Embracing Self: How Twenty Something Taught Us on Adulting

Kutub.id – A nominee of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Image Awards 2022 for Outstanding Short Form (Animated), Twenty Something is a short movie produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed under Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. This 8 minutes movie was released on September 10, 2021 in a 2D styled animation.

The story began when a black woman in a huge yellow coat, Gia Hall, asked for her ID to enter a bar. The picture on the ID and the woman have different looks. The spectator was presented by a teen-looking self Gia and yet presented a different-more mature looking-face ID. Simply, this ‘adult Gia’ was not yet physically present. 

The guard needed to be reassured by Gia’s cousin, Nicole, that she is indeed an adult and had just turned 21 as the day was her birthday. At the bar, she was terrified by the sight of people having fun dancing on the floor. She was then asked to order a drink, yet another hand came out of her coat to grab a piece of cake on top of the bar. 

She scolded ‘the arm’ that she had eaten sweets before and should stop ordering that. Asked what’s wrong by Nicole, Gia mistakenly said ‘I gotta go potty’ instead of going to a restroom just like ‘an adult supposed to say’. 

Then, it was revealed that under her huge yellow coat hidden three beings, a baby wore a white pajama with figure 1 print and a yellow bow; a girl in a skirt topped with a pink t-shirt with figure 10 print; and an emo-look teenager in a black t-shirt with figure 16 print.

This is the interesting part of the movie, Aphton Corbin figuratively depicted the struggle of adulting by having a bunch of different age and personality as one being. Simply, the adult Gia was not yet physically present as her inner child formed in 1 year-old, 10 years-old, and 16 years-old with different interests and characteristics were still dominating. 

The 10 years-old who seems to be ‘more logical’ than the others was leading a sudden meeting on deciding on who should ‘drive’ this evening. The bathroom conversation revealed Gia actions depending on the head-driver. 16, the immature vehicle-driver; 10, a clumsy girl; and 1, the most-unwanted-driver, a whiny and greedy eater. 

10 then reassured the others that Gia is grown up and is ready to face the world on her birthday night. A disaster happened and Gia eventually solved her struggle and came back beautifully like a butterfly evolved out of her cocoon. 

This movie is a good depiction on how split up our inner souls were. A part of ourselves who tries hard to act like adults, a part of them who needs affection and a part where clumsiness’ stored. The struggle of adulting everyone has to face with the split-not-yet-integrated soul we had.  Thus, embracing our inner child was a need to be a perfectly functional adult.

Unfortunately, it has a very limited duration where it did not convey any deep approach. Yet, it is a strength of the movie, where a complicated issue was well-depicted in such a short time. 

Interested in watching Gia’s struggle? Sobat Kutub can watch it on Disney Hotstar, for free, after subscription of course. 

Movie information:

Title : Twenty Something

Audio/language : English American

Genre : animation, comedy, short (IMDb)

Ratings : PG13 (parents guide)

Release date : September 10, 2021

Duration : 8m

Director : Aphton Corbin

Producer : Erik Langley

Production house : Pixar Sparkshots Animation Studios

Distribution : Walt Disney Motion Picture Studios

Award : Nominee at Outstanding Short Form (Animated) of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Image Awards 2022