Hindu gods star as superheroes in a new Pixar short film titled Sanjay’s Super Team
Trust Pixar to do something super quirky. Derived from the personal experiences of the studio’s animator Sanjay Patel’s childhood, Pixar is releasing a short called Sanjay’s Super Team. Directed by Patel, 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 coming together to form a super team in a sort of Avengers avatar.
“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, but John Lasseter [Pixar Chief Creative Officer] felt strongly about celebrating the personal side of the story.”
The film has no dialogue and the soundtrack has been composed by the Oscar-winning Mychael Danna (Life of Pi).