I’ll admit when I saw the first couple of trailers for Pixar’s Soul, some of it made me fearful it’d be too much a rehash of Coco’s hemes, that being a character who’s musically gifted exploring the afterlife. And yeah, it does touch on some of those same elements, but thankfully this film (which was co-written and directed by Kemp Powers and Pete Docter) does feel distinct in its own right. I’ve heard some reviews making Fantasia comparisons, and I can understand them though I’d be more want to describe it as an existentialist, American jazz-themed version of Fantasia. I’d say this is on the upper-middle end of Pixar films, an enjoyable and thoughtful cartoon but still within the line of what I’d usually expect when I think of what a good Pixar movie would do.
When I reviewed Coco I remarked on how I felt it’d appeal more to adults than kids, and Soul makes me think that even more so, and It isn’t just because of the themes of mortality. There’s stuff here kids and the whole family will definitely get into, but now we’re also getting Carl Jung references, and serious conversations about George Orwell’s philosophy at random points. If anyone wanted to complain about modern animation talking down to its audience too much, this certainly isn’t the film you’d want to present as credible evidence.
The story follows Joe Gardner (played by Jamie Foxx), a music school teacher who’s getting bored with the same old routine and dreams of seeing his name in lights- namely, the local jazz club down the street, where he hopes to impress saxophone master Dorothea Williams (a very sassy and fun Angela Bassett). Joe’s seamstress mom (Phylicia Rashad) has always had doubts about his son chasing after gigs because they’re way more financially risky than a simple teaching job, but he doesn’t let that stop him from having a successful audition with Williams. It seems like his luck might be turning around, but an open manhole in the street has other ideas.
He’s suddenly thrown into a bizarre nether-realm called the Great Before, the section off from the Great Beyond where souls who’ve lived lives on Earth mentor new souls looking for their first chance at life. The senior soul counselors (voiced by Richard Ayoade and Alice Braga, who are all named “Terry”) hope that Joe will be able to get a young rebellious soul named 22 (Tina Fey, pouring on the snark) interested in a life of her own, but she’s stubborn enough to have driven some of history’s most famous souls bonkers.
With the help of Graham Norton’s Moonwind, a NYC street sign-twirler who can astral-project into the Great Before, Joe hopes to get back inside his body before the big jazz show, and strikes up a good relationship with 22 in the process. An overzealous soul-counter named Terry (Rachel House) isn’t pleased with Joe going off the grid, and unfortunately for our two heroes, this complicates things a ton.
Fey and Foxx have some good chemistry together, maybe not as blow away great as some of Pixar’s other works like in Finding Nemo or whatnot, but their journey still feels satisfying. At one point I thought the plot was just going to stick with the usual Liar Revealed cliche, but thankfully they don’t just rehash it and actually just get it out of the way fairly quickly. What they do come up with isn’t anything ultra groundbreaking, but it does result in some funny gags and nice story progression.
A lot of people talk about Pixar having a signature writing and directing style, and to be fair you do see some of the studio’s typical tropes like their ultra-simplistic character models in the Great Before, and those classic Pixar sentimental scenes are still present. But some of the more emotionally raw Pixar films will often come from Lee Unkrich, who directed Toy Story 3 and Coco. Pete Doctor also did Up, so he can tug on an audience’s heartstrings, but there’s more of a subtlety and a specific type of experimentation and weirdness to his work, which partially drives Soul but was also present in Up (with its weird plot involving brainwashed dogs with voice boxes chasing an exotic rare bird).
If you’ve ever seen 2001’s A.I, you might recall it feeling odd how Kubrick directed these weird fantasy moments that were influenced by Steven Spielberg, while Spielberg added some gritter elements modeled on Kubrick’s style. While there isn’t that sort of style-imitation going on in Soul, it’s easy to tell that Doctor is likely a key driving main force behind the Great Before sequences, while Powers is going over the New York sequences- of which there’s more of than the advertising implies. Not to say there isn’t some cute and entertaining stuff in the fantasy scenes, it’s more that the plot picks up once 22 starts experiencing the positives of Earth life.
And the city scenes do feel authentic, there’s a funny honesty to the kind of chatter in the black barbershop Joe frequents, and some of the lighting and background design is surprisingly memorable. Trent Reznor’s score has a good amount of variety that adds to the mood with some appropriately weird techno for the spacey scenes, while Colbert bandleader Jon Batiste’s jazz compositions allow Gardner to seriously back up his words when he talks of his passion for playing.
At first glance, you wouldn’t think Soul would make good franchise material, but it’s certainly found an audience for good reason- and the story does leave a few things open-ended that could be explained in a sequel, like what exactly Joe plans to do with his music next and where certain characters ended up. Regardless, I can easily recommend it- it’s a fun and warm-hearted standalone story that’s got a good amount of sophistication for parents, and enough silliness to keep their kids invested. As always, if you’ve took the time to watch it, hit us up on FAN’s social media and share your take!