‘Float’: narrative analysis

I had watched the trailer for this short film a few weeks ago and it finally came out.
I was so excited to see Pixar’s take on what unfortunately has been an issue, special since the pandemic began- Anti-Asian hate.
This is a particularly touchy subject for me. My partner is Filipino, and since the beginning of the pandemic he has suffered a few racial hate crimes he can’t do much about. He only sits and waits to not be attacked anytime soon.
It’s horrible how mean people can be based solely on a false stereotype. Or any stereotype for that matter.
Therefore, when I saw the trailer for this film I was very much looking forward to see how Pixar, having mainly children as their target audience, was going to portray this delicate subject.

‘Float is about the fear of not being able to protect someone you love and learning to let go’. (source: https://www.vox.com/2019/11/12/20961354/disney-plus-float-pixar-short)

Written and directed by Filipino-American animator Bobby Rubio, this narrative describes an Asian father (possibly Filipino too) raising his child in an American society.

‘Depending on your own personal experiences, Float’s core story could be a story about assimilation and growing up as a minority (it’s the first time Pixar is featuring Filipino American characters, which hits close to home for this writer), or it could be about what it’s like to feel different from those around you.’ (source: https://www.vox.com/2019/11/12/20961354/disney-plus-float-pixar-short)

Reading comments about this film, there have been speculations about how this film could also be about autism and how the child could be ‘floating’ in their own world, away from reality. Either way, I believe that the essence of this narrative is feeling alienated when the ones around you treat you and see you as different.
It also translates the message of how much your care and love for someone could suffocate them and how you have to let them go, let them fly, for them to be truly happy.

As mentioned above, I wondered how Pixar would resolve portraying xenophobia through this film. The appeal to human instinct and the almost absent dialogue are, to me, the most efficient methods to have been used to tell this father/son relationship story and how this is seen by other.

‘(…)the worry that the world out there won’t see them the way you do, and the hope that that big scary world will love this person as much as you do. That sounds like a lot of ground to cover in seven minutes, but Float doesn’t just drift by — it soars.’ (source: https://www.vox.com/2019/11/12/20961354/disney-plus-float-pixar-short)

This film begins by showing the story of baby Alex and his father. You can tell they have a sweet and strong bond by their affection with each other.

• 

Baby Alex leaves his fathers arms and begins floating, chasing the dandelion, while his father lovingly looks at him in awe. As a family walks by in the distance, the father pulls the baby back to him in a protective gesture. He nervously smiles at the family while baby Alex waves and they wave back. This is when trouble begins- baby Alex once again floats away from his father’s arms, scaring the family and getting them to leave. It’s interesting to see how unbothered the couple’s baby looks in that shot.

When this couple leaves, there is another child in the background who looks not scared, but curious. Their parent does not feed this curiosity, and instead becomes judgemental by gossiping with another adult that comes into scene posteriorly to the father locking himself at home with the baby.

Fast forward, you get to see baby Alex now a little older, floating inside the house and expressing his creative side on the ceiling. His father stops this by taking his crayon from him. Again- his father trying to protecting him by censoring him.
When the father shows him his coat, suggesting that they would be going outside, Alex does not want to. Possibly because the father has painted this idea of the outside world that made him scared of it. His father puts rocks inside his backpack to weigh him down. Once again- overprotection. Father knows how cruel society can be to his child.

As they are walking down the street and Alex blows on dandelions and explores, father sees the couple they had seen in the first moments of the story. He hides as he does not want to go through the same experience again.

• 

Alex gets excited when he sees the playground. The father analyses the situation and as he is about to let Alex go play, he looks down and sees that Alex is gone. He finds him flying around other children and these run to their parents, in fear. Parents seem angry that Alex is ‘bothering’ their children.
When the father gets a hold of Alex, he becomes very frustrated and starts screaming at the top of his lungs, bringing attention to them. His father becomes so impatient that he shouts to Alex the only line of the film- ‘Why can’t you just be normal?’. This is the climax of the narrative.
Both the patience of the father and son reach a limit where they cannot deal with each other’s restrictions anymore. The dad wants him to be normal but Alex wants him to let him be a normal child, like the others at the park.

Alex hides in hoodie and becomes quiet as his father wanted him to. When he does so, father immediately regrets his words and hugs Alex. He becomes conflicted on if to abandon the park and hide once again, or face the crowd who he has been afraid of for so long.

• 

He embraces Alex, sits on the swings with him, removes his coat (symbol of protection and censorship) and lets him fly freely! They both become at peace with their identities.

• 

Moments such as when the father locks his son in the dark, obscure house and you see how ‘clueless’ the son is of the outside world as he grows up really allows you to perceive how far a loved one would go to protect you, without even realising how much they are hurting you.

Another moment that I found crucial was when we see baby Alex leaving the house with his father for the first time and this other kid starts waving at him. When Alex starts floating, the other kid and their family get scared.
It could be that the kid’s family have chosen to ‘respect’ cultural and ethnical differences as per today’s society ideologies, but their inherent racism and xenophobia makes them take a step back when ‘accepting’ a minority.

By this, I mean that my generation has generally grown up learning how to respect everyone. Older generations did not have the same opportunity and they had to adapt to how fast society is moving. Disrespecting minorities and POC is no longer acceptable. Even though older generations are making the effort to adapt, they grew up in times where racism was common and tolerated.

As stated by Pixar: ‘Pixar Animation Studios and the SparkShorts filmmakers of FLOAT are in solidarity with the Asian and Asian American communities against Anti-Asian hate in all its forms. We are proud of the onscreen representation in this short and have decided to make it widely available, in celebration of what stories that feature Asian characters can do to promote inclusion everywhere.’ (source:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HAGuju_yKY)

I like that it’s not necessarily a film about xenophobia. It’s a film about differences.
And how those differences either make you unique or insecure. It’s about how you choose to embrace them. It’s about inclusivity and I think this is brilliant.
Although it targets the issue, it chooses to focus on the solution, not the problem.