Life, Animated Page #4

for my 19th birthday weekend

when me and my mom and dad

went to New York to see Disney's

Mary Poppins on Broadway.

- I saw that!

- And he was the Admiral,

and my dad wrote him a note

and sent it to him,

and he called me up

on my birthday,

and Jonathan

is a great friend of mine now.

- So what are we gonna do?

- We're gonna...

We're gonna do

several scenes from Aladdin.

- We're gonna do a few scenes, yeah.

- Okay!

- Yeah.

- Sands of time,

reveal to me the one

who can enter the cave.

That's him! That's the clown

we've been waiting for.

- You're lago.

- Yeah.

- And I'm Jafar. You ready?

- Ready.

- Okay.

- Wait a minute, wait a minute.

Jafar, what if you

were the chump husband?

- What?

- Okay, okay.

You marry the princess.

All right?

Then... Then you become

the sultan.

Oh, marry the princess.

The idea has merit.

- Yes, merit.

- Gilbert Gottfried!

I don't believe it!

Gilbert Gottfried! I...

I am so unbelievably surprised!

One... All right.

I can't believe it!

I just don't believe it!

We're never gonna get a hold

of that stupid lamp!

I hope you weren't doing

the lines better than I do.

- It's okay.

- Yeah, good.

him doing the lines better

and working cheaper than I do.

- I don't think I've met you before.

- It's me, Owen.

Yeah, yeah, you don't look

familiar to me. Get off the line.

So...

Owen went

to his first school.

We end up getting him into

the Lab School of Washington,

which is expensive.

At this point, my career

as a journalist is taking off.

Sending Owen to this school

is something we can do.

Many of the kids there

are learning disabled,

which is things like dyslexia, maybe

ADHD, stuff that's more manageable.

They definitely accept him

with the caveat that,

you know, we're gonna

really have to make sure

that this continues to be

the right place for him.

So from day one, it was a struggle.

His speech was still very limited,

and his social skills

were even more limited.

After another year or two, it's clear

the other kids are moving forward,

but he is not

making enough progress,

the school tells us.

Basically, he's not

running fast enough,

and the school says, "Sorry, you're out

This isn't gonna work."

It was

really hard on him.

He was really falling back,

regressing in a big way.

It was a glop.

A glop is down years,

rough down years.

When I was in the glop,

I started to think

my best years were behind me.

I wasn't into any animated films

that time.

After I homeschooled

Owen for a year,

we got him accepted to a high school

for special needs kids.

But something happens.

Owen really became very

withdrawn, even more,

and he was very sad,

and it was really a tough time.

He is so high-strung,

he barely can breathe.

When I would go to pick him up

in the carpool, like,

he would dart out so fast

into the car.

I'd be like,

"Owen, are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah.

Let's go, let's go, let's go."

Ron sat him down

one day and said,

"Owen, is everything okay?

What's going on?"

And he said,

"There are boys at school

that are bullying me."

The bullies said they were gonna burn

my house down and hunt me down.

These kids basically

just tormented him,

and because he's so literal,

he literally thought

that our house

was gonna be burned down,

and his parents

were gonna be killed.

In that moment, I fell into darkness

and walked the halls of fear.

Well, I was just

enraged about it.

Like, it was like

I failed to protect him.

You know, I would've rounded

up a posse and, you know,

kicked the sh*t out of them,

but I didn't,

and I think that's

why I still think about it.

I'm still bitter about it

'cause I was, like...

Was, like, right there when I

could've been there for Owen.

Quasimodo! Quasimodo! Quasimodo!

You think he's ugly now?

Watch this.

Hail to the king!

After the bullying,

in the weeks that follow,

Owen goes down to the basement.

It's odd. He seems like he's working

on something downstairs.

I go down,

and I see he's been drawing,

and then I sit down with the book,

and I start flipping pages.

A hundred pages of pictures.

And every character is a sidekick.

There are no heroes.

They're all sidekicks.

There are hundreds of them in Disney.

Some are goofy. Some are resourceful.

Some are wise.

Merlin, Rafiki, Jiminy Cricket...

They're all sidekicks.

At that point, I didn't feel like

a hero. I felt like a sidekick.

The sidekicks are fun-loving,

comical, wacky, playful,

friendly, and delightful,

and they help the hero

fulfill their destiny,

and they support the heroes.

On the last two pages, in his scrawl,

"I am the protector of the sidekicks,"

and the last thing he writes,

on the last page is,

"No sidekick gets left behind."

I created a story about sidekicks

searching for a hero in my head,

and I called it "The Land

of the Lost Sidekicks."

The thing he did

that I think was interesting

is that sort of using

the narrative of his own life

to create these stories.

But the sidekicks were there

to support him and...

And help him find his way.

He was really writing

little autobiographies.

"The Land of the Lost Sidekicks,"

by Owen Suskind.

There is a boy

who is just like other boys.

Until one night,

he sees from his window

a storm on the horizon.

He is small, just three years old,

and scared.

Owen, Owen.

Bingo.

- Nice to be out on the water again?

- It is.

- Can I stay really close to the boat?

- Of course.

I'm in. I'm in.

- Okay, swim to me.

- And then I'll get out.

- You've got to do breaststroke.

- No, I can do whatever.

I swam to you, I swam to you.

Okay. Hey, let me shake.

- Thanks.

- Have you conquered your fears?

- I did. Now I can get out.

- Okay.

N' Happy birthday,

Dear Walter N'

N' Happy birthday to you N'

- Owen, bring it in. One...

- Two, three!

Okay,

who would like ice cream?

All right, there you go, my friend.

What do you think about

Walter turning 26, Owe?

It's gonna... It's odd but great.

Odd? How is it odd?

'Cause he and I are young men now.

- How do you feel about being that?

- Still great, but a little...

Different.

'Cause I'm 23 now.

So what was it like for you, Walt,

when you went from living in a dorm

and being in college to living

on your own in an apartment?

I thought living alone was...

Was great.

It was a new, you know,

a new breath of freedom.

I could, you know, do what I wanted,

when I wanted,

like Owen...

Owie, you can now.

You're gonna do what

you want when you want.

- Yeah.

- You're absolutely right, Walt.

So where are you off to?

- Well, he gave the coconut cake a try.

- I did. I tried.

My mom and dad are

getting older every year.

Twenty years from now,

who knows? And...

w be "gust...

It'll be just me, and I'll be ready.

I've been getting ready my whole life,

but it can kind of be overwhelming

to think about the...

The idea of taking care of them

and taking care of Owen, and...

how that's gonna look.

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