Might be poor execution, like the highly scandalous film being Music (2021) with horrible music, horrible representation even thought Sia apologized, I’m not dwelling on it to be more depressed. Maybe you could review The Good Doctor that represents the message with visual storytelling with autism - considering that I’m neurodivergent and on the spectrum - stirring performances including the lead character portrayed by Freddie Highmore himself. 😢😔✨
He did cover the good doctor and like my personal opinion he considered the show did a pretty poor job as an autism representation, of course every person can feel different, but the video is out there@rowanknighthood7255
What makes it worse is that it uses the same tactic the Good Doctor used, showing random quirks that autistic people go through on a daily basis to fit in so it can attracted an autistic audience that have gone through the same as depicted on the fictional show
I absolutely HATE it when media and organizations show parents having autistic children as a tragedy- like I understand having setbacks or having to learn slightly different ways to raise an autistic child but to make it seem like a massive burden HAS to have some negative effect on a kid
Especially with the blog it's based on, even that seems exploitative - almost every post is the guy showing pictures of his autistic son while asking for followers
It’s because of the way media portrays autistic people that most people think we cannot do things, that we are weird or that it’s a bad thing. I wish we did have more sides to it than autistic people either being unable to show emotions or unable to live on our own and such.
@peanutgolds4058 Having children with mental challenges is more work and can be more exhausting, I understand it, but you shouldn’t resent your children or wish you didn’t have them.
I really hate how this movie is using its autistic character as a prop instead of as a character. It's also ironic that the producers were worried this movie will be a repeat of "Music", but the trailer suggests that's exactly what it'll be.
Funny enough they are making the same shit movie and I am gonna mock and criticize it just like that other movie! "Oh, I don't want to make a movie like Music" Proceeds to make the exact same movie
Or if we are going to have a movie about a parent of an autistic kid, have the parent be someone who is also autistic, but wasn't diagnosed and they find out about it when their kid gets diagnosed and it's their story of seeing their autistic childhood in retrospect, while learning how to both attend to their own needs and help their kid. If done well, this would make an excellent movie, I think.
There's actually a good candidate for that with the author John Elder Robison. He got diagnosed at 40 after realizing how much he had in common with his autistic son. He's also a former board member for Autism Speaks but he resigned in disgust when co-founder Suzanne Wright wrote her horrible little op-ed post. He's since gone on to work with other charities, heavily advocates for helping adults on the spectrum, and is just a pretty stand up guy.
The movie “Erza” kind of sort of has that concept. But not really. It’s more implied that the dad in that movie is autistic and it’s about him and the son bonding. But the son has actually *gasp* a real character that is treated like a human being the whole time. I know the bare minimum, but still. It’s a flawed movie and excuses parental kidnapping a bit too hard. But I really do think it’s heart was in the right place, even if the execution was kind of weird
They could’ve also had a parent who is diagnosed. But grew up during a time when very little was known about autism. And was taught to act more Neurotypical their whole life. Therefore, they are still struggling with their own inner ableism.
Say it with me. Stop 👏 making 👏 autism 👏 representation 👏 movies 👏 where 👏 the 👏 autistic 👏 character 👏 is 👏 a 👏 side 👏 character 👏 who 👏 only 👏 exists 👏 to 👏 further 👏 the 👏 lives 👏 of 👏 the 👏 main characters 👏 or 👏 their 👏 parents.
god i’m so glad i’m not the only one who felt like this was aimed towards those autism moms who praise each other for being “so brave and strong when DEALING with a child with autism” as an autistic person it was just YUCK and i wouldve loved a trailer hinting at a movie that was actually about austin and now how his family sees him as an obstacle to overcome
My parents were like that for like the first 3 months after my little brother was diagnosed but then ig they just forget he was autist and rarely even mentions his autism nowadays lol
"Look at this poor neurotypical dad having to struggle and cope with the fact that his son is autistic. Look how amazing and selfless he is" 🙄 Yeah, I know exactly what kind of movie this is going to be.
It's interesting how autism and autistic coded characters seem to be better handled in television rather than theaters. As for this movie, I would not be surprised if this movie turns out like Sia's Music movie.
Cartoons in the television world actually do a pretty good job at autism portrayals SpongeBob was confirmed to be autistic himself by his voice actor, and I consider Stimpy from Ren & Stimpy (not including the APC version) to be a pretty autism-coded character (he hyperfixates on a silly TV show, and does whatever he wants to do without a care in the world)
i ended up seeing the trailer for this movie as a preview before transformers one and (being autistic myself) was raising an eyebrow at yet *another* story about an autistic kid who feels more like a vehicle for an “inspirational” story about his neurotypical family. thanks for confirming that my concerns were true, i really thought filmmakers would have learned something from when sia tried to make a movie like this
Yeah, for the autistic kids(sarcastic). This is what happens when people without autism are allowed to portray autism. Normal people have not had to grow up having to deal with the prejudice and the pressure of autism from society. Therefore someone who has not grown up without having live with any of those things. Has no business speaking for us. Sia, you do not speak for people like me who actually have high functioning autism.
A lot of these films about autism are made by people who aren't autistic but have people with autism around them. I suggest maybe, allow autistics to make films about autism, Let them speak for their own experiences instead of allowing others to speak for them. The biggest indicator the film is gonna be eh is the fact that the director, Jon Gunn, has consistently not been able to make a film that doesn't have "mixed" reviews. (I looked at his IMDB page, the closest he's got to making a film over 7.1 is "Ordinary Angels" )
Sometimes I wish instead of a movie being about a parent with the "burden" of having an autistic child, I wish we had a movie about an autistic child with the burden of putting up with parents who treat them as a problem rather than a person.
Thanks from me and my mom for saying this! My grandparents, father, stepfather, stepmom, and aunt all acted like my autism was a burden my whole life and it was awful.
The frustrating thing about this to me is that a story focusing on the caretaker/parent of an autistic person isn't inherently bad The problem comes in that it feels like that's one of the only kinds of stories we see, like autistic characters can't be the focus of their own stories!
And another problem is when you do get the stories about the caretakers of autistic person, they’re always super saccharine stories about them being inspired to be a good person by the autistic person they take care of who’s super beautiful and inspiring. When Music came, I remember hearing some parents with autistic kids criticizing the movie. In part because of the stereotypical and inaccurate portrayal of autism. Many people pointed out that it’s a little inaccurate that a high-support needs autistic person like Music is able to go on walks and get dressed by herself since many autistic people like her can’t. But a lot of these people also said that they don’t feel like this kind of schmaltzy inspirational story properly represents their experience because their life isn’t a schmaltzy inspirational story. It’s rewarding, but challenging. A more down-to-earth movie that really honestly showed the struggles autistic people and their caretakers go through when navigating life in a world not made for them that also showed the systemic and societal problems they face would probably be a lot more interesting and meaningful than another story about a Manic Pixie Dream Autistic Person teaching everyone around them to better people. Ugh.
@@rainyrouge5123 It's genuinely annoying because it's meant to be kinda "inspiration" for people but that "inspiration" is only for the caretakers and uses autistic people as basically a "tool" to reach that goal
Unfortunately these stories aren't about uplifting people with autism and are more about making the parent/caretaker feel better and less uncomfortable with their station in life. Like you, I don't think the idea at the core of this is bad, but they always go for the cheese and the schmaltz.
Why not just let people say what they want to say. Why do you care if someone says “neurospicy”? I feel like if you’re autistic, you should be sympathetic to people using ‘weird’ or nonstandard phrases and terms
Autistic girly here! I swear, every time I see a "Music" or "Unbreakable Boy" esque trailer, I die internally a bit. We aren't a monolith and we aren't burdens to our families either. Can't there just be autistic characters that just are and the whole plot isn't about that? At least with "The Accountant", the main character's autistic but he also drives the plot with more than just his autistic status (he tries to crack down on financial crimes).
The Accountant rocks! I liked the scene where Chris said he wanted to actually socialize with people and not get held back by his autism. And the fact that he went back to save Anna Kendrick and their scenes proved that without enforcing any agenda or SJW crap into the mix. And the twist was great too! Highly recommend that one!
@@claudius3359 I wouldn't blame you. It's a damn good movie! Also, unlike the dad in Unbreakable Boy, he actually helps his son. Because the dad in The Accountant was a former Army psychologist, and I could get why he did what he did.
