When I was a little girl, my dad would ask me if I was happy with my parental preference. Further, he explained that every soul chooses their life paths for a number of reasons. I was five years old.
From the mind of one of Pixar’s most talented members, Pete Docter (“Inside Out,” “Up”), comes “Soul,” a charming, whimsical music film that explores the biggest question people have ever asked. asking from the beginning: “What does life mean? ”
“Soul” opens with the death of piano-loving middle school teacher Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx). After a brilliant lab, flying high on the gaps of success, he almost misses being crushed by careless construction workers, hitting an oncoming car, and then falling into a borehole.
Now playing on Disney Plus, “Soul” breaks many of the rules typically given to children’s movies, but it does so with the purpose of investigating issues related to mortality. in a way that many films do not dazzle. It delves into the second biggest question ever, and that is what happens before and after people leave the bodies. Is there heaven?
Funny how life was growing for old Joe: he had just had a chance to play with jazz legend Dorothea Williams (Angela Bassett) at the Half Note club. This was his lifelong dream, the pinnacle of his success as a musician and Joe, well this man was talented.
Imagine his surprise when he finds himself, sans a body, moving on a conveyor belt through the unknown. Strangely, Joe falls off the climber, falling through spiritual dimensions to a place called the Great Before where souls prepare to go to Earth.
And what is a pre-physical soul like? Well, this is Disney and so it is desirable, with light eyes and a pure cry. Here are simple rules and every newbie soul is guided by mentors – those who have spent their lives with passion and who, diligently, want to help the next generation.
As soon as the new souls find their special place, their spark, they are allowed to go to Earth where they are assigned to the body of a child.
How is personality created, exactly? Here is the theory. Some virtues are presented at the “You Seminar,” ie in the spiritual realm, but others are discovered with earnest guidance from the oldest and wisest souls.
Back to Joe. He wants to get back to the body attached to life support and, in this state, he is mistaken for a mentor and automatically assigned to “soul mate,” No. 22 (Tina Fey), a free spirit with a rebellious climb that has been around for ages and completely happy never to experience life.
22 is a challenge. She loves the Great Before and, despite powerful counselors like Mother Theresa and Abraham Lincoln trying and failing, she never got her spark. The wardens (Alice Braga, Richard Ayoade and Wes Studi), each named Jerry, let Joe try and – you know – together they find a gap that will bring them both to the ground.
Not to mention spoilers, Joe’s desire to get back to this jazz club, coupled with 22’s desire not to be dragged on, come together and make it into something unexpected. Now that she’s alive, 22 begins to enjoy the little things and realizes (finally) that land isn’t as bad as she thought.
Joe, on earth, begins to learn about himself. Inside his favorite outlet, he realizes that his love for music is truly an obsession that has hampered his ability to make meaningful friendships. Who helped shape Joe to Joe? His hard-working mother is Libba (Phylicia Rashad), and he also gets magic when he plays the piano moving into the zone, described by the young Moonwind, so: “When joy comes to become an obsession, a man will be separated from life. ”
Why is “Soul” based on a largely black team? I am old; it is a marketing decision based on algorithms and hard financial data on the consumption power of the African American and African American global community.
Remember that Disney and Pixar are corporations. And Pixar has long been the coach of the boys ’club, and diversity and inclusion have never been part of their history. So, I went back to hard algorithms and financial data as the main motivation for stacking “Soul” with aka color taste.
“Soul” is a beautiful film combining the best Pixar magic.