The Movie Soul Explores the Wonders of Life, Death, and Everything in Between

The movie Soul was produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures and is about a jazz musician/teacher Joe Gardner who seeks to reconnect with his body after his soul is separated from it. Along the way he meets 22 and together they find out what it means to live. The movie overall inspires one to find their own interest in their lives and pursue it. If you ask, what is your purpose? Soul is here to tell you that you don’t need a specific purpose, it can be anything you enjoy and want it to be

This movie explores the wonders of life, death and everything in between it. While the theme may seem heavy, Soul is filled with humor, passion and inspiration. Joe Gardner is a middle school band teacher who is itching to become a successful jazz musician. Joe is offered a full-time position at the school and is also preparing for an audition to play with Dorothea Williams, a famous jazz musician, when he unfortunately falls into an open manhole. This leads him to The Great Before, where new souls get their personalities and quirks while learning the interests that they’ll take to Earth. Joe is paired with 22, a clever and sharp soul that has yet to understand the appeal of living. As Joe attempts to get back to his body while helping 22 earn her Earth badge, both learn what the meaning is to live and to enjoy what you love to do.

I think the overall plot and characters work for the movie. Joe is someone who is stubborn, hard-working and driven character while 22 is a young, clever and stubborn character as well. Together, they make it easy for audience members of different ages to relate to the movie. I think the plot works, together the two characters show the audience that it’s okay to find joy in anything and everything in life. Do what makes you happy, and what feeds your soul. I think compared to other genres this movie is very lighthearted, as most Disney movies are. Different movies such as westerns or action movies may not be able to touch on the topic of life purpose, and death without being more serious. I think what is so memorable about Soul is the deep message being visually portrayed so beautifully.

When comparing Soul to other Disney movies, it stands out from the traditional princess or hero versus villain plots. Joe Gardner (voiced by Jamie Foxx) is the first Black protagonist of a Pixar movie. Joe is also different compared to other main characters of previous Disney movies because he’s an adult facing fairly normal adult problems. That is, until he gets to The Great Before and meets 22. Some may argue that Soul is similar to Inside Out, which was also directed Pete Docter and released in 2015. Here the main character is a young girl named Riley, who is accompanied by five personified emotions Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust, trying to navigate life after recently moving. What makes the movie Soul unique is that Docter came up with the idea after questioning whether working on animated movies was his best use of time on Earth. Soul tackles larger and more mature themes than Inside Out, such as the meaning of life, the process of death, and what is beyond. Soul is one of Docter’s best pieces of work. With a story that can captivate children and adults, it evokes a feeling of connection and being understood for all. I think the movies influence is quite apparent. The director Pete Docter explained that Soul was influenced by Inside Out, but that it is not a second movie to Inside Out. Soul was inspired from it, but it is its own meaningful concept. Soul also stands out for amazing visual effects. It features wonderful animation with great use of color, light, translucence, and detail.

Overall, the visual look of Soul was breathtaking. Soul was one of the rare animated films to break into the Oscar’s shortlist for Visual Effects and was also in categories such as Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature. Soul was creatively breaking out of the typical Disney molding of design and focused on Impressionism. The characters were volumetric to come across as ethereal. Volumes are difficult to render and light, so it took a lot of time to create visually appealing and eye-catching characters.

Like previous Pixar movies, Soul was created using a storyboard with simple drawings. Storyboards are used to help plan the progression of the scene within the movie and align it with the story. From there it starts to take form in computer animation, using 3D rendering. The lighting throughout the Soul movie is very impressive and gives a very warm feeling to many of its scenes.

Pixar made history with the movie Soul due to coming very close to a nomination in the Academy’s VFX branch. Prior to Soul, Pixar never got that close to receiving a nomination within that category. Since most of Soul was going for a soft, abstract and ethereal feel, the models were not solid like many are animation. Instead they are volumes, or particles, an effect. Being particles instead of solid models makes them self-illuminating and makes it more difficult to make them lightable in different situations. This then requires many different layers for each character to add dimension and color to them.

While Soul was overall a good movie, it left some loose ends for viewers to question such as, who was supposed to be 22’s original mentor? If Joe gets a redo, do others? I do think overall the script was good, explaining that the meaning of life can be anything you make of it. In the movie they reference “jazzing” which is a cute way they connected jazz to living life. Joe telling 22 that she’s “really good at jazzing” showed the moment where the two characters connected and really began to understand each other.

The soundtrack of Soul is unique compared to other movies because there aren’t many movies about jazz music, and much less an animated movie about jazz music. The movie Soul features many talented voices such as Phylicia Rashad, Questlove and Daveed Diggs. The jazz music in Soul is original and is done by Jon Batiste, who is globally renowned, as well as Oscar winners Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Pete Docter and Kemp Powers wanted to focus on jazz and how jazz grew out of Black culture, and were very intentional towards being historically and culturally accurate. I think that many can appreciate how the directors took numerous steps to ensure the film was culturally authentic and truthful by having many Black voices weigh in their opinions on all aspects of the film.

I personally liked and overall enjoyed the movie. I think anyone that has ever wondered what they should be doing with their life can relate to this movie. I found it interesting that an animated Pixar movie would portray a difficult plot such as the meaning of life and death, but I think they did a good job of keeping it light-hearted. I think this movie would inspire many to choose their own paths, whether they are young or old. It’s never too late to find out what makes life worth living.