Directed by Pete Docter, Soul follows Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx), a middle school music teacher, who has dreamed of performing jazz music onstage, and finally gets a chance after impressing other jazz musicians during an opening act at the Half Note Club. However, an untimely accident causes Gardner’s soul to be separated from his body before proceeding to a realm called the Great Beyond. Gardner manages to escape to another realm called the Great Before, which is a world where souls develop personalities, quirks, and traits before being sent off to Earth. There, Gardner must work with souls in training at the Great Before, such as 22 (Tina Fey), a soul with a dim view on the concept of life, in order to return to Earth before his body dies.
This is the second original Pixar film to come out this year after Onward, starting a trend of all new Pixar films instead of the continuous amounts of sequels we have had for a while. I was really excited for Soul for three reasons: It was another original movie from Pixar with a unique concept, it was being directed by Peter Docter (who made Monsters Inc, Up and Inside Out, arguably some of the best Pixar movies ever made), and the absolutely stunning visuals that appeared to be blending 2D & 3D animation together.
After watching it I can confidently say this is perhaps one of the most beautiful, humorous and meaningful Pixar films we have had in a long time. It is a film that really makes you appreciate life and why it’s worth living to the fullest and not just for a singular purpose. While the story may feature familiar tropes and plot lines seen in other films, the way this one approaches them feels fresh and more expanded upon and doesn’t feel held back in delivering messages that adults would understand more than kids.
For the first half of the film it’s a rather bizarre yet hilarious story that slowly begins to show its true nature as it progresses, becoming something joyful. It is subtle with the emotion and overt with the humor but then things begin to turn into a perspective of the main moral that is being taught here.
The performances were awesome all around, giving a lot of good laughs but also delivering such human emotion through animated characters. Jamie Foxx as Joe Gardner is probably one of the most interesting leads in a Pixar film to date. We have had flawed characters before in Pixar films, but this one felt much more relatable as we slowly begin to peel back the layers of his character throughout the film, and understand what his perception of life is like and just how misguided it is.
Many people take life for granted sometimes and feel as if we are only born to do one thing for the rest of our lives, when in truth that’s not what life is about. This is something we see through Joe and the ambivalent 22 who goes through her own journey and is beautifully played by Tina Fey. This is probably one of my favorite roles from her in a long time and she really did a good job.
There are also other great performances from Rachel House, Alice Braga, Physlicia Rashad, Questlove, Donnell Rawlings and Angela Bassett. Even Graham Norton, one of my favorite talk show hosts in the world, has an absolute hilarious role in this. The humor is brilliant and feels so natural rather than forced. Also I was surprised by how many adult jokes they snuck in, but they were fantastic.
Pixar has always been known for increasingly upgraded animation over the years, but here is perhaps some of their best work. I mean my god, this is such a beautiful and detailed world they’ve created, showing just how far they’ve come since Toy Story. Characters have unique designs that are very memorable and gorgeously animated, while the cinematography is absolutely stunning and is fully fleshed out detail by detail. I could pause the film and just gaze at every frame, looking at all the beautiful work and effort put into it.
And also can I just say how cool it is after all these years to see 2D animation be used in a big budget production. The 3D animation is incredible obviously but seeing it being paired up with lovingly crafted 2D animation is even better, and such an incredible combination. I hope that Pixar can continue using 2D animation for future projects, because it is almost a lost art. Also a bit of a side note, I’m glad that all the animation teams got their credits before the main cast. That doesn’t happen often in most film credits these days but I’m glad that Pixar or Pete Docter in this case are giving the animators more credit and appreciation.
Of course since the film does partially revolve around music, you’d expect there to be a very strong soundtrack. And you’d be right. Like Coco, the way that instruments are played are done such great detail that it really brings such life out in the story, adding to the emotional moments or even livening up grand moments that make you feel like you are there experiencing it for yourself. And also similar to Coco, the music is all culturally inspired, which gives the film a unique memorable identity compared to other Pixar films.
Soul is very inspiring and will give you a lot of feelings, joy and appreciation of life being among them. This film is the perfect example of what Pixar stands for as an animation studio, which is delivering meaningful and creative stories that every should see and learn from. I’m going to give Soul an A+.
You can find more of my writing on instagram!