{"id":9701,"date":"2024-12-01T09:56:55","date_gmt":"2024-12-01T14:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=9701"},"modified":"2024-12-01T09:56:55","modified_gmt":"2024-12-01T14:56:55","slug":"soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/12\/01\/soul\/","title":{"rendered":"Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Soul<\/strong> (2020)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Disney\/Comedy-Drama-Fantasy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 100 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (thematic elements, some language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Pete Docter\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Pete Docter, Mike Jones and Kemp Powers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (jazz compositions\/arrangements by Jon Batiste)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Matt Aspbury and Ian Megibben\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 25, 2020 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $122.2 (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u201cIsn\u2019t this a bit existential for a kid\u2019s movie?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019d never thought that question would ever pass my lips, but I never saw the Pixar movie Soul<\/strong> until now. I shouldn\u2019t be too surprised though. After all, it\u2019s the same studio that gave us Inside Out which is still the most creative and accurate description of a preteen girl\u2019s emotions I\u2019ve ever seen. I like it when Pixar makes movies like this. It shows there\u2019s still a deep well of creativity amidst all the lazy cash-grab sequels, the Toy Story movies being the exception.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Previous remarks notwithstanding, I had a hard time thinking of Soul<\/strong> as a kid\u2019s movie as its story of a jazz musician\u2019s 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<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Soul<\/strong> centers on Joe Gardner (Foxx, Ray), a middle-aged jazz pianist in NYC who can\u2019t seem to catch that big break. To pay the bills, he teaches music at the local middle school. He\u2019s just been offered a full-time position, something that makes his mother (Rashad, This Is Us) very happy. She\u2019s 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\u2019s invited to audition for jazz legend Dorothea Williams (Bassett, What\u2019s Love Got to Do with It) for a gig that night. Joe aces it and rushes home to get ready. That\u2019s when he falls down a manhole and \u201cdies\u201d. Well, sort of.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Joe\u2019s soul ends up on an escalator headed for \u201cThe Great Beyond\u201d. He\u2019s having none of it, especially on the day when he finally gets his big break. He tries to escape, but ends up in \u201cThe Great Before\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s no secret Joe manages to return to Earth, but things don\u2019t go exactly as they should. I won\u2019t 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 \u201cThe Zone\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0When it comes to computer-animation, Pixar can\u2019t be beat. The artists are tops in their field. They don\u2019t just make pretty drawings; they create worlds where anything is possible, even the impossible. Soul<\/strong> is colorful, energetic and vibrant not to mention extremely imaginative. Take the Jerrys in the Great Before. They\u2019re shape-shifting, two-dimensional Cubist figures made of neon lines. How brilliant is that? The NYC depicted in Soul<\/strong> 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\u2019s the captain of a kooky pirate ship with a peace sign anchor and Bob Dylan\u2019s \u201cSubterranean Homesick Blues\u201d playing on a continuous loop. What\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The voice talents assembled for Soul<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The music in Soul <\/strong>is simply outstanding whether or not you like jazz. If nothing else, Soul<\/strong> will introduce youngsters to a style of music different from the generic pop they listen to on Spotify. It\u2019s music in its purest form.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I must compliment Pixar on its commitment to diversity. There\u2019s no rule that says all kid\u2019s entertainment has to focus on white characters from upper suburbia. I\u2019m 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\u2019s a center of social activity where people talk and joke while getting their hair cut. Soul <\/strong>nails it perfectly.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Although the plot twist is a little silly, I really love Soul<\/strong>. It has plenty of that and plenty of heart too. It\u2019s little wonder it took home the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. It\u2019s another winner for Pixar.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Soul (2020)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Disney\/Comedy-Drama-Fantasy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 100 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (thematic elements, some language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Pete Docter\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Pete Docter, Mike Jones and Kemp Powers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (jazz compositions\/arrangements by Jon Batiste)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Matt Aspbury and Ian Megibben\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 25, 2020 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton, Rachel House, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9755,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Soul-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9701"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9757,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9701\/revisions\/9757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}