Sanjay’s Super Team deals with a young boy and his immigrant father

Disney Pixar’s new animated feature The Good Dinosaur will open in theaters on November 25th, and as is custom, we’ll be getting a short prior the feature film. And it seems we’ll be getting a little cultural lesson between generations. Sanjay’s Super Team is based on director Sanjay Patel’s own childhood growing up in San Bernardino, CA, with his devout immigrant father.

“Every morning my dad worshipped his gods and his shrine, and I worshipped mine in mine — which was the TV,” Patel told Yahoo Movies during a recent phone interview.

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The seven minute short Sanjay’s imagination deals him a colorful display of his father’s Hindu deities as superheroes.

The first pick was Vishnu, the blue god of preservation and balance. “He was a very important deity to me just because the theme of the short is the father trying to pass on culture to his son,” Patel explained. Then there’s Durga, the mother goddess in her warrior manifestation. “She just seemed so appropriate for bringing to life a superhero team.” Finally, Patel chose half-monkey, half-god Hanuman to reflect the popularity of animal worship within the religion. “His mythologies are so ubiquitous in Southeast Asia,” he said.

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Sanjay in his younger years, with his father, Gopal Patel. (Photo courtesy of Pixar Animation Studios)

Source: Yahoo