Soul

Soul – Middle aged middle school music teacher, Joe Gardner, has always had a love of jazz and dreams of one day becoming a famous musician. He unexpectedly gets the chance to play with his hero, Dorothea Williams but in his haste to get to the gig he falls down a manhole and finds himself in the afterlife. Refusing to go to ‘The Great Beyond’ when at the cusp of his big break, he arrives at the place where new souls are born and meets ’22’, a soul who refuses to be born. Can the pair work together to achieve both of their aims or will their different perspectives change how each other thinks?

Soul (2020) – Director: Pete Docter, Kemp Powers

By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62278777

Rating: PG

Running Length: 100 mins

Starring: Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton

Genre: Animated, Drama

REVIEW: ‘SOUL’

Who are we? What are we doing? Where will we go when we die? These are some big, profound questions that are often asked by children so who better than to tackle them than Pixar, the animation studio that never shies away from difficult subject matter. ‘Soul’ posits that souls come into being as blank slates that are sorted and given different personality traits that will determine the basics of who they are once they are properly born into human form.

In order to work us through this concept director Pete Doctor attaches it to the classic ‘odd couple format’. Joe, desperate to return to life and ’22’, desperate to stay unborn, want entirely opposite things; over the course of the film their exposure to each other challenges their world views. The subject matter is unavoidably dark but, with Pixar’s usual upbeat and colourful style, the hard questions are dealt with in a child-friendly way and broken down into manageable chunks. Unfortunately while the decision to do it this way makes sense, it does have the side effect of skimming over the plot and hoping about in a disjointed manner. Having jazz music as the anchor that ties everything together works well and even though I, personally, am not a huge fan of the medium, I very much enjoyed the jazz-heavy soundtrack.

The mix-up that happens when Joe and 22 end up together on Earth is somewhat predictable but seeing 22 experience the world afresh and taking so much pleasure from things usually taken for granted is joyous and allows Joe to re-evaluate those big questions once more. ‘Soul’ may not be perfect and the ending doesn’t go the way it probably should but it is still a gorgeously realised piece of animation that is bound to resonate with kids and give adults plenty to think about.

CONTENT: IS ‘SOUL’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

Joe is distracted as he walks around the city and ends up falling down an open manhole and promptly finds himself on a space-like pathway heading towards a large, bright light. This implies that he has died and is on his way to an afterlife.

Throughout the movie, there are several scenes where Joe and other characters rush around the busy city, running across busy streets where they are narrowly missed by oncoming traffic. This recklessness towards road safety may be of concern to some parents.

A character’s soul accidentally lands inside the body of a cat. The cat is promptly seen on the pathway to the great beyond. It meows questioningly as it is confused as to how it got there. An implication is that the soul of the cat has ‘died’ as a result of the incident.

A character becomes ‘lost’ and another attempts to save them, this scene becomes a little scary when large, dark figures who are annoyed and angry loom over them.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘SOUL’ FOR KIDS?

Thought-provoking and beautiful, Pixar’s ‘Soul’ gets right to the heart of who we are and where we may be heading. Although the subject matter may inevitably be somewhat macabre, it is dealt with in such a lavish, light-hearted and delicate way that we feel this movie is suitable for all ages.

• Violence: 0/5
• Emotional Distress: 2/5 (Joe’s ‘death’ may be a little upsetting but it isn’t dwelt upon)
• Fear Factor: 1/5
• Sexual Content: 0/5
• Bad Language: 0/5
• Dialogue: 0/5
• Other Notes: Deals with themes of death, the afterlife, the essence of a person’s soul, living an unfulfilled life, fear of the unknown and not accepting the inevitable.

Words by Laura Record