Going into this movie cold might be your best bet, because Soul is an unexpected experience from animation powerhouse, Pixar.
At first glance, it is vaguely reminiscent of its older cousin, Inside Out, with director Pete Docter back at helm and a brief exploration on the topic of personalities / emotions. Similarities end there: Soul is less an animated film for young kids and more a story appealing to jaded adults, given the central character is Joe Gardner, a grownup who struggles with his day job as an NYC middle school music teacher but actually harbours grand dreams of being a professional jazz pianist.
When he stumbles upon a gig opportunity with a famed saxophonist, Gardner is ecstatic and the literal skip in his step miraculously saves him from falling concrete, scattered nails / screws on a pavement and oncoming traffic as he navigates home… until he falls into a manhole.
Gardner discovers he has turned into a soul and will soon have to cross over to ‘The Great Beyond’, a large, glowing and pulsating object in the middle of pitch black nothingness. He is in disbelief that he is about to die right before his big break and somehow manages to escape to ‘The Great Before’, a bright and cheery landscape where 2D creatures raise unborn souls for life on Earth, and older souls yet to pass on mentor the newborns. Gardner is mistaken for one such mentor and is paired with Soul 22, who has for an unknown number of years yet to be born because of her refusal to be born.
Gardner convinces Soul 22 to find her ‘spark’, complete her ‘badge’ and pass it to him so that he can return to Earth but soon realises how much of an uphill task it is as Soul 22 is deeply uninspired by anything. The two instead seek out another potential solution, visiting a zone in between the spiritual and physical, which surprisingly works – only Soul 22 enters Gardner’s body and Gardner into a therapy cat. Chaos ensues as Gardner teaches Soul 22 how to be a temporary human, while in the meantime searching for a way back to his own self, hopefully in time for his performance at night.
What follows is an insight into Gardner’s life from another perspective. Along the way both Gardner and Soul 22 learn valuable lessons about what it means to live, passion and purpose aside.
Pixar does a commendable job in tackling this rather abstract and somewhat philosophical subject matter. While most of the dialogue and punchlines will likely be lost on audiences under the age of 12, Soul is very much thematically a journey of being human, of being alive – and you can be sure your little ones will still be able grasp the gist of that message, because the joy that Soul 22 fleetingly experiences in Gardner’s self, interacting with friends and family, is unmistakeable.
One can also expect nothing less with Pixar’s animation. The close ups of the saxophonist rehearsing her stage tunes, Gardner tinkling the ivories, and even the grass in The Great Before provided animators ample opportunities to flex. New York also seemed to jump off the screen, distinctive sights and sounds captured meticulously to replicate the city in its daily state of motion.
Having not stepped into a movie theatre for a long time, it was an incredible visual treat to watch these scenes on the big screen. At certain moments, it was difficult to discern if one was watching an animation or an actual person playing an instrument in a jazz joint. The attention to detail was simply –
I have left the most-obvious-yet-not-entirely-obvious bit to the end: jazz and its integral part in African American culture. A lot of its people, their manner of speak, and the neighbourhoods they reside in are depicted in a culturally sensitive and respectful manner. It also helped tremendously that they were voiced by actors like Jamie Foxx and Angela Bassett, backed by a diverse cast including drummer Curley – played by none other than an actual drummer, Questlove from The Roots, a most pleasant reveal indeed.
So much of the soul in jazz was also influenced by culture, the two now intrinsically intertwined. And in Joe Gardner’s soul lives the soul of jazz.
If you have yet to watch a movie this year, make Soul your first – it would be a fantastic way to kickstart your 2021.
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