Apparently “A Kind of Spark” does a good job? I haven’t read/watched it yet, so I’m not exactly recommending it lol more like “this might be good” It figures there was finally a movie with an Autistic girl (still cishet white tho) and fcking Sia made it an abomination 😒
Luz from The Owl House is confirmed as having ADHD, however there are many similarities between ADHD and autism, and according to what I have found so far if you have one there is a 30-80% chance that you probably have both. I honestly need to do more research.
I'm an autistic person who just yesterday got as close to formally diagnosed with ADHD as I can get as an adult (I got greenlit for stimulant ADHD meds by Kaiser, and Kaiser only greenlights stimulant meds for ADHD patients so I'm taking that).
One of the things that are upsetting is that we have made so much progress in recent years when it comes to disability representation. Meaning in the Wicked movie, they have an actual wheelchair user playing Nassa Rose and there was also a Broadway musical called How To Dance In Ohio which featured seven autistic characters being played by artistic actors. There is also a movie on Disney+, called Out Of My mind which features character with cerebral palsy being played by an actress with cerebral palsy. So this just seems like a huge step backwards.
As an autistic dude, I’m absolutely offended that Zachary Levi is in this movie about an autistic child. I have met Levi back in 2021 at LA Comic Con and he’s seemed very uninterested in talking to me. After meeting him, I just felt like I did something wrong here and all I did was praising his previous roles. I don’t know, he had that uninterested look in his face. Glad I’m not the only one who felt the same way about him. When I met Jennifer Lee from Disney Animation, she was absolutely glad to be talking to me and so nice enough to make a cameo on my channel. That I can tell she was interested in talking to me. Doesn’t happen to him. So basically, I’m boycotting this movie.
If it makes you feel better Levi just seems to suck as a person in general and even as an actor he's kind of pigeonholed himself into a poor man's Chris Pratt
@@bigbearkat2010Chris Pratt is looking pretty good right now by comparison. I heard from a friend of mine that Chris is pretty respectable to people. Is he flawed? Absolutely.
As an autistic person myself, I know we deserve to see ourselves handled with care and respect in any media just like anyone else. Just headcanoning characters as autistic isn't enough for me, I want this kind of thing to be CANON. I'm not entirely sure if characters like Luz, Marcy, or even Peridot from Steven Universe were ever canonically autistic. They might be, I don't know.
Luz is ADHD which could be the variety that includes autism, the rest are pure headcannon with peridot being taken as neurodivergent by basically the whole fan base I think I wasn't into that show
@@Lemoncakelover678 in the same interview it's said both that she is neuro divergent and that she has a lot of ADHD characteristics, although that could just be because interview and answering is hard so stuff got mixed and the plan was more general neuro divergent rather than a specific, don't think it matters a lot really
As someone who is an immediate family member of an autistic individual, we have enough movies about others dealing with a family member's autism. Why can't we just have a movie from the autistic individual's perspective? That would be way more interesting and a much better story.
I want to see a Moonlight-esque coming of age drama film about a protagonist with autism and the struggles they face as they navigate through life and grow older.
I was nervous about the movie when I saw the trailer. When they had the stereotypical “autism is different for everyone” speech, I was just reminded of how frustrating it felt as a kid to be lectured to about something I lived with every day.
Huh. I see what you mean. They called it "The Unbreakable Boy" and unfortunately, they will probably treat him as actually unbreakable. They seem to focus on the fears, doubts, and problems of his family while never mentioning how he solves his own(though hopefully, they just left that part out of the trailer). The whole "happy moments that are sad" thing suggests that he's already come to terms with the issue he has discovered, and I hope they bring up how he came to that conclusion/realization, but I get the unfortunate feeling they won't. Similarly, they probably won't acknowledge the efforts he's going through to cheer up the bully kid so he can stop feeling the empathic sadness, and instead focus on how surprising it is that "the weird kid could see the hidden sadness" and "oh look, this bully kid only bullies because he has unresolved trauma from his home-life." I hope I'm wrong, though.
It’s these kind of movies about autistic people that really make me uncomfortable, because as someone who is on the spectrum (though I pretty much function as a normal person), it makes me feel like this is what the world sees me as. And it seems like movies and shows don’t know how to portray it, remember Sia’s MUSIC movie? And I don’t wanna feel that way. It’s why I never tell people I have it.
It warms my heart to see that people are just DONE with these schmaltzy, manipulative garbage fire films. I didn't like it when The Predator treated autism like a superpower and evolutionary advantage, it was just WEIRD.
As a disabled person myself, this is how society views people with disabilities and their families: that we are a constant burden, and our families are the "brave" and "strong" ones for putting up with us.
I don’t think it’s “because they wrote someone who just happened to be autistic”, because I hate “just write a character that happens to be X”. In a lot of cases, that just leads to people thinking they can’t say autistic/gay/trans/etc. in their media, and that’s a bad precedent to set. Also, in some cases, a character being X is going to influence how they act. Especially something like autism. So here’s what I’ll say instead: when allistic people intentionally write autistic characters, it’s typically (in the current media landscape) for the explicit purpose of so called inspiration porn. To be fair, this isn’t always a case, but without input from autistic people/research on articles written *by* autistic people, it’s hard to write an autistic character without leaning on stereotypes. When allistics unintentionally write autistic coded characters, they aren’t coming in with that same baggage. In some cases, they might not realize that the traits they’re giving a character align with the traits of some autistic people!
That's not even a question the best rep i've seen is from characters whose creators have said they didn't consider them autistic, almost as if when you are writing a character instead of a trait you end up with a more believable character
@@pip9533 I really dislike it when people say that you shouldn’t write a character with X trait or being X because maybe it’s how people phrase it, but it comes across as though that the writer threw X into a character without any thought put into it. I can understand that you shouldn’t make X the only thing to define them as a character, but you shouldn’t still think about X being apart of them.
Anyway this is everyone's daily reminder to watch Mary and Max, a movie that focuses way more on the lived experiences of someone who actually has autism
Why is Hollywood so focused on Treating autism as either a disease or superpower? Just show a typical autistic character. They don’t need to change the world around them or need to be cured or tolerated because of it. The last Predator movie, autism is literally called the next human evolution that the Predators are studying. Sesame Street created an autistic character but only for “special segments” that highlight things like not being too loud because she doesn’t like sudden loud noises. She’s too much of a bother however to just be a regular cast member hanging out through a whole episode. In this video, the Good Doctor has the first episode praising how great everyone is at the hospital for letting an autistic doctor join them and how they can learn from him because he sees things in a way they don’t. It’s exhausting. Stop pandering.
Saw a trailer for this in the theater when I went to see Wicked and I immediately thought to myself “dawg stop trying to be Rain Man you’ll never be Rain Man”
I saw the trailer for this when I was in the theater to see Wicked. I felt exactly like "I came out here to have a good time and am honestly feeling attacked rn".lol. It's disgusting how dehumanized we are as autistic people. We aren't inspiration p0rn and we aren't tragedies. We're people. Please just treat us like people.
Honestly, to me, if you want to make something based off of Autism, you need to have the main character to be autistic (in a more respectful way for representation, not what "they" think how autistic people are to many normies out there) If I want to make a film, the main character who has autism needs to have more screen time, and make the parents as supportive characters to make it more reasonable and relatable to everyone out there.
As an autistic person who also wants to become a writer, I want to write stories that are actually about autistic people instead of those around them. I don't want to perpetuate harmful stereotypes like this movie seems to be doing; I want to use my own experiences to help others and write good stories.
Why does it really feel like every attempt at media about autism usually ends up actually being about someone who knows/meet an autistic person? It really feels like the only good representation we get is when its unspoken or more head cannon amongst fandoms (ie anything by the team that makes Bob's Burgers. They don't say out right that anyone is diagnosed as any specific thing but so many of their characters find ND fans relating/seeing themselves mirrored. I myself relate to Judy and Moon from The Great North)
I’m an autistic 15 year old myself. I remember seeing a trailer for this in a movie theater, when I went to see my first film alone (it was Conclave, the film with Ralph Fiennes if you’re curious), and I remember audibly groaning and cringing at it. I’m someone who has a huge passion for everything in both theater and cinema. I think it wasn’t until now that I realized that I don’t think there’s a movie I’ve seen that actually has an autistic character at the center of it all. The closest I can assume is Rain Man, and as much as I love that film, Raymond is one of the main characters, but Charlie is practically the central character of it all. The fact that we haven’t had an autistic character actually be the main character is truly sad, and as someone who wants to make it big in the entertainment industry, maybe I can change that, who knows. The ideas for stories in my head just come and go like people passing by in a public place, like Times Square or London Heathrow. Just thought I’d bring all of this up. Also for some strange reason when I saw Conclave, they played the Dog Man trailer before it. Because yeah, a film about men talking in rooms, and voting for the next pope, deserves to have a movie about a cartoon police dog shown before it. It was so bizarre.
