Review: Soul | 4 out of 4 Stars | Rated PG |
By Kyle Osborne
“Soul,” the latest feature from Pixar Animation is deep. It’s very deep, yet it’s also delightful. How did they do that? I dunno, man. It’s magic.
As amazing as the other Pixar films have been along the way – and, of course, the animation has become more sophisticated with improving technology – this is maybe the first time where you forget that you’re not watching a live action film with actual actors onscreen. You come to accept the characters as real people in a real New York City. It’s breathtaking.
Jamie Foxx is Joe Gordon, a middle school music teacher and jazz pianist whose passion is performing, not necessarily teaching, though he’s good at it and has good intentions. A drummer buddy (Questlove voices with utter authenticity) gets Joe an audition for Dorothea Williams’s quartet, and he crushes it.
But just as Joe appears to be fulfilling his dreams, he takes a wrong step and ends up in the afterlife. Or at least on his way, but Joe isn’t ready to go. It seems like a nice enough place, and the other souls are friendly and pretty gosh darn cute, but he’s left behind unfinished business back in the living world.
Meantime we meet a headstrong soul who has yet to come to earth, and looks for every excuse to stay put in the “before life.” Her name is “22.”, and by way of something that makes total sense in the movie, Joe and 22, polar opposites, become earthbound travel companions. So, now we have an odd couple headed for NYC and when they land with a thud in a hospital room, Joe’s soul has entered a therapy cat sitting at the foot of earthly Joe’s hospital bed. 22 (Tina Fey) is now inside Joe’s body.
Yes, “Soul” goes from the metaphysical to, essentially, a version of Freaky Friday, which opens the doors to some clever new takes on the old premise. In the process, the soul who never wanted to come to earth has found that the simple pleasures in “life” (pizza, the subway, walking) are enough to make her want to stay. And Joe, looking through her (his?) eyes, learns some profound lessons as well.
As photorealistic as the New York scenes are (I especially loved the barber shop scene and the characters who inhabit it), the animators have wisely made the afterlife a minimalist, abstract, yet warm and fuzzy place with the “counselors” in charge rendered as cool line drawings And the “souls” as little squishy balls that are more cuddly than minions and cuter than Kirby, though not dissimilar to that beloved videogame character.
Honestly, to explain it too much wouldn’t do it justice—that’s why I say “magic.” The filmmakers have taken the deepest, most daunting questions of our lives, and made them into a story that virtually anyone can understand and enjoy. Remember when they also pulled off this feat with “Inside Out” and “Coco?” Yeah – it’s like that.
It is also worth mentioning that the leading character and virtually all of the supporting characters are African-American. A first for Pixar. In addition to Jamie Foxx and Questlove, Phylicia Rashad shines as Joe’s mom and Angela Bassett’s voicing of saxophonist and bandleader Dorothea would get my vote for a Best Supporting Actress nomination, if such a thing were possible. The cast of “Soul” are proof enough that the Academy should have a category for voice acting. Maybe next year.
PG , 1h 40m, Directed By: Pete Docter, Streaming: Disney +
Walt Disney Pictures , Pixar Animation Studios
Same.
I loved the movie. I love how the real life moments were so realistic, with all the details of everything, the classroom and the music instruments are incredible, and then I started to get carried away by the story. It was pure magic.
You loved it because you have Soul!