Tonight we sat as a family to watch the making of the movie FROZEN. My daughter loves that movie. I didnt care much for the movie but we are a family and we do everything as a family so we watched it. Then to my surprise this guy named John Lasseter (the co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios, and one of the masterminds behind the movie hits “Toy Story,” “Toy Story 2,” “A Bug’s Life,” “Monsters, Inc.” and “Finding Nemo”) talked about the making of Elsa. That gave me chills, it made me feel like crying. I learned that Mr Lasseter has a son with Type-1 Diabetes. Mr Lasseter thought of his own son when they developed the Elsa character. He thought of all the struggles his son experienced since diagnosed with T1 and used that to make Elsa the sad, frustrated, angry and misunderstood soul she was. A person dealing with something she had no control over. That meant a lot to me because Elsa describes a lot of our kids at one time or another. Most people in the world would not understand what it is like to deal with this deadly disease unless they are the parents of a T1 or they themselves are T1s. So I hope in the future when people watch this movie they can have an idea of what our children go through every day of their lives. Following are comments from an interview Mr Lasseter had about his son being diagnosed with T1D which basically describes us. “Boom. That was it,” remembers Lasseter. “Sam’s whole life changed. Our whole life changed.” For the next several weeks, the Lasseters devoted themselves to learning about diabetes. “I wanted to know the whole history of diabetes,” Lasseter says. “I wanted some perspective on how far we have to go to find a cure. Looking at Sam, who was so scared—as a parent, it just rips your heart out. That feeling, that moment, I still haven’t been able to shake it. One of the things you go through is to think, ‘Man! If there’s a way I can do anything so this doesn’t happen to other families in the future, then I’m there! Just show me what I can do!’” Over the next days and weeks, Lasseter learned that many of his Pixar colleagues had diabetes, as they began dropping by his office to share their experience and support. One important ally was actor John Ratzenberger, best known as Cliff from the television show Cheers. Ratzenberger’s son, now a teenager, has had type 1 since he was in elementary school. “When you’re a parent whose child is diagnosed with diabetes,” says Ratzenberger, who for years has worked to raise money for diabetes research, “the first thing that happens is that the earth swallows you whole. That’s exactly what happens. All of a sudden, your perfect kid is hit with this life-and-death battle, and, as a parent, it’s the end of the world for you. But your job as a parent is to scale back up out of that hole and learn to take care of your child.” Ratzenberger also reminded me of the wonderful people we were able to meet thanks to Type-1 Diabetes. The amazing group from Canine Hope for Diabetics, the mothers and fathers from MOD Squad, and many other groups and people (too many to mention) that have made this journey a little easier and more tolerable. So I just want to finish this post by saying, after watching the making of Frozen I decided to make Elsa my forever hero and Frozen one of my favorite movies ever. #weneedacure #type1sucks #elsarules #frozenrocks
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 07:13:24 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015