Incorporating Misfits and Animating Interdependencies in Revolting Times

In this chapter, the author seeks to foster a radical imagination in revolting neoliberal times as a way to both examine exclusionary tactics while also exploring practices of belonging. The author’s aim is an invitational one that seeks to consider the role of children’s animation films in generating the conditions for an alternative set of social relations. Specifically, the purpose of this chapter is to examine how protagonists from the children’s animated Netflix film Back to the Outback refuse to be incorporated through the performance of their neoliberal normative roles while they seek the possibility of an alternative. The author’s aim is to consider how Back to the Outback offers both a refusal and an alternative to neoliberalism’s predatory and exploitative logics. In doing so, the author also aims to draw parallels between what is represented in this children’s film and the experiences of striving to seek belonging through the journey of resettlement experienced in the lives of refugees. With the aim of exploring how children’s animation films reveal the challenges of experiencing belonging in hostile neoliberal contexts, this chapter aims to contribute to an understanding of the role of children’s narratives in also critically examining the role of traditionally excluded groups, such as refugee children, as integral rather than peripheral in an alternative to the current unjust status quo.