Pixar Playlist #23 - Soul

 Ladies and Gentlemen, whether you like it or not, the Pixar Playlist

After a few sequels to classic franchises, Pixar are back to doing what they debatably do best, interesting high-concept original projects, up next is Soul.

Soul’s story as interesting, starting in the mind of Pete Doctor back in 2016, with co-writers Mike Jones and Kemp Powers bringing the story to life. And then the film was due to be released in November 2020, when COVID was still a major issue. Disney decided instead to have the film release on their streaming service over the Christmas period.

As such, it’s not easy to gauge the level of success the film had commercially, but I can tell you it received near universal acclaim from critics. 95% Rotten Tomatoes acclaim. How do I feel about it? Well, let’s take a look.

Note: For 22 I will be using they/them pronouns as souls are supposed to be agender. If this offends you in any way, I highly invite you to piss off!

Soul follows the story of Joe Gardner, a music teacher with ambitions to play and he may well be in luck as one of his alumni has an opening he’d fit right into, but as he gets his big break, he falls down a manhole and dies.

OK, but really, his soul is headed for the Great Beyond but desperate to go back and get his shot, Joe’s soul starts running, ending up in the Great Before, a place where souls begin, finding their spark before heading down to Earth. There he meets 22, a soul that for near eternity has lacked the required spark and has no real desire to go to Earth.

Joe seeks a way back to Earth and into his body, and it just so happens there may be a way. But he ends up accidently taking 22 with him, and 22 ends up in his body, whilst he ends up in the body of the therapy cat that was on his lap as he lay on a hospital bed. Can this matter be fixed? And can 22 finally discover their spark?

This film has a really intriguing premise, the idea that souls are beings that exist outside of your body and are created before your actual birth and sent down to Earth. And the mentor Jerrys and Terry have interesting wire-like designs that make for a nice aesthetic choice. I also like how Terry blends into the real-world using lines like the line of heart monitor, it’s clever and inventive.

The design appreciation continues in the real world, the human designs are just stylised enough not to be uncanny but recognisably human. The city itself is also a bit stylised and angular but it still looks real enough to serve as a nice backdrop to what is ultimately quite a grounded tale.

For at the heart of this story is Joe, a guy with a dream he hopes to achieve and a certain feel for what he likes and what he wants, only for that to come under question as he experiences his life through the eyes of the therapy cat. I can’t say the 40 or so minutes with him the therapy cat are the bits of the film I enjoy the most, but it is an interesting concept and allows for a few good jokes in a film where humour is not the core idea.

To me, the story picks up again right after the second act breakup, which is unusual because that’s usually where things become boring until the climax rolls along. But Joe is back in his body and he does what he said he was gonna do, played with a famous artist. And once it’s over, he doesn’t feel any different.

Joe’s arc in many ways is about the danger of letting a passion become an obsession to the neglect of everything else, that there is a difference between having a spark and a purpose. At the start, Joe is a music teacher, and financially he must have been doing ok, and would’ve been doing fine if he took the full-time job the school had offered him. But teaching was never his passion, he wants to be a jazz musician like his father, who was entirely reliant on his wife’s financial support to keep his head above water. It’s understandable that Libba Gardner would advise caution, and with Joe’s often meek personality in the face of his mother, it comes to him as a rejection of that ideal.

Still, following one’s dreams is a Disney moral and with 22 piloting Joe, she does soften a bit. But as I said, the performance doesn’t bring him happiness. Maybe his spark has died out a bit, or maybe conflating happiness with success means that now he has it, his life feels somewhat empty, and yes I know I just paraphrased Ratchet and Clank.

22 is an interesting counterbalance, they’ve had many mentors before Joe all of whom have rejected them and this feeling of failure ways heavily on them. So, they’ve decided to ditch passion for fear of failure. Until they get to walk a way in Joe’s shoes, see his relatively mundane regular life. There’s a nice scene where a student comes to Joe, saying she’s going to quit but after some coaxing, she comes around, an idea that seems strange to 22.

The second act breakup weighs heavily on them, as they begin to drown under the weight of their past failures. As Joe tries to rescue her, he sees all their past mentors criticise and put them down. The climax is suitably emotional for a Pixar movie, even if it’s done with the much cuter soul forms.

I’m pleased to say, as it is essential to this story that they nailed the music. It’s lovely to listen to as well as watch.

Soul succeeds in being a character driven story applicable to people of all ages. The first and final acts are great, the second act is a bit of a slog to get through but does have a good number of very good moments and genuine humour.

#1 Inside Out
#2 The Incredibles
#3 Up
#4 Finding Nemo
#5 Finding Dory
#6 Soul
#7 Coco
#8 Incredibles 2
#9 Toy Story 3
#10 Toy Story 4
#11 WALL-E
#12 Toy Story 2
#13 Onward
#14 The Good Dinosaur
#15 Brave
#16 Toy Story
#17 Cars 3
#18 Monsters Inc
#19 Ratatouille
#20 Cars
#21 Monsters University
#22 Cars 2
#23 A Bug’s Life