lasseter felt strongly about celebrating the personal side of the story.” “Patel’s animation very clearly comes from a different cultural place than all the other stories we’ve told before. And for kids who come from these backgrounds to see themselves on screen, it’s exciting for us,” producer Nicole Paradis Grindle tells USA Today. The short doesn’t have any dialogue, just a ’non-Western’ soundtrack by Oscar-winning composer Mychael Danna (Life of Pi). [caption id=“attachment_2332824” align=“aligncenter” width=“825”]  Sanjay’s Super Team. Disney/Pixar[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_2332820” align=“aligncenter” width=“825”]  Sanjay’s Super Team. Disney/Pixar[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_2332822” align=“aligncenter” width=“825”]  Sanjay’s Super Team. Disney/Pixar[/caption]