Pixar’s Loop (Erica Milsom, 2020) – Celebrating Difference
Fig. 1 - Renee taps her phone.
Pixar’s Loop (Erica Milsom, 2020) is an animated short film from Pixar Animation Studios, and part of the “SparkShorts” program that was designed to discover new storytellers and artists by producing short films on a smaller time frame and budget, giving directors freedom to explore new stories, techniques and workflows. Released on Disney+ in January 2020, Loop features Pixar’s first non-verbal autistic character and is significant for the ways in which the narrative addresses the image of disability proactively and authentically. The short has been widely praised for raising awareness of autism with a representation that individuals and families can relate to, but also learn from (Margo 2020). As director Erica Milsom puts it, “I hope that as people learn and as neurotypical people become more aware of autism and their differences it sparks a curiosity and respect for the way that your experience of the world might be something that we as neurotypical people can learn from” (in Warren 2021). As this blog post argues, this Pixar short is a more realistic representation of neurodiversity in showing how two people can learn to communicate and connect, rather than displaying ableist assumptions of the disability experience that tend to dominate cultural representations (Davis 2017, 45). Loop’s animated portrayal of autism focuses on the real-life experience of neurodiversity, rather than falling into traditional and highly durable stereotypes that have been prevalent across media that serve to remove a disabled person’s agency, as Stuart Murray (2008) highlights in his book Representing Autism: Culture, Narrative, Fascination. This kind of representation in Loop is important because narratives in popular culture play an influential role in shaping the understanding of many aspects of society, including assumptions circulating around disability (Cheyne 2012, 118). Fantasy animation (including Disney and Pixar’s feature and short films) also play a substantial role in “narrating stories that help children understand who they are, what societies are about, and what it means to construct a world of play and fantasy in an adult environment” (Giroux & Pollock 2010, 91-92). As a result, films such as Loop can and should be recognised as much more than just entertainment products, but as cultural texts that inform and shape our understanding of the world. A more affirmative representation – like the one presented in Pixar’s Loop – can be valuable to the disability community in helping provide more inclusive portrayals of disability to large audiences, and promote meaningful conversations around inclusion, diversity and equality.
Fig. 2 - Renee reaches out to feel the reeds.
The vibrant and colourful computer-animated short Loop explores the relationship between a young girl, Renee, and Marcus. Renee is non-verbal and on the autism spectrum. She communicates through gestures, oral sounds and generated sounds on her mobile phone, tapping it to make a ‘woof woof’ sound (Fig. 1). Marcus is a chatty boy, but, at first, does not want to be with Renee, and is shown to be hesitant because of her disability. Loop follows their adventure on a canoeing lake at camp. When they set off on their journey around the lake, Renee shows a ‘poop’ emoji on her phone to indicate to Marcus that she wants to go towards the outhouses. When they get close to the outhouses, Renee puts her arms out to feel the reeds (Fig. 2), and Marcus soon realises that Renee doesn’t need to visit the toilet but just likes the feel of the reeds on her arms. Marcus then takes Renee to a tunnel where she can play her ringtone and hear it echo. This is exciting and fun for Renee at first, but she then hears the sound of a speedboat nearby and, becoming overstimulated, covers her ears from the loud noise. She rushes out of the tunnel because she gets too overwhelmed which causes them to crash onto the shore. Renee then gets angry, throwing her phone in the water and hiding under the canoe. After having some time to think about what to do, Marcus pulls up a reed for Renee which helps her calm down. They are then able to get back into the canoe and paddle back to camp. Renee feels more comfortable, they joke and laugh together, and Marcus even repeats the ‘woof woof’ sound from Renee’s ringtone (Fig. 3). This shows how Marcus has learnt how to adapt and communicate with Renee. The post-credit scene shows Renee’s mobile phone in a bowl of rice recovering from water damage and receiving a message from Marcus asking to go canoeing again (Fig. 4).
Fig. 3 - Marcus repeats the sound from Renee’s ringtone.
Throughout the history of Disney (and, more recently, Pixar) animation, there are certainly multiple characters with either a disability or a variety of physical impairments represented across their popular animated fantasy films. However, from Dopey in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (David Hand et al., 1937) to Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wide 1996), such characters are often not directly recognised or explicitly labelled as disabled, or their impairments are misrepresented (see Schwartz, Lutfiyya, & Hansen 2013, 179). Yet Keri Watson stresses the importance of interrogating such film representations of animated bodies, drawing on the example of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs when stating, “cultural representations matter, and although these films are eighty years old, their popularity continues to influence the lived experience of people with dwarfism” (2020, 150). The representations that appear in animation are influential because of their global, wide-reaching audiences, and because of ways in which audiences make meanings about society from what they see on screen (Sandlin and Garlen 2017).