I just wish that films like these would focus more on the person who actually has autism and while acknowledging that they can be very smart, they also struggle with things and can be sensitive.
Can we have a movie about an autistic character that actually about the autistic character and have the movie treat them like a character and not a prop?
The funniest part is that I recognize Zachary Levi for his role as Arcade Gannon from Fallout New Vegas, a character that i actually relate to more as an autistic person lmao
as an autistic person, can we have just ONE movie, where the autistic character isn't the same type of loud/talkative/annoying/oversharing kid who has a speech impediment 😭😭
@@guardiansoulblade2673 Exactly! Nobody wants to watch a movie about a coming of age story where the main character is just a normal guy with a 2.5 GPA. That’s boring! We need to have MONEY!!!!
Just like The War with Grandpa, which was originally filmed in May 2017 as it was originally gonna be released by The Weinstein Company until the Weinstein effect happened, it got delayed multiple times until it was released during the pandemic. And also The King's Daughter, which was filmed in April 2014 as it was originally gonna be released by Paramount and Focus Features the following year but it was delayed multiple times until 7 years later it got released.
Me and my sister kept giving each other looks when this played as a preview for the Sonic 3 movie, after I had spent the entire car ride there giving her the history of my Sonic special interest and specifically my obsession with Shadow. It felt... targeted, somehow.
Given the fact EVERYONE has gotten this preview before Sonic 3, I am thinking more and more this marketing is deliberate. Too bad they don't know how to actually create a good autistic rep to begin with tho. Tails from Sonic is a way better rep than this.
Austin isn't a character, he's a prop Also, a really crazy thing I found out is a lot of people's response to other people calling out Hollywood for depicting every single autist the exact same way isn't "You're right actually" but "not autists are the same, so you should let Hollywood keep depicting them all as the exact same"
As the big sister to my autistic younger brother, living with an autistic person is not so dramatic that it requires a whole freaking movie... oh no! he really really likes kirby?! How abnormal!!! Whats that? He struggles with verbal communication, but its really no big deal since i grew up with him and can understand him regardless???? Oh the horror!!!
Me and my friend (we're both neurodivergent) were in the theater when we saw this trailer and it was just about the more uncomfortable thing to watch. It's so obvious when stories just use autism as some "tragic" condition that makes the family struggle instead of actually telling the story of an autistic person.
It seems like they are focusing more on the 'Brittle Bone Disease' (since all the material for the movie I've found lists it before autism, as well as the title ['unbreakable' for very breakable bones as well as his spirit]), so in that case I could see it actually being understandable to focus on the parents. (What if he wants to play with other kids, you can't just chase or play sports, and yeah, video games is an easy out nowadays, but if the target demographic is parents and grandparents of various age ranges, many think play = physical activity only.) In a sense, that is almost better, if they are treating autism as just part of him, and the Bones being his primary struggle point. I have no desire to watch the movie, but there is enough for me to justify holding off judgement until watching it (or hearing from someone I trust that actually watched it), rather than writing it entirely off without seeing the execution. Also It does kinda seem Zachary Levi might have already reached his peak, and is on the decline. He was the lead in Chuck in 2007-2012, (basically a comedy action show where you can matrix-style download info as a major oversimplification) but Shazam was one of his last 'major' roles (that wasn't a voice acting lead, which don't get me wrong, many can do great, but he was never in that upper echelon). I can understand if you thought you did really good in a dramatic role, especially as a lead, then he'd want to push the product to show his acting (assuming it was good, or he felt it was good, or maybe his pay was tied to some release metric).
Yeah, like I said in the video, this is just purely an analysis of the trailer, not necessarily the final product. Although it is interesting to analyze the road that led to this movie being made too, and some inferring can be made with that
Yeah. (Above I mention I have OI.) Will it be good OI representation? Well we don't have that much so I might be "I'll take what I can get, within reason." (If it gets overly patronizing or "let's do multiple surgeries to make him look more normal" I might pass.)
@@noahthe0tter I'm embarrassed I didn't see the trailer before reacting to this video. Now that I have I get why you didn't mention brittle bones as the trailer doesn't either. That seems weird to me given the title and that I think we see him in a wheelchair at one point in the trailer. Not sure why they did that. Many people have multiple disabilities and my understanding was that was part of the story. (It might have also made him need more parental aid than many on the spectrum do as we tend to fracture more as children so need help in those periods. I was independent as I could be, but there were limits.)
As autistic person.........................this is disgraceful. In the future I plan to become a filmarker and make movie about autism based by *ACTUAL* autistic person pov
I saw this trailer before Sonic 3 both times and I can’t really take it very seriously… all of these movies make it about the parents and how hard their lives are because their kid is autistic. The narrative that parents of autistic children are burdened and unhappy and their lives are so hard, like they need to be pitied. It never focuses on the child, or why it’s okay for the kid to be autistic. These films treat it like a disease that needs to be cured. Like autistic people are “problems” to everyone around them. And then it makes it about how the parents are “heroes” and “saints” for… loving their kids? Which is like, the bare minimum of being a parent…
The wildest part to me is that literally EVERYONE seems to be getting this before Sonic 3! I think you're now the 41st person to say that lol. But yes, it really just objectifies this kid and tries to make Zachary Levi and his "family" in the context of this film look like the heroes or whatever. The guy who initially wrote the book this is based on, is also an Autism Speaks supporter based on my research, so sadly the "disease" mentality is not surprising. It honestly just makes me sad, I wish movies like this would stop getting made
Saw the trailer for this with my cousin while waiting for Sonic 3 in theaters, and we both kinda just look at each other like... huh. The first thought I had was "Why did they have to name the autistic kid AUSTIN." Which made my cousin laugh so hard.
It’s based off a book I think so if anything the author made it that way and how the heck did we end up in the same situations only difference it I didn’t go to watch Sonic and I had my grandma and other cousins there (one happened to be autistic and see that trailer. But he’s 10 and unaware he’s autistic so I don’t think it hurt him as much there’s a chance he wasn’t even paying attention.)
Dude, I explained to my mom why this was so disrespectful and she couldn't stop saying "Well were lucky that movies are discussing this topic" The rage I felt when she would just NOT LISTEN. And I myself, am on the spectrum.
*As a 27 year old autistic young woman I feel so offended by this movie of how it portrays autism this film is worse than Sia’s movie Music but this is hell😡*
As someone with autism myself when I was this trailer in the theater waiting for sonic 3 (Of course lol) and my first reaction was “This looks terrible” and I actually felt offended
i saw a trailer for this when i went to watch sonic 3, and i immediately thought to myself: yep im gonna hate this and love watchinf video essays on why it SUCKS (im autistic btw)
So a movie that acts like it’s about someone with autism But it’s actually about everyone else having to deal with someone with autism Then I saw the part about autism speaks and now it all makes sense
So glad i'm not alone in this. I remember seeing the trailer and thinking "so the point of this film is my kid has autism and that makes my life hard? wtf"
As a fan of TV and animation on the spectrum, this trailer definitely frustrates me. It doesn’t discourage me from watching the film though… the plot point about his father’s intense worry about his easily-broken bones situation is actually one i find intriguing, as I way too easily get myself overwhelmed trying to solve everything that comes my way. If that’s the situation the dad is in, I might actually watch this in theaters.
This movie is absolutely going to have negative impacts and as an autistic person this makes me raise an eyebrow for so many reasons. Also the fact Zachary Levi is involved tells me all I need to know.
I’m autistic. The only significance this movie will have in my life will be when a trailer played for it before Sonic 3. The moment the boy said he was autistic, my friend jokingly started looking at me, and then I jokingly gave him the finger.
