Launchpad
By Ashley Moulton,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Short films celebrate diverse stories; some mature content.
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Launchpad
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What's the Story?
LAUNCHPAD is the result of a talent incubator organized by Disney -- over 1000 filmmakers applied and only six were chosen to produce their short films. The directors and writers come from typically underrepresented backgrounds, and their films feature characters that are diverse across a variety of cultural backgrounds, gender expressions, sexual orientations, and body types. American Eid tells the story of a recent Pakistani transplant who is shocked to learn her elementary school does not get the day off for Eid. The Little Prince(ss) features a young ballet-obsessed Chinese American boy whose love of pink and other "girly" things shocks his friend's father. Other stories feature diverse leads with their identities taking more of a supporting role, like Growing Fangs where a Mexican-American half-vampire, half-human teenager struggles to fit in at her new school for monsters. The initial cohort of Launchpad includes six films, and Disney has announced plans to continue the program.
Is It Any Good?
Across the six films in Launchpad's initial cohort, some are just good while others are fantastic. The standouts are the drama Let's Be Tigers and the comedy Growing Fangs. Let's Be Tigers is a beautifully tender film about the bond between a beloved babysitter and her four-year-old charge. Any grown-up who has talked to a child about death (or worries about the inevitable day that question will come) will be moved by the story. Growing Fangs is a superb laugh-out-loud fantasy treatment of the high school experience. The lead character Val has a human dad and a vampire mom, and she's struggling to fit in at her new school for monster kids. Val's awkward but earnest personality, the supernatural setting, and the starring Mexican American family twists the stereotypical teen drama genre into something awesome. The other films are all worth a watch as well, but some suffer from less impressive writing and acting.
It's wonderful to see Disney giving these diverse up-and-coming filmmakers visibility on this large platform, and one hopes they will continue this inclusivity in more of their feature films as well. Kid viewers will delight in either finally seeing main characters that look like them on the screen, or learning something about someone who's a little different from themselves. These films are great family viewing for older kids and their grown-ups.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the main characters in these stories. What is their racial and cultural background? Do you usually see stories that star people who look like them? Why do you think that is?
Did anything about any of these characters remind you of yourself? What was the same? What was different?
Many of the characters get picked on for being different. Do you ever feel different? How do you feel about that?
TV Details
- Premiere date: May 28, 2021
- Network: Disney+
- Genre: Drama
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy , Brothers and Sisters , Friendship , Great Boy Role Models , Great Girl Role Models , High School , Holidays , Middle School , Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
- TV rating: TV-PG
- Last updated: February 28, 2022
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