Within cultural disability studies, narrative prosthesis is a particular approach to disability commonly used by media representations of disabled characters, which describes how narratives rely upon metaphors to explain a bodily difference or impairment (Mitchell and Snyder 2014). Disability is often exploited and exaggerated as a visual metaphor to become a plot point for a character’s identity. David T. Mitchell explains that “this narrative approach to difference identifies the literary object par excellence as that which has somehow become out of the ordinary – a deviation from a widely accepted cultural norm” (2002, 20). Indeed, this is also the case for several characters in Disney’s animated films where physical differences are used metaphorically to communicate elements of their character and personality. These examples include Captain Hook in Peter Pan (Hamilton Luske, Wilfred Jackson & Clyde Geronimi, 1953) and Scar in The Lion King (Rob Minkoff & Roger Allers, 1994) whose physical impairments are used as visual metaphors for villainy, and thus as the discourses of narrative prosthesis suggest, disability is used to serve a particular storytelling purpose. More recently, Pixar’s Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton, 2003) and Finding Dory (Andrew Stanton, 2016) represent disability altogether more positively in numerous ways, including the representation of Dory’s short-term memory loss and Nemo’s lucky (and smaller) fin. Both films portray disability as a “flavourful ingredient in cultural diversity” (Millett 2004), and are presented in a more affirmative light as they’re interweaved into the character’s narrative rather than being used solely as a visual metaphor with negative undertones. Finding Nemo and Finding Dory are some of the more progressive disability representations in animated fantasy films which celebrate difference and diversity.
Fig. 4 - Marcus contacts Renee during Loop’s post-credits scene.
Pixar’s Loop offers audiences a depiction of autism in line with these more positive representations. Indeed, as Jenny Morris argues, many disability narratives tend to overlook the lived experience of disability; “the crucial thing about these cultural representations of disability is that they say nothing about the lives of disabled people but everything about the attitudes of non-disabled people towards disability” (Morris 1997, 22). However, Loop fully captures the point of view of Renee as a way of offering new kinds of disability representation, giving her active agency, rather than falling back into stereotypical tropes, which helps to promote her own self-identity in ways that emphasise her lived experience. This is achieved through the film’s engagement with Renee’s multisensory experience, which allows Loop to deal with autism from the perspective of an individual character by showing their characteristics, real-life experiences and reactions with others. Renee is hypersensitive and reacts strongly to sound and touch, actively seeking the sensory input (as in the example of the reeds); this is displayed beautifully through a variety of shifting camera angles to portray Renee’s various sensory experiences. The use of vibrant colour and lightning throughout the film further articulates Renee’s perception of the world. Milsom wanted to make sure that these experiences of Renee were portrayed accurately stating that “I’d noticed in films I’d seen about autism that their sensory experience is so often displayed negatively, and I got excited by the positive potential in it” (Milsom 2020). Ensuring that the representation of Renee was authentic, writer and director Milsom worked with the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, cast a voice actress with autism and stayed true to the phrase ‘nothing about us without us’, a popular motto in the disability community (Charlton 1998).
As this blog post has argued, disability representation often relies upon stereotypes and is rarely depicted in an affirmative light. In fact, Colin Cameron claims media representations “continue to be about the recycling of stereotypes which reinforce dominant normalising discourses” (2014, 97). However, the diversity that is offered in Loop and many other of the SparkShorts series is a positive sign for the future of animation, and the ways in which the medium might begin to address the nuances of the disabled body. Interestingly, Pixar’s latest animated film Luca (Enrico Casarosa, 2021) features a disabled character. Massimo Marcovaldo, misfit Giulia’s father, is a fisherman and has a limb difference, missing most of his right arm. When asked about it by the 14-year-old Alberto, he jokes that a sea monster ate it, then says “this is how I came into the world”. This representation not only normalises his disability but shows how Massimo is able to get on with living his life without a tragic backstory. His short explanation is an easy way for children to learn about disability, and additionally a great way to spark conversation around individual difference in a more normalised and accurate way. Beyond Massimo’s disability, Luca also addresses the broader message of being different through the theme of sea monsters and humans. Luca and Alberto are sea monsters living in the sea who change into humans when they’re out of water, and desire to be part of the human world for good. Luca shows that such ‘monsters’ are initially vilified and excluded from the human society due to their differences, but by the end of the film they are accepted and can live amongst the humans as both humans and sea monsters subverting the expectation of normalcy as it is first depicted in the film. Alongside Luca, Pixar’s Loop is also a particularly useful example of how individual difference can be represented and celebrated. This representation is exciting, and a step in the right direction towards more accurate and inclusive representations of autism, and disability more generally. Let’s hope that Pixar and other film and TV productions can continue these improvements as part of their commitment to diversity and inclusion.
**Article published: July 2, 2021**
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Biography
Jessica Gibson is a PhD student in the Centre for Research on Education and Social Justice, Department of Education, University of York, England. Her research is looking at the representation of disability in Disney animated films and her research interests include Disney, pop culture, theme parks, disability studies, representation, and equality and diversity. Twitter: @jessgibson18 (she/her).