As revealed in today’s artwork, Sanjay’s Super Team will revolve around Hanuman, Durga and Vishnu – a monkey-like god; a powerful goddess that specializes in the art of protection; and a tenacious, blue-skinned entity that had a hand in creating the universe. And that’s exactly how the short starts out, with little Sanjay watching his favorite cartoon, the fictional Superteam (loosely based on Patel’s own boyhood love of Super Friends).
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Premiered on June 15 at the Annecy global Animated Film Festival in France, the seven-minute short film will be played before “The Good Dinosaur” when it hits the silver screen. When his dad shuts off the TV and makes Sanjay join in the worship ceremony, Sanjay has a moment of clarity and has both a spiritual connection with Hinduism and an emotional connection with his father. His father replied that it was Patel’s “sacred duty” to do his best, and direct the short film.
Sanjay Patel and producer Nicole Grindle.
Patel has worked as an animator on films like “Monsters Inc.”, “Ratatouille”, “Cars”, “Monsters University”, “Toy Story 2” and “The Incredibles”, and has been a story-boarder on the latter two films. Oscar-winning composer Mychael Danna (Life of Pi) provides the soundtrack for the story, which, like many of Pixar’s other shorts, contains no dialogue.
Sanjay’s first directorial debut Sanjay’s Super Team is biographical.
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“It helped me understand why my parents said “Sita Ram” when I sneezed”, Patel joked.
