Review by Brad Balfour
Soul
Directors: Pete Docter, Kemp Powers
Cast: Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton, Rachel House, Alice Braga, Richard Ayoade, Wes Studi, Fortune Feimster, Zenobia Shroff, Phylicia Rashad, Donnell Rawlings, Questlove, Angela Bassett
Animated films have been tacitly created with children in mind, but they are tackling such curious questions as to where someone goes when they die, and is there life after death? It seems remarkable that a movie like Soul can maintain a balance between innocence and wisdom; this animated film grapples with it all.
Co-directed by Pete Docter and Kemp Powers, the film stars the voices of Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, and other notable POC such as Alice Braga, Richard Ayoade, Phylicia Rashad, Donnell Rawlings, Questlove, and Angela Bassett. Besides challenging our notions about life and death, Soul is also the first Pixar film to feature an African-American protagonist.
Without seeming silly, it raises the question: can you come back as you once were if, somehow, you were killed before what you believe is your time. In this animated feature, middle school music teacher Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx) gets his big break as a jazz musician after school, and he gets to be in the band he always wanted to play in. As he heads off to prep for his big break, he falls down a manhole and is seemingly killed.
His soul heads on its way to the pearly gates and it must follow a very detailed initiation process before it’s sent off to “the Great Beyond.”
In his attempt to return to Earth to fulfill his big shot playing in jazz great Dorothea Williams’ (Angela Bassett) band — especially so he can prove his mom wrong in insisting he take the school’s full-time job offer — he meets a soul, 22 (Tina Fey), he doesn’t want to be born on Earth. Through a sequence of complicated events 22 gets inside Joe’s body who follows her to Earth as her-faux mentor. Once their deception is detected by the powers that be they end up back in the ethereal realm where Joe’s pines to get back to Earth and 22 get further confused and then get clarity
And if so, what would it involve? Can even new souls rebels against mundane existence? More importantly, should you follow your heart or be practical and do what it takes to survive. What you do with your life is a matter of profound consideration, even more profound when it’s animated with these characters in mind. Given how challenged I was to consider such questions, I wonder how a seven-year processes this film.
Especially when it comes to being a jazz music fan, player and teacher, I wondered whether kids will get into the music, the idea of following your heart and how Jon Batiste soundtrack impact them? Soul won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and Academy Award for Best Original Score, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound at the 93rd Academy Awards held earlier this year.
In this gracefully and glowing, digitally-generated narrative, music teacher Joe finally realizes that passing on his love for music in general, and jazz in particular, is as important as his mission to be a performing artist. Okay, it’s understandable he’d rather be on stage than be stuck in classroom for hours, but in the end, he gets to realize his dream as well inspire kids.