USA Today scored the first image from the short which will be premiering in front of The Good Dinosaur (in theaters Nov. 25), the Disney/Pixar short film Sanjay's Super Team begins with a scene similar to Patel's own San Bernardino upbringing. Sanjay is glued to the TV and Dad interrupts by ringing his bell for morning meditation.
"I knew exactly what that meant: 'Turn off the TV, Sanjay, and get your tail over here. We're going to chant and count mala beads for half an hour,' " Patel recalls, laughing. "And I'm like, 'I don't really want to do that. I really want to watch Voltron.' "
Yet the little Sanjay in Super Team finds something cooler than his superhero show when he joins his father: Three Hindu deities come alive to take care of a pesky monster.
Wanting to fit in with his American friends, Patel initially pushed aside his immigrant parents' culture. But later he found respect for Indian legends and began illustrating them through what he learned as an animator on Pixar films such as Toy Story 2, The Incredibles and Monsters, Inc.
His new short "felt like this bridge I needed to bring these two things together," says Patel, who joins producer Nicole Paradis Grindle for a Sanjay's Super Team panel Thursday at San Diego Comic-Con.
The artwork and filmmaking in Pixar shorts and features have always originated from personal tales, Grindle adds. Patel's animation, however, "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."
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