I’m so glad I wasn’t the only one, I was in the movie theater when the trailer came up and I couldn’t help but feel icky by it. As somebody who grew up with autism it was painful to see how stereotypical the portrayal was. It’s true that it’s rough to raise an autistic child, but the way they portrayed it within the trailer is insulting, especially towards my mother who took pride and helped me overcome my challenges. I’m so tired of media portraying autistic people as “quirky” or “weird”, when in reality we’re so much more than that!
Why is it that every time somebody touches upon autism in media they always focus on how it impacted the parents like the child is some sort of burden. It makes me mad. Have a movie be just about the child for once. We already have a ton of media, fear, mongering, autistic kids and feeling bad for their parents. We can have one thing just for the kids. The parents get enough support because they’re “normal” The parents need support to yes, but I feel they already get way more support compared to their children. Their children need support too. PS this is coming from somebody with autism
Have you seen Please Stand By? It's been a while so I can't remember how accurate the portrayal of autism is, but I think it's better than other autism movies I've heard of because the autistic person is actually the main character and she's given agency. But I might be biased because I also love Star Trek like the main character lol.
Whoo, boy… …I remember hearing about some of how… …this film was going to handle Autism way back when, and sadly, what I’m getting here is true. I have no interest in The Unbreakable Boy anymore. Great video, too!!
I really hate the portrayal of Austin as this "above us" figure. As in, like, the neurotypicals are wrong and need to follow his example. Look at this funny autism boy who is cluelessly happy all the time! The normies should be inspired by his shining beacon of autistic light, because autism is a silly quirk that makes you inherently more innocent, joyful, and better than everyone else. As an autistic person, I hate this kind of portrayal. It's infantilising and dismissive of reality.
When I saw the title I thought it was either gonna be about Austin being downright delusional and thinking he's incapable of dying or some terrorists kidnapping him and torturing this random autistic kid for information. It was neither and I can't tell if that's worse or not.
As a 16-year-old teen with Autism, this news makes me feel very sad. When I first saw the trailer while at at screening for Wicked, I was really excited at first to see this film given how people on the spectrum are rarely represented or depicted in a positive light in the media. But now that I know some of the ugly truths behind this film, I’m starting to feel worried that Autistic people like me will never get a true positive representation in film. I mean, how hard is it to make ONE film where people like us aren’t used as some kind of crutch or punchline? If people like the creators behind that new PBS Kids show, Carl the Collector, can make a decent portrayal of people on the spectrum, why can’t Hollywood? 😢
Honestly the thing that just pisses me off, is that in all this movies that exploit having autistic characters, not once is it tried to show people how one of us may feel, you never see honest communication by the autistic character, they are always just a prop to justify the development of the actual "normal" protagonist. Really feels like another version of a woman in a fridge. It's always either inspiration porn or a dumb plot device. Sometimes I would just like the friend of the protagonist to mention they are autistic and apologise for rambling a bit, that's relatable to a lot of people and you don't need to make it the main plot
I didn't even know this existed until I went to see Wicked and it was one of the previews. Can we get just one movie about an autistic character that actually focuses on them instead of how burdened their caregivers are? That would be nice.
Also worth noting this is produced by Kingdom Story Company, which is Lionsgate’s religious film department. So they’re gonna find a way to work Jesus into this and make the film a roundabout sermon about how great the dad is for putting up with his annoying son, and how this means you should go to church.
What do YOU think of this movie? Am I wrong about it? Lemme know down below 👇🏻
just wondering do you also have autism
Might be poor execution, like the highly scandalous film being Music (2021) with horrible music, horrible representation even thought Sia apologized, I’m not dwelling on it to be more depressed. Maybe you could review The Good Doctor that represents the message with visual storytelling with autism - considering that I’m neurodivergent and on the spectrum - stirring performances including the lead character portrayed by Freddie Highmore himself. 😢😔✨
He did cover the good doctor and like my personal opinion he considered the show did a pretty poor job as an autism representation, of course every person can feel different, but the video is out there@rowanknighthood7255
What makes it worse is that it uses the same tactic the Good Doctor used, showing random quirks that autistic people go through on a daily basis to fit in so it can attracted an autistic audience that have gone through the same as depicted on the fictional show
I do yes @teangreatcappy
I hate that movies that say they are “about neurodivergent people” that really just focus on the family’s of the people not the people themselves
Exactly. This movie just isn't focusing on what it should be
EXACTLY
I wish we had better representation. These are as insulting as the Predators movie explanations for autism
I mean, the trailer could be different from the actual movie
This kinda thing is why the sonic movies are boring at times
Too much focus on humans and not sonic
I absolutely HATE it when media and organizations show parents having autistic children as a tragedy- like I understand having setbacks or having to learn slightly different ways to raise an autistic child but to make it seem like a massive burden HAS to have some negative effect on a kid
Especially with the blog it's based on, even that seems exploitative - almost every post is the guy showing pictures of his autistic son while asking for followers
It’s because of the way media portrays autistic people that most people think we cannot do things, that we are weird or that it’s a bad thing. I wish we did have more sides to it than autistic people either being unable to show emotions or unable to live on our own and such.
I once saw a Reddit post that literally said “Parents of Autistic children, do you regret having kids?”
@@C-View1 oh my god…that’s just wrong.
@peanutgolds4058 Having children with mental challenges is more work and can be more exhausting, I understand it, but you shouldn’t resent your children or wish you didn’t have them.
I really hate how this movie is using its autistic character as a prop instead of as a character. It's also ironic that the producers were worried this movie will be a repeat of "Music", but the trailer suggests that's exactly what it'll be.
Yeah exactly - it looks no better than Music
Not a fan of the "hyperactive nerd" personality they're giving him, like that's how they want people to view autistic folk.
What's music?
Edit: Legit just got to the part where he talks about it lol 😭
Funny enough they are making the same shit movie and I am gonna mock and criticize it just like that other movie! "Oh, I don't want to make a movie like Music" Proceeds to make the exact same movie
Or if we are going to have a movie about a parent of an autistic kid, have the parent be someone who is also autistic, but wasn't diagnosed and they find out about it when their kid gets diagnosed and it's their story of seeing their autistic childhood in retrospect, while learning how to both attend to their own needs and help their kid. If done well, this would make an excellent movie, I think.
This already sounds 20 times better than this Lionsgate movie
Now that would be interesting!
There's actually a good candidate for that with the author John Elder Robison. He got diagnosed at 40 after realizing how much he had in common with his autistic son. He's also a former board member for Autism Speaks but he resigned in disgust when co-founder Suzanne Wright wrote her horrible little op-ed post. He's since gone on to work with other charities, heavily advocates for helping adults on the spectrum, and is just a pretty stand up guy.
The movie “Erza” kind of sort of has that concept. But not really. It’s more implied that the dad in that movie is autistic and it’s about him and the son bonding. But the son has actually *gasp* a real character that is treated like a human being the whole time. I know the bare minimum, but still. It’s a flawed movie and excuses parental kidnapping a bit too hard. But I really do think it’s heart was in the right place, even if the execution was kind of weird
They could’ve also had a parent who is diagnosed. But grew up during a time when very little was known about autism. And was taught to act more Neurotypical their whole life. Therefore, they are still struggling with their own inner ableism.
As a autistic person, can we have 1 movie that is entirely focused on an actual autistic person instead of being on the sidelines
The movie mary and max
The accountant
We have 3. But 3 is definitely not enough.
Say it with me. Stop 👏 making 👏 autism 👏 representation 👏 movies 👏 where 👏 the 👏 autistic 👏 character 👏 is 👏 a 👏 side 👏 character 👏 who 👏 only 👏 exists 👏 to 👏 further 👏 the 👏 lives 👏 of 👏 the 👏 main characters 👏 or 👏 their 👏 parents.
What about Rain Man?
"wOn'T sOmEbOdY pLeAsE tHiNk Of ThE pArEnTs"
Fr, this is how this whole thing comes off as
“You’re TEARING ME APART, LISA!”
Yeah, it's not like we made 5 billion movies that is about the parents. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
can we have like ONE movie about autism whose protagonist is, y'know, the ACTUAL autistic character and not whoever takes care of them?
Exactly. That's such a glaring issue with this trailer
You should check out Mary & Max.
@@keiviroque5666 I actually have seen it, yes!
