Friday 16 October 2015

Sanjay's Super Team


Genre: Animation/Short
Rating: TBD
UK Release Date: November 27, 2015
Director: Sanjay Patel
Producer: Nicole Paradis Grindle


In “Sanjay's Super Team,” the new short film from Pixar Animation Studios, accomplished artist Sanjay Patel uses his own experience to tell the story of a young, first-generation Indian-American boy whose love for western pop culture comes into conflict with his father’s traditions. Sanjay is absorbed in the world of cartoons and comics, while his father tries to draw him into the traditions of his Hindu practice. Tedium and reluctance quickly turn into an awe-inspiring adventure as the boy embarks on a journey he never imagined, returning with a new perspective that they can both embrace. Directed by Sanjay Patel and produced by Nicole Paradis Grindle, “Sanjay’s Super Team” opens in cinemas on November 27, 2015, in front of Disney•Pixar’s “The Good Dinosaur.”


SANJAY PATEL (Director) joined Pixar Animation Studios in 1996 an animator on “A Bug’s Life.” Since then he has animated on many of Pixar’s feature films, including “Toy Story 2,” “Monster’s Inc.,” “The Incredibles,” “Ratatouille,” “Cars,” Toy Story 3” and “Monsters University.” In addition to animating, Patel also storyboarded extensively for “Monster’s Inc.,” “The Incredibles” and “Toy Story 2.”  For the Cars Toons “Mater’s Tall Tales,” Patel stepped up to act as animation supervisor on many of the shorts in the series.

Growing up in San Bernardino, Calif., in a Gujarati family, Patel’s earliest artistic influences stemmed from two very different worlds: comic books and Saturday morning cartoons, and the Hindu gods and spiritual culture that came to define his upbringing. After pursuing his artistic interests at the Cleveland Institute for the Arts, Cal-Arts and Pixar, Patel eventually turned his attention back to his roots, creating art, graphic novels and picture books that re-envisioned Hindu mythology in a modern, pop-culture way.

“Sanjay’s Super Team” is Patel’s personal story and a “mostly true” chronicle of his journey to understand the Hindu world so important to his parents. Patel resides in Oakland with his fiancĂ© and their son.


NICOLE PARADIS GRINDLE (Producer) joined Pixar Animation Studios in 1995 as producer of the “Toy Story Activity Center” interactive computer game. She has managed numerous departments on many of Pixar’s feature films, including “A Bug’s Life,” “Monster’s Inc.” and the Academy Award®-winning feature “The Incredibles.” Grindle acted as the production manager on Pixar’s Oscar®-nominated short “One Man Band” and on Pixar’s Oscar®-winning feature “Ratatouille.” She served as the associate producer for both “Toy Story 3” and “Monsters University.”

Grindle came to Pixar with seven years of animation-related production experience. At Colossal Pictures, she worked on MTV’s “Liquid Television” as associate producer and “The Wish That Changed Christmas” as producer. She began her feature film career at Industrial Light and Magic on “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.”

Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Grindle graduated from The University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and holds a Master of Arts degree in documentary film from Stanford University. Grindle resides in San Francisco with her husband and two children.