On December 25, 2020 Pixar Animation Studios released their new movie Soul on Disney Plus. Soul is an animated film about a musician who gets the opportunity of a lifetime to play with an amazing musician, and then dies. The movie is his journey avoiding “The Great Beyond” because he believes that his life just started.
Joe Gardner, the protagonist of Soul, is a great jazz piano player. He teaches middle school band, but his real dream was always to get a great gig and play professionally. Avoiding death, he mistakenly finds himself in “The Great Before”, where he pretends to be a mentor, helping soul number 22 find their spark so they can go to earth.
Both the animation and the message of this film have much in common with Pixar’s Inside Out. This makes sense because the films have the same creators. The theme is definitely different than we usually see, talking about the big questions of life, challenging us to think about our place in this life. It’s also really beautiful in showing the strength we can get in just living and seeing those around us.
The appearance of some famous historical figures gives the movie a light and amusing feel around the beginning and as the story progresses, the humor continues, taking on a more serious tone near the end as Joe and soul 22 make realizations about life that affect the audience and cause us to examine our own life choices
The beauty of the movie is in the message that it leaves. Neither Joe nor 22 seem to have the business of life--or their role in it--figured out, as so little of us do. As they go on this journey together, they find it difficult to answer the questions of life. Why am I here? Where did I come from? Where am I going? These are the big questions that many people strive all their lives to answer. In the end the overall message is that we can’t fully answer those questions. But we can live our lives and enjoy the small moments.
Written by: Kylie Broce
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