@lucas-hw6jm There is I Am Sam
Apparently, they're hard to work with due to their needs over neurotypicals
I didn’t need to be reminded that im autistic when this trailer showed up before Sonic 3…
Same for me my step brother was laughing I just wanted sonic 3 to play already
True this happened to me too(when is Hollywood going to stop)
Same here.
Lol also same here
Same here
god i’m so glad i’m not the only one who felt like this was aimed towards those autism moms who praise each other for being “so brave and strong when DEALING with a child with autism” as an autistic person it was just YUCK and i wouldve loved a trailer hinting at a movie that was actually about austin and now how his family sees him as an obstacle to overcome
Honestly that it had Zachary Levi and Patricia Heaton was a red flag itself for me
What part of the spectrum are you?
@@cpe874tks wdym?
My parents were like that for like the first 3 months after my little brother was diagnosed but then ig they just forget he was autist and rarely even mentions his autism nowadays lol
REALL
"Look at this poor neurotypical dad having to struggle and cope with the fact that his son is autistic. Look how amazing and selfless he is" 🙄
Yeah, I know exactly what kind of movie this is going to be.
Yep, this is not looking good
When I went to go see Sonic 3 with my friend, this trailer came on as a preview. Once it finished, we just said to each other "what the fuck."
No way I also saw this trailer when I went to go see Sonic 3
@ninyaninjabrifsanovichthes45 wouldn't happen to be a 2 pm showing in New York in Queens, right?
(Probably not but it would be funny)
Same here. I went on a rant about that trailer with my parents in the car afterwards lol
Shit, same
Same here. My sister and I didn't feel right when we saw it.😑
I bet the writers felt so smart naming the autistic kid Austin
Even Austin from Papa Louie games (a canonically autistic customer) has more charm bc of his hyper fixation with sauce bottles
L. Austin LaRette is a real kid. He also has brittle bone disease and glasses (just like they have in the trailer).
That’s the actual kids name…
🔥🔥✍️
To be fair, as this video notes, this is based on a book. The movie didn't make the name.
It's interesting how autism and autistic coded characters seem to be better handled in television rather than theaters. As for this movie, I would not be surprised if this movie turns out like Sia's Music movie.
It's definitely looking very Sia esque
I mean…I don’t think ANYTHING can be worse than that
A lot of movies seem to be a lot more corporate than tv, at least nowadays. Maybe that’s why?
Cartoons in the television world actually do a pretty good job at autism portrayals
SpongeBob was confirmed to be autistic himself by his voice actor, and I consider Stimpy from Ren & Stimpy (not including the APC version) to be a pretty autism-coded character (he hyperfixates on a silly TV show, and does whatever he wants to do without a care in the world)
Hell, even South Park of all shows has better disability representation.
i ended up seeing the trailer for this movie as a preview before transformers one and (being autistic myself) was raising an eyebrow at yet *another* story about an autistic kid who feels more like a vehicle for an “inspirational” story about his neurotypical family. thanks for confirming that my concerns were true, i really thought filmmakers would have learned something from when sia tried to make a movie like this
Yeah, it's sad to see things haven't advanced at all
Yeah, for the autistic kids(sarcastic). This is what happens when people without autism are allowed to portray autism. Normal people have not had to grow up having to deal with the prejudice and the pressure of autism from society. Therefore someone who has not grown up without having live with any of those things. Has no business speaking for us. Sia, you do not speak for people like me who actually have high functioning autism.
A lot of these films about autism are made by people who aren't autistic but have people with autism around them. I suggest maybe, allow autistics to make films about autism, Let them speak for their own experiences instead of allowing others to speak for them. The biggest indicator the film is gonna be eh is the fact that the director, Jon Gunn, has consistently not been able to make a film that doesn't have "mixed" reviews. (I looked at his IMDB page, the closest he's got to making a film over 7.1 is "Ordinary Angels" )
Yeah this isn't a good looking movie imo
Completely correctomundo
Sounds like this dude is teetering towards being a director for hire for Pureflix, his quality doesn't seem very far off to begin with
I misread that as James Gunn and I got really confused for a second
@@TheMentalLizardAh yes, James Gunn, known for his religious film background and his low movie scores XD
Sometimes I wish instead of a movie being about a parent with the "burden" of having an autistic child, I wish we had a movie about an autistic child with the burden of putting up with parents who treat them as a problem rather than a person.
Thanks from me and my mom for saying this! My grandparents, father, stepfather, stepmom, and aunt all acted like my autism was a burden my whole life and it was awful.
The frustrating thing about this to me is that a story focusing on the caretaker/parent of an autistic person isn't inherently bad
The problem comes in that it feels like that's one of the only kinds of stories we see, like autistic characters can't be the focus of their own stories!
And another problem is when you do get the stories about the caretakers of autistic person, they’re always super saccharine stories about them being inspired to be a good person by the autistic person they take care of who’s super beautiful and inspiring.
When Music came, I remember hearing some parents with autistic kids criticizing the movie. In part because of the stereotypical and inaccurate portrayal of autism. Many people pointed out that it’s a little inaccurate that a high-support needs autistic person like Music is able to go on walks and get dressed by herself since many autistic people like her can’t. But a lot of these people also said that they don’t feel like this kind of schmaltzy inspirational story properly represents their experience because their life isn’t a schmaltzy inspirational story. It’s rewarding, but challenging. A more down-to-earth movie that really honestly showed the struggles autistic people and their caretakers go through when navigating life in a world not made for them that also showed the systemic and societal problems they face would probably be a lot more interesting and meaningful than another story about a Manic Pixie Dream Autistic Person teaching everyone around them to better people. Ugh.
@@rainyrouge5123 It's genuinely annoying because it's meant to be kinda "inspiration" for people but that "inspiration" is only for the caretakers and uses autistic people as basically a "tool" to reach that goal
Unfortunately these stories aren't about uplifting people with autism and are more about making the parent/caretaker feel better and less uncomfortable with their station in life. Like you, I don't think the idea at the core of this is bad, but they always go for the cheese and the schmaltz.
@@MrDmerch17 Absolutely nailed it, that's exactly the whole thing about these "uplifting" stories with autistic characters!
This movie is for people who unironically say "Neuro-Spicy".
This is how Hollywood will treat us.
Yeah it sucks
Neuro Spicy?
Dafuq is that?
Iv seen some autistic people who like that but if you don’t like that that’s understandable and alright
I like neuro-spicy. Nowt wrong with it if you like it. I've not used it myself, but where's the harm in it?
Why not just let people say what they want to say. Why do you care if someone says “neurospicy”? I feel like if you’re autistic, you should be sympathetic to people using ‘weird’ or nonstandard phrases and terms
Autistic girly here! I swear, every time I see a "Music" or "Unbreakable Boy" esque trailer, I die internally a bit. We aren't a monolith and we aren't burdens to our families either. Can't there just be autistic characters that just are and the whole plot isn't about that? At least with "The Accountant", the main character's autistic but he also drives the plot with more than just his autistic status (he tries to crack down on financial crimes).
The Accountant rocks! I liked the scene where Chris said he wanted to actually socialize with people and not get held back by his autism. And the fact that he went back to save Anna Kendrick and their scenes proved that without enforcing any agenda or SJW crap into the mix. And the twist was great too! Highly recommend that one!
Aw great,now I want to rewatch it
@@claudius3359 I wouldn't blame you. It's a damn good movie! Also, unlike the dad in Unbreakable Boy, he actually helps his son. Because the dad in The Accountant was a former Army psychologist, and I could get why he did what he did.
Apparently “A Kind of Spark” does a good job? I haven’t read/watched it yet, so I’m not exactly recommending it lol more like “this might be good”
It figures there was finally a movie with an Autistic girl (still cishet white tho) and fcking Sia made it an abomination 😒
The fact that we’re still getting not-so-good films meant to represent autism in the year 2025 just makes me sad.
Boycott it. That’s all I can recommend.
We got good representation in the past, but no, not in the future 😢
We at least have Luz from Owl House and Marcy from Amphibia. Those are exceptions.
Did you not watch the sonic movies
@NintendoMeister2260
Luz has ADHD, not autism. And as much as I love the headcanon, Marcy isn’t canonically confirmed to be autistic.
I just want a movie of this kid and his hat collection. Give us the hats!
Release the hat cut!
Kid would LOVE TF2
@@woodman3926 Release the Cut: Ultimate Hats Edition!
Sounds like a better movie than this
@@matthewrausch1837 Hells yeah!
