Soul
Director: Pete Doctor
Writer: Pete Doctor, Mike Jones, and Kemp Powers
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton, Rachel House, Phylicia Rashad, Angela Bassett, Daveed Diggs, June Squibb
Reason for watching: first time viewing, and it’s a Christmas day release and I got outvoted for wanting to see Wonder Woman 1984 by Jane’s family
Number of times I’ve watched it: once
***
Pixar has been the torchbearer for animated movies since their first movie in 1995, and they held that championship belt for about 15 years. Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Finding Nemo, Monster’s Inc., The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Wall-E, Up, Toy Story 3. But then from 2011 to 2016, and Pixar dropped off a little. They went one for six in terms of high quality movies with the only real success story being Inside Out. While the only despicable release from that period is Cars 2 (or the whole Cars franchise for that matter), other releases like Monster’s University, Brave, or The Good Dinosaur did not live up to the high standards of their predecessors. Part of it had to do with the low number of original movies they were making, which had almost become a back seat to the sequels that were requested. Also, Pixar’s competition was putting out high-quality content like Frozen (still under the Disney umbrella but a different studio), The Lego Movie, and How to Train Your Dragon. Whatever the reason though, Pixar started to really turn themselves around in 2017 with Coco, and they kept the ball rolling in the right direction with The Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 4. Again though, Pixar seemed to be heavily relying on their previous existing IP. Yet 2020 rolled around and while this year has been terrible in general, Pixar devoted itself again to original ideas. While reviews and responses to Onward (released a mere two weeks before movie theaters shut down) have been good but not great, Pixar had an ace up their sleeve for later in the year. And that ace was Soul.
Soul follows Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx), a middle school jazz band teacher who has dreams of still making it big as a jazz pianist. One day after performing wonderfully at an audition with jazz icon Dorothea (Angela Bassett) Joe receives a callback for a live performance. While walking home and celebrating his good luck, Joe falls through an uncovered manhole and enters a land between worlds. After escaping the great beyond, Joe finds himself in the great before, a place where souls discover their personality and personal taste. Due to a great deal of confusion, he is mistakenly matched up as a mentor for Soul #22, who has been reluctant as a before soul for eons. The two of them partner up to get Joe back to his body, which is in currently in a coma. Along the way, they get into trouble and learn about one’s purpose and desire for life.
To take it back to the aforementioned Pixar downturn, the reason why those sequels fell off was that they usually lacked a sense of greater meaning. Sure Monster’s University gave an interesting look at its predecessor’s protagonists, but it did not add anything. The same could be said of Finding Dory, which basically inverted the plot of the original, having the child pursue her parents instead of the other way around. I won’t try to do a takedown of all the Pixar movies from that era, but they were lacking in something.
Where Soul succeeds compared to these previous entries, the film focuses on the little things that endeared Pixar’s previous movies to its fans. During Joe and #22’s journey, they encounter the little things on Earth that make life worthwhile. Pizza, music, a barbershop. As the saying goes, “It’s the little things.” #22 gets to see why living life is worth it. And Joe gets to re-experience all the new things in his life through #22’s eyes. On top of this Joe gets to remember what really make his own life worthwhile. This greater mean of discovering that any life can have great meaning regardless of that life’s accomplishments is what puts this movie to the same level of quality as some Pixars previous movies.
On top of this the animation style is unique; particularly the unique colors of the non-earth life. I also have to complement the abstract nature of the beings living in these realms. Not to say that the typical human and earth animation is bad, because it is of high quality as well. I would say though that one actual critique I have for this movie is that the intrigue falls off for me when the characters enter the real world again. It’s a small criticism though. The humor is there, and the voice work is great. This is Pixar’s best work since Toy Story 3. How ironic. A sequel is the last Pixar work that I can compare Soul to.
9/10
Until I see another one.