Soul (2020) Disney/Comedy-Drama-Fantasy RT: 100 minutes Rated PG (thematic elements, some language) Director: Pete Docter Screenplay: Pete Docter, Mike Jones and Kemp Powers Music: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (jazz compositions/arrangements by Jon Batiste) Cinematography: Matt Aspbury and Ian Megibben Release date: December 25, 2020 (US) Cast: Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton, Rachel House, Alice Braga, Richard Ayoade, Phylicia Rashad, Donnell Rawlings, Questlove, Angela Bassett, Cora Champommier, Margo Hall, Rhodessa Jones, Daveed Diggs, Wes Studi, Fortune Feimster, Zenobia Shroff, Sakina Jaffrey. Box Office: $122.2 (World)
Rating: *** ½
“Isn’t this a bit existential for a kid’s movie?”
I’d never thought that question would ever pass my lips, but I never saw the Pixar movie Soul until now. I shouldn’t be too surprised though. After all, it’s the same studio that gave us Inside Out which is still the most creative and accurate description of a preteen girl’s emotions I’ve ever seen. I like it when Pixar makes movies like this. It shows there’s still a deep well of creativity amidst all the lazy cash-grab sequels, the Toy Story movies being the exception.
Previous remarks notwithstanding, I had a hard time thinking of Soul as a kid’s movie as its story of a jazz musician’s mid-life crisis and premature death unfolded. I know kids today are savvier than previous generations, but are they actually equipped to grasp the heavy ideas laid out by director Pete Docter (Inside Out)? Could it be that Soul is an adult drama designed as kiddie fare? It sounds like a feasible theory until you take the plot twist into consideration. It seems to have been designed to appeal to the younger audience members. I thought it was kind of silly at first, but then I realized there was more purpose to it than checking the Kid Appeal box.
Soul centers on Joe Gardner (Foxx, Ray), a middle-aged jazz pianist in NYC who can’t seem to catch that big break. To pay the bills, he teaches music at the local middle school. He’s just been offered a full-time position, something that makes his mother (Rashad, This Is Us) very happy. She’s been telling him for some time to give up his big dreams and go for something practical. That same day, he gets the opportunity of a lifetime. He’s invited to audition for jazz legend Dorothea Williams (Bassett, What’s Love Got to Do with It) for a gig that night. Joe aces it and rushes home to get ready. That’s when he falls down a manhole and “dies”. Well, sort of.
Joe’s soul ends up on an escalator headed for “The Great Beyond”. He’s having none of it, especially on the day when he finally gets his big break. He tries to escape, but ends up in “The Great Before” where unborn souls go to get their personalities before descending to Earth to begin life as a human. Thinking Joe is a new mentor, the counselors in charge- all named Jerry- assign him 22 (Fey, Mean Girls), a cynical soul who has no interest in experiencing life on Earth. She has worn down every one of her previous mentors including Mother Theresa, Gandhi and Abe Lincoln. Nevertheless, Joe tries to help 22 find her spark so she can aid him in returning to his body and resuming his life.
It’s no secret Joe manages to return to Earth, but things don’t go exactly as they should. I won’t reveal what happens, but it allows Joe to see his life from a different point of view. He begins to realize that he never really enjoyed life, he simply existed. That is, except when he played his music. When he does, it puts him in “The Zone” which turns out to be a real albeit metaphysical place. While Joe has his epiphany, a rigidly meticulous soul accountant named Terry (House, Hunt for the Wilderpeople) is determined to return his soul to the Great Beyond in order to balance the books.
When it comes to computer-animation, Pixar can’t be beat. The artists are tops in their field. They don’t just make pretty drawings; they create worlds where anything is possible, even the impossible. Soul is colorful, energetic and vibrant not to mention extremely imaginative. Take the Jerrys in the Great Before. They’re shape-shifting, two-dimensional Cubist figures made of neon lines. How brilliant is that? The NYC depicted in Soul is a lively place with memorable characters like the hippy-dippy sign twirler/mystic (comedian Norton) who factors into the plot in a most unusual way. You see, sign twirling puts him in The Zone where he’s the captain of a kooky pirate ship with a peace sign anchor and Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” playing on a continuous loop. What’s really cool about the people that came up with all this is they make it seem so easy and effortless. This, my friends, is the magic of Pixar.
The voice talents assembled for Soul are truly terrific. Foxx is the perfect choice for Joe while Fey adds a mischievous quality to 22. Norton is funny as the sign twirler/mystic/ship captain. Rashad is terrific as the mother trying to save her son from the same life of failure as his late musician father, the man who first introduced him to the wonderful world of jazz. Bassett is just great as jazz musician Dorothea, a hardened type who knows talent when she sees it.
The music in Soul is simply outstanding whether or not you like jazz. If nothing else, Soul will introduce youngsters to a style of music different from the generic pop they listen to on Spotify. It’s music in its purest form.
I must compliment Pixar on its commitment to diversity. There’s no rule that says all kid’s entertainment has to focus on white characters from upper suburbia. I’m pleased to see a CA movie centered almost entirely on black characters and their culture. At one point, Joe visits a barber shop for a quick fix-up job after an accident with a pair of clippers. It’s a center of social activity where people talk and joke while getting their hair cut. Soul nails it perfectly.
Although the plot twist is a little silly, I really love Soul. It has plenty of that and plenty of heart too. It’s little wonder it took home the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. It’s another winner for Pixar.
