Soul (2020) | Disney Pixar
The 2015 Disney Pixar film
Inside Out took us into the mind and emotional core of a young girl. In 2020’s
Soul, directors Pete Doctor and co-director Kemp Powers go beyond the body to explore metaphysical matter.
The gorgeously animated
Soul is also a play on the protagonist’s passion for music. Joe Gardner is a music teacher with unrealised dreams of becoming a performing jazz pianist. The 100-minute movie is being streamed on Disney+ Hotstar.
The film begins with disharmonious musical instruments playing in the background as the Disney logo is revealed. Joe Gardner (voice of Jamie Foxx) is patiently encouraging his largely disinterested class of 12 year-old students to try harder.
SOUL is the latest Disney Pixar animation landing Disney Plus right in time for Christmas - and there was never a better time for the heartwarming story.
For decades, Pixar has pushed the boundaries of what its audience can imagine by grounding the fantastical in delightful ways, whether we look at toys on the ground, a universe of cars, robots on an unsustainable planet, the afterlife, or the mind of a child.
Soul is no exception to that plight. Partly taking place on another plane of existence,
Soul is perhaps one of Pixar’s more ambitious stories to date, a thoughtful and often experimental exploration of dreams, humanity, and appreciating what life has to offer that’s bolstered by inventive animation and the music.
Soul
DIRECTOR:
Pete Docter
The ever-popular studio merges cosmic philosophy and hyperspecific narrative. The result feels unfinished.
Credit: Disney/Pixar Published: 3:32 PM CST December 15, 2020 Updated: 1:32 PM CST December 24, 2020
Pixar last month turned 25 and, perhaps like those who can glimpse images from “Toy Story” and “A Bug’s Life” among their earliest movie-watching memories, the studio finds itself going through a quarter-life crisis. If we can imagine an entertainment company as humanistic (stick with me; I promise this isn’t more high-concept than the premise behind their newest movie), we can also imagine the questions Pixar may be asking of itself: “Why am I here? What is my purpose? Who am I trying to satisfy first and foremost?”