Luz from The Owl House is confirmed as having ADHD, however there are many similarities between ADHD and autism, and according to what I have found so far if you have one there is a 30-80% chance that you probably have both. I honestly need to do more research.
So has bart Simpson
I'm an autistic person who just yesterday got as close to formally diagnosed with ADHD as I can get as an adult (I got greenlit for stimulant ADHD meds by Kaiser, and Kaiser only greenlights stimulant meds for ADHD patients so I'm taking that).
The dad when his son starts counting airplanes: I have failed as a father and will never mentally recover
One of the things that are upsetting is that we have made so much progress in recent years when it comes to disability representation. Meaning in the Wicked movie, they have an actual wheelchair user playing Nassa Rose and there was also a Broadway musical called How To Dance In Ohio which featured seven autistic characters being played by artistic actors. There is also a movie on Disney+, called Out Of My mind which features character with cerebral palsy being played by an actress with cerebral palsy. So this just seems like a huge step backwards.
THEY HAVE A MOVIE ADAPTATION OF OUT OF MY MIND?!?!
As an autistic dude, I’m absolutely offended that Zachary Levi is in this movie about an autistic child. I have met Levi back in 2021 at LA Comic Con and he’s seemed very uninterested in talking to me. After meeting him, I just felt like I did something wrong here and all I did was praising his previous roles. I don’t know, he had that uninterested look in his face. Glad I’m not the only one who felt the same way about him. When I met Jennifer Lee from Disney Animation, she was absolutely glad to be talking to me and so nice enough to make a cameo on my channel. That I can tell she was interested in talking to me. Doesn’t happen to him.
So basically, I’m boycotting this movie.
Well, if they're making a movie about gay people, then they'll use queer people yet disabilities are done with ables people
Also, he's just not that good an actor.
If it makes you feel better Levi just seems to suck as a person in general and even as an actor he's kind of pigeonholed himself into a poor man's Chris Pratt
@@chrismulwee4911he had his moments but I just think he’s seriously going downhill post-Shazam.
@@bigbearkat2010Chris Pratt is looking pretty good right now by comparison. I heard from a friend of mine that Chris is pretty respectable to people. Is he flawed? Absolutely.
As an autistic person myself, I know we deserve to see ourselves handled with care and respect in any media just like anyone else. Just headcanoning characters as autistic isn't enough for me, I want this kind of thing to be CANON. I'm not entirely sure if characters like Luz, Marcy, or even Peridot from Steven Universe were ever canonically autistic. They might be, I don't know.
Luz is ADHD which could be the variety that includes autism, the rest are pure headcannon with peridot being taken as neurodivergent by basically the whole fan base I think I wasn't into that show
Quinni from Heartbreak High (Netflix reboot) is canonically autistic & played by autistic actress/UA-camr Chloe Hayden
@thearoace Oh, cool
@@Solstice261I though Luz had canonic neurodivergency but it wasn't specific
@@Lemoncakelover678 in the same interview it's said both that she is neuro divergent and that she has a lot of ADHD characteristics, although that could just be because interview and answering is hard so stuff got mixed and the plan was more general neuro divergent rather than a specific, don't think it matters a lot really
I saw this trailer during Wicked and my friend and I just kind of looked at each other like "Oh this is gonna be BAD bad"
Shut up I’m autistic and I’m offended.
As someone who is an immediate family member of an autistic individual, we have enough movies about others dealing with a family member's autism. Why can't we just have a movie from the autistic individual's perspective? That would be way more interesting and a much better story.
I want to see a Moonlight-esque coming of age drama film about a protagonist with autism and the struggles they face as they navigate through life and grow older.
This would be far more interesting than whatever this was
@ definitely
THEY PLAYED THIS HORRIBLE MOVIE AD BEFORE SEEING MY SONIC 3 MOVIE! THE AUDACITY!!! >:[
Sonic 3 is obviously superior
Sonic 3 has Tails, Knuckles and Shadow, making it the superior autism movie.
I was nervous about the movie when I saw the trailer. When they had the stereotypical “autism is different for everyone” speech, I was just reminded of how frustrating it felt as a kid to be lectured to about something I lived with every day.
Huh. I see what you mean. They called it "The Unbreakable Boy" and unfortunately, they will probably treat him as actually unbreakable. They seem to focus on the fears, doubts, and problems of his family while never mentioning how he solves his own(though hopefully, they just left that part out of the trailer). The whole "happy moments that are sad" thing suggests that he's already come to terms with the issue he has discovered, and I hope they bring up how he came to that conclusion/realization, but I get the unfortunate feeling they won't. Similarly, they probably won't acknowledge the efforts he's going through to cheer up the bully kid so he can stop feeling the empathic sadness, and instead focus on how surprising it is that "the weird kid could see the hidden sadness" and "oh look, this bully kid only bullies because he has unresolved trauma from his home-life."
I hope I'm wrong, though.
Yeah this trailer does not inspire confidence sadly
Disabled people are not other props, toys, charity work, or pet
It’s these kind of movies about autistic people that really make me uncomfortable, because as someone who is on the spectrum (though I pretty much function as a normal person), it makes me feel like this is what the world sees me as. And it seems like movies and shows don’t know how to portray it, remember Sia’s MUSIC movie? And I don’t wanna feel that way. It’s why I never tell people I have it.
the audacity my theater had to show this trailer before sonic 3
As an autistic person, this is unacceptable.
Agreed
Agree
Indeed
@@to_ots9701 Agreed
Agreed
I remember someone saying that Wallace from Wallace and Gromit is austim coded
I could actually see that slightly
Yeah, I can see that.
So true. So very true.
It warms my heart to see that people are just DONE with these schmaltzy, manipulative garbage fire films.
I didn't like it when The Predator treated autism like a superpower and evolutionary advantage, it was just WEIRD.
As a disabled person myself, this is how society views people with disabilities and their families: that we are a constant burden, and our families are the "brave" and "strong" ones for putting up with us.
I think we have better representations when it's not specifically mentioned that certain character is autistic
Absolutely. Autistic coded characters seem to succeed far more
I don’t think it’s “because they wrote someone who just happened to be autistic”, because I hate “just write a character that happens to be X”. In a lot of cases, that just leads to people thinking they can’t say autistic/gay/trans/etc. in their media, and that’s a bad precedent to set. Also, in some cases, a character being X is going to influence how they act. Especially something like autism.
So here’s what I’ll say instead: when allistic people intentionally write autistic characters, it’s typically (in the current media landscape) for the explicit purpose of so called inspiration porn. To be fair, this isn’t always a case, but without input from autistic people/research on articles written *by* autistic people, it’s hard to write an autistic character without leaning on stereotypes.
When allistics unintentionally write autistic coded characters, they aren’t coming in with that same baggage. In some cases, they might not realize that the traits they’re giving a character align with the traits of some autistic people!
That's not even a question the best rep i've seen is from characters whose creators have said they didn't consider them autistic, almost as if when you are writing a character instead of a trait you end up with a more believable character
@@pip9533that's a good message
@@pip9533 I really dislike it when people say that you shouldn’t write a character with X trait or being X because maybe it’s how people phrase it, but it comes across as though that the writer threw X into a character without any thought put into it. I can understand that you shouldn’t make X the only thing to define them as a character, but you shouldn’t still think about X being apart of them.
Good to know that even as we enter 2025 we're still below the Mariana Trench when it comes to autism representation.
At least as far as theatrical movies are concerned, definitely
@@noahthe0tter when you're outclassed by PBS Kids, then maybe you need to rethink your whole approach.
Sad to hear about that, I was actually looking forward to it. Thank you for continuing to inform us about stuff like this
Of course! I'm happy to get this message out there :)
Anyway this is everyone's daily reminder to watch Mary and Max, a movie that focuses way more on the lived experiences of someone who actually has autism
Why is Hollywood so focused on Treating autism as either a disease or superpower? Just show a typical autistic character. They don’t need to change the world around them or need to be cured or tolerated because of it.
The last Predator movie, autism is literally called the next human evolution that the Predators are studying.
Sesame Street created an autistic character but only for “special segments” that highlight things like not being too loud because she doesn’t like sudden loud noises. She’s too much of a bother however to just be a regular cast member hanging out through a whole episode.
