Animated film maker turns children with disabilities into superheroes

Joshua Leonard, an African-American animated filmmaker, will turn the disabilities some children suffer from into superpowers in an animated series for Netflix. With pride, Joshua achieves a feat in fighting both racism and discrimination.

We are all familiar with the famous, fabulous and undefeated Avengers team. They are a lot, they are strong, beautiful, kind, endearing… among other things, they are relatively cool. Some generations even grew up with them. Sadly, mores have changed over the years and the Avengers may not be quite up to date, in terms of integration and difference. They need a little bit of renewal.

Captain America, the ultimate leader of the Avengers, has to hear from Joshua Leonard: the leader of a new group of superheroes. Captain, here they are:

Zeek is a young African American with autism, blessed with endless memory, incredible intellect, and a mind that can see everything. Li is an Asian American, although she was born blind, she has a great sense of smell and her senses are enhanced thanks to her intermodal neuroplasticity disorder. She is also super fast. Sweet pea, Zeek's little sister, suffers from sickle cell anemia (dysfunction of hemoglobin which can cause chronic anemia, which is highly prone to infections …), but she also has a power called "fusion of hearts", which allows her to manipulate the spirits to make any adult or child more loving, more understanding and more humble. Mech has a malformation of the spinal cord and therefore cannot walk. But he's a little genius who builds cool gadgets! Thumper was born deaf, but has the power of synesthesia, therefore to see vibrations, therefore to visualize conversations and impending danger. Together they form the Team Supreme !
It was the brilliant Dr. Jackson, an epileptic, who brought them together to make a team of kids, whose disabilities are their superpowers, fight crime.

Where do they come from ?

Directly from the imagination of Joshua Leonard, 37, African American character and animation creator for the Netflix platform. He first became interested in the cause of children with disabilities when he was in college and taking art classes. One day, one of his colleagues told him that his autistic son, after seeing the credits of a Disney film only once, quoted from memory the entire crew and cast of the film, until pole vaulter. Joshua saw it as a superpower. It was he who inspired the character of Zeek. Not sure Iron Man can do that …

Being a fervent activist against racism, he has hardly found his place in a country where racial justice is constantly challenged. In addition, the animation world is extremely closed, with very few black directors.

Joshua hit the nail on the head by killing two birds with one stone: first by making a place for himself in the animation world by being black, and then by opening the door to cinema for a whole new type of super- hero. Team Supreme will one day join the Netflix platform, when production resumes.

We hope that one day Team Supreme will be able to join Captain America's team, for a wind of change and almost complete inclusiveness. In any case, the leader of the Avengers can only salute the work of his new colleague Joshua Leonard, who also, by his exploits, is a bit of a hero.

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