In this video, the Good Doctor has the first episode praising how great everyone is at the hospital for letting an autistic doctor join them and how they can learn from him because he sees things in a way they don’t.
It’s exhausting. Stop pandering.
The fact that Zachary Levi stars and appears to be the main character, tbe producers should've changed the title to "The Breakable Acting Career."
As an autistic teenager, I hope this movie flops.
Saw a trailer for this in the theater when I went to see Wicked and I immediately thought to myself “dawg stop trying to be Rain Man you’ll never be Rain Man”
I saw the trailer for this when I was in the theater to see Wicked. I felt exactly like "I came out here to have a good time and am honestly feeling attacked rn".lol. It's disgusting how dehumanized we are as autistic people. We aren't inspiration p0rn and we aren't tragedies. We're people. Please just treat us like people.
Same. I am so enraged.
You go to a story that is empowering for a lot of autistic people just to be shown a trailer disrespecting autistic people…
“Everyday I feel like I’m failing my son because I’m letting him be his authentic self” should be a line in this movie.
Why does the main protagonist give me vibes of a random Diary Of A Wimpy Kid comic relief side character?
I didn't even think about that, yeah, he is similar to Rowley, ugh
Honestly, to me, if you want to make something based off of Autism, you need to have the main character to be autistic (in a more respectful way for representation, not what "they" think how autistic people are to many normies out there)
If I want to make a film, the main character who has autism needs to have more screen time, and make the parents as supportive characters to make it more reasonable and relatable to everyone out there.
Exactly - Hollywood needs to actually cast autistic actors for once. And the fact the autistic kid isn't even the focus here is incredibly misleading
I mean, It's SOO frikin' obvious!
But Hollywood is just too STUPID to do so. 😔
Yess
As an autistic person who also wants to become a writer, I want to write stories that are actually about autistic people instead of those around them. I don't want to perpetuate harmful stereotypes like this movie seems to be doing; I want to use my own experiences to help others and write good stories.
Why does it really feel like every attempt at media about autism usually ends up actually being about someone who knows/meet an autistic person? It really feels like the only good representation we get is when its unspoken or more head cannon amongst fandoms (ie anything by the team that makes Bob's Burgers. They don't say out right that anyone is diagnosed as any specific thing but so many of their characters find ND fans relating/seeing themselves mirrored. I myself relate to Judy and Moon from The Great North)
Interesting, I've never seen Bob's Burgers - sounds like this might be worth a watch though
@@noahthe0tter I would 10/10 recommend either one; Bob’s Burgers or Great North.
Don't forget Donny from ROTTMNT.🐢
I’m an autistic 15 year old myself. I remember seeing a trailer for this in a movie theater, when I went to see my first film alone (it was Conclave, the film with Ralph Fiennes if you’re curious), and I remember audibly groaning and cringing at it. I’m someone who has a huge passion for everything in both theater and cinema. I think it wasn’t until now that I realized that I don’t think there’s a movie I’ve seen that actually has an autistic character at the center of it all. The closest I can assume is Rain Man, and as much as I love that film, Raymond is one of the main characters, but Charlie is practically the central character of it all. The fact that we haven’t had an autistic character actually be the main character is truly sad, and as someone who wants to make it big in the entertainment industry, maybe I can change that, who knows. The ideas for stories in my head just come and go like people passing by in a public place, like Times Square or London Heathrow. Just thought I’d bring all of this up. Also for some strange reason when I saw Conclave, they played the Dog Man trailer before it. Because yeah, a film about men talking in rooms, and voting for the next pope, deserves to have a movie about a cartoon police dog shown before it. It was so bizarre.
I just wish that films like these would focus more on the person who actually has autism and while acknowledging that they can be very smart, they also struggle with things and can be sensitive.
Can we have a movie about an autistic character that actually about the autistic character and have the movie treat them like a character and not a prop?
The funniest part is that I recognize Zachary Levi for his role as Arcade Gannon from Fallout New Vegas, a character that i actually relate to more as an autistic person lmao
First Sia, now this. Can we just have someone competent handle a movie about autism?
as an autistic person, can we have just ONE movie, where the autistic character isn't the same type of loud/talkative/annoying/oversharing kid who has a speech impediment 😭😭
They probably portray that because it’s the easiest, and laziest way to portray autism.
@@guardiansoulblade2673 Exactly! Nobody wants to watch a movie about a coming of age story where the main character is just a normal guy with a 2.5 GPA. That’s boring! We need to have MONEY!!!!
Yeah! When I saw the way Austin talks, I was disgusted. This movie is showing many stereotypes about autism, and this is unacceptable.
This movie finished production in 2022. What's WEIRD is it's being released in 2025.
Just like The War with Grandpa, which was originally filmed in May 2017 as it was originally gonna be released by The Weinstein Company until the Weinstein effect happened, it got delayed multiple times until it was released during the pandemic.
And also The King's Daughter, which was filmed in April 2014 as it was originally gonna be released by Paramount and Focus Features the following year but it was delayed multiple times until 7 years later it got released.
Lions gate is scared to compete with the Batman movie, it was never about covid19. They are about greed and attentions.
Me and my sister kept giving each other looks when this played as a preview for the Sonic 3 movie, after I had spent the entire car ride there giving her the history of my Sonic special interest and specifically my obsession with Shadow. It felt... targeted, somehow.
Given the fact EVERYONE has gotten this preview before Sonic 3, I am thinking more and more this marketing is deliberate. Too bad they don't know how to actually create a good autistic rep to begin with tho. Tails from Sonic is a way better rep than this.
Austin isn't a character, he's a prop
Also, a really crazy thing I found out is a lot of people's response to other people calling out Hollywood for depicting every single autist the exact same way isn't "You're right actually" but "not autists are the same, so you should let Hollywood keep depicting them all as the exact same"
When I saw the "from the producers of Jesus Revolution" in the trailer, I immediately put this in F-tier.
As the big sister to my autistic younger brother, living with an autistic person is not so dramatic that it requires a whole freaking movie... oh no! he really really likes kirby?! How abnormal!!! Whats that? He struggles with verbal communication, but its really no big deal since i grew up with him and can understand him regardless???? Oh the horror!!!
People think we are aliens, it seems
Me and my friend (we're both neurodivergent) were in the theater when we saw this trailer and it was just about the more uncomfortable thing to watch. It's so obvious when stories just use autism as some "tragic" condition that makes the family struggle instead of actually telling the story of an autistic person.
I work at a movie theater and seeing this play every day kills me 😭
It seems like they are focusing more on the 'Brittle Bone Disease' (since all the material for the movie I've found lists it before autism, as well as the title ['unbreakable' for very breakable bones as well as his spirit]), so in that case I could see it actually being understandable to focus on the parents. (What if he wants to play with other kids, you can't just chase or play sports, and yeah, video games is an easy out nowadays, but if the target demographic is parents and grandparents of various age ranges, many think play = physical activity only.) In a sense, that is almost better, if they are treating autism as just part of him, and the Bones being his primary struggle point. I have no desire to watch the movie, but there is enough for me to justify holding off judgement until watching it (or hearing from someone I trust that actually watched it), rather than writing it entirely off without seeing the execution.
Also It does kinda seem Zachary Levi might have already reached his peak, and is on the decline. He was the lead in Chuck in 2007-2012, (basically a comedy action show where you can matrix-style download info as a major oversimplification) but Shazam was one of his last 'major' roles (that wasn't a voice acting lead, which don't get me wrong, many can do great, but he was never in that upper echelon). I can understand if you thought you did really good in a dramatic role, especially as a lead, then he'd want to push the product to show his acting (assuming it was good, or he felt it was good, or maybe his pay was tied to some release metric).
Yeah, like I said in the video, this is just purely an analysis of the trailer, not necessarily the final product. Although it is interesting to analyze the road that led to this movie being made too, and some inferring can be made with that
Yeah. (Above I mention I have OI.) Will it be good OI representation? Well we don't have that much so I might be "I'll take what I can get, within reason." (If it gets overly patronizing or "let's do multiple surgeries to make him look more normal" I might pass.)
@@noahthe0tter I'm embarrassed I didn't see the trailer before reacting to this video. Now that I have I get why you didn't mention brittle bones as the trailer doesn't either. That seems weird to me given the title and that I think we see him in a wheelchair at one point in the trailer. Not sure why they did that. Many people have multiple disabilities and my understanding was that was part of the story. (It might have also made him need more parental aid than many on the spectrum do as we tend to fracture more as children so need help in those periods. I was independent as I could be, but there were limits.)
As autistic person.........................this is disgraceful. In the future I plan to become a filmarker and make movie about autism based by *ACTUAL* autistic person pov
Good look bro, look forward to watching it.
I saw this trailer before Sonic 3 both times and I can’t really take it very seriously… all of these movies make it about the parents and how hard their lives are because their kid is autistic. The narrative that parents of autistic children are burdened and unhappy and their lives are so hard, like they need to be pitied. It never focuses on the child, or why it’s okay for the kid to be autistic. These films treat it like a disease that needs to be cured. Like autistic people are “problems” to everyone around them. And then it makes it about how the parents are “heroes” and “saints” for… loving their kids? Which is like, the bare minimum of being a parent…
The wildest part to me is that literally EVERYONE seems to be getting this before Sonic 3! I think you're now the 41st person to say that lol. But yes, it really just objectifies this kid and tries to make Zachary Levi and his "family" in the context of this film look like the heroes or whatever. The guy who initially wrote the book this is based on, is also an Autism Speaks supporter based on my research, so sadly the "disease" mentality is not surprising. It honestly just makes me sad, I wish movies like this would stop getting made
Saw the trailer for this with my cousin while waiting for Sonic 3 in theaters, and we both kinda just look at each other like... huh. The first thought I had was "Why did they have to name the autistic kid AUSTIN." Which made my cousin laugh so hard.
It’s based off a book I think so if anything the author made it that way and how the heck did we end up in the same situations only difference it I didn’t go to watch Sonic and I had my grandma and other cousins there (one happened to be autistic and see that trailer. But he’s 10 and unaware he’s autistic so I don’t think it hurt him as much there’s a chance he wasn’t even paying attention.)
@shayleeaperson8868 Omg we did have similar experiences!! Lol.
Dude, I explained to my mom why this was so disrespectful and she couldn't stop saying "Well were lucky that movies are discussing this topic" The rage I felt when she would just NOT LISTEN. And I myself, am on the spectrum.
*As a 27 year old autistic young woman I feel so offended by this movie of how it portrays autism this film is worse than Sia’s movie Music but this is hell😡*
As soon as I saw Zachary Levi in the trailer I just turned out and said nope
As a semi autistic person myself I’m actually looking forward to seeing this movie. Probably not in theaters, but when it releases on digital.
Sebastian from la la land is the best autistic character ever put to screen.
I wasn’t expecting to see you here lol
As someone with autism myself when I was this trailer in the theater waiting for sonic 3 (Of course lol) and my first reaction was “This looks terrible” and I actually felt offended
i saw a trailer for this when i went to watch sonic 3, and i immediately thought to myself: yep im gonna hate this and love watchinf video essays on why it SUCKS (im autistic btw)
Glad you liked my video essay! That's basically the only content I do here overall
So a movie that acts like it’s about someone with autism
But it’s actually about everyone else having to deal with someone with autism
Then I saw the part about autism speaks and now it all makes sense
So glad i'm not alone in this. I remember seeing the trailer and thinking "so the point of this film is my kid has autism and that makes my life hard? wtf"
As a fan of TV and animation on the spectrum, this trailer definitely frustrates me. It doesn’t discourage me from watching the film though… the plot point about his father’s intense worry about his easily-broken bones situation is actually one i find intriguing, as I way too easily get myself overwhelmed trying to solve everything that comes my way. If that’s the situation the dad is in, I might actually watch this in theaters.
Yeah, as an autistic person, I literally do not care if I get “represented” or something. All I want from a movie is for it to be of good quality.
This movie is absolutely going to have negative impacts and as an autistic person this makes me raise an eyebrow for so many reasons. Also the fact Zachary Levi is involved tells me all I need to know.
I’m autistic. The only significance this movie will have in my life will be when a trailer played for it before Sonic 3. The moment the boy said he was autistic, my friend jokingly started looking at me, and then I jokingly gave him the finger.
Loved the video! As an autistic teen, I am so sick of these stupid films trivializing and exploiting autism.
the second any autism-related media calls itself an "inspiring story" or really uses the word inspiring at all, i am immediately put off
I’m so glad I wasn’t the only one, I was in the movie theater when the trailer came up and I couldn’t help but feel icky by it.
As somebody who grew up with autism it was painful to see how stereotypical the portrayal was.
It’s true that it’s rough to raise an autistic child, but the way they portrayed it within the trailer is insulting, especially towards my mother who took pride and helped me overcome my challenges.
I’m so tired of media portraying autistic people as “quirky” or “weird”, when in reality we’re so much more than that!
As an autistic person myself, Probably the only accurate and respectful representation of autism that I’ve seen is the Temple Grandin biopic from 2010
Temple Grandin is actually a surprisingly good one - I've talked about it in a previous video
Why is it that every time somebody touches upon autism in media they always focus on how it impacted the parents like the child is some sort of burden. It makes me mad. Have a movie be just about the child for once.
We already have a ton of media, fear, mongering, autistic kids and feeling bad for their parents. We can have one thing just for the kids. The parents get enough support because they’re “normal”
The parents need support to yes, but I feel they already get way more support compared to their children. Their children need support too.
PS this is coming from somebody with autism
Have you seen Please Stand By? It's been a while so I can't remember how accurate the portrayal of autism is, but I think it's better than other autism movies I've heard of because the autistic person is actually the main character and she's given agency. But I might be biased because I also love Star Trek like the main character lol.
I haven't! I'll have to give that a look then
Please stand by and the Accountant are 2 of my favorite movies with an autistic protagonist.
Whoo, boy… …I remember hearing about some of how… …this film was going to handle Autism way back when, and sadly, what I’m getting here is true. I have no interest in The Unbreakable Boy anymore.
Great video, too!!
This movie will suck. Why focus on the family? The Neurodivergent people need a voice.
I really hate the portrayal of Austin as this "above us" figure. As in, like, the neurotypicals are wrong and need to follow his example. Look at this funny autism boy who is cluelessly happy all the time! The normies should be inspired by his shining beacon of autistic light, because autism is a silly quirk that makes you inherently more innocent, joyful, and better than everyone else.
As an autistic person, I hate this kind of portrayal. It's infantilising and dismissive of reality.
as a handicapped person myself (wheelchair) I've never liked these movies
When I saw the title I thought it was either gonna be about Austin being downright delusional and thinking he's incapable of dying or some terrorists kidnapping him and torturing this random autistic kid for information.
It was neither and I can't tell if that's worse or not.
As a 16-year-old teen with Autism, this news makes me feel very sad. When I first saw the trailer while at at screening for Wicked, I was really excited at first to see this film given how people on the spectrum are rarely represented or depicted in a positive light in the media. But now that I know some of the ugly truths behind this film, I’m starting to feel worried that Autistic people like me will never get a true positive representation in film. I mean, how hard is it to make ONE film where people like us aren’t used as some kind of crutch or punchline? If people like the creators behind that new PBS Kids show, Carl the Collector, can make a decent portrayal of people on the spectrum, why can’t Hollywood? 😢
Carl is far better than this
@@noahthe0tter Dang straight. 👍🏼
Honestly the thing that just pisses me off, is that in all this movies that exploit having autistic characters, not once is it tried to show people how one of us may feel, you never see honest communication by the autistic character, they are always just a prop to justify the development of the actual "normal" protagonist. Really feels like another version of a woman in a fridge. It's always either inspiration porn or a dumb plot device. Sometimes I would just like the friend of the protagonist to mention they are autistic and apologise for rambling a bit, that's relatable to a lot of people and you don't need to make it the main plot
I just love your little otter in his tron suit
Thanks!
@@noahthe0tter is he chubby?
I didn't even know this existed until I went to see Wicked and it was one of the previews. Can we get just one movie about an autistic character that actually focuses on them instead of how burdened their caregivers are? That would be nice.
@@hannahbrennan2131 agreed, this is saddening to see
Also worth noting this is produced by Kingdom Story Company, which is Lionsgate’s religious film department. So they’re gonna find a way to work Jesus into this and make the film a roundabout sermon about how great the dad is for putting up with his annoying son, and how this means you should go to church.
It's gonna suck for sure
As a Christian, that would only end up causing second hand embarrassment for me.