Pixar’s “Soul” couples emotion and inspiration in touching film

Following the creativity and pure emotion of “Inside Out,” “Soul” is Pixar’s latest movie designed specifically to make me cry. The 2020 flick, co-directed by Pete Docter and Kemp Powers, is an animated movie made to explore the parallel between passion and purpose. Main character Joe Gardner (voiced by Jamie Foxx) is a middle school band teacher by salary and a piano player by dedication.

Passionate for jazz—which is a passion few others in his life share—he exists for the simple hope that he will soon catch his “big break.” Only, on the single day he gets it, he dies. Most of the movie is shot in an in-between space, something like an “afterlife.” Desperate to not be dead, Gardner does all that he can to escape and ends up in a place called the “Great Before,” where his only chance to escape the afterlife is helping a new soul start life. Except, he is tasked with a soul named 22 voiced by Tina Fey, who is what we’d call, in polite terms, a menace.

She’s had the best role models of history—Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln—and yet, she remains uninspired. Nothing makes her want to leave the safe haven of the Great Before; no passion of hers has ever been big enough to make her want life. The idea for “Soul” came after the immensely popular “Inside Out,” which utilized personification to examine the duality of emotion. Happy with his piece—but still feeling that something was missing—Docter began his work on “Soul.”

It was for this reason Docter and Powers wanted a movie that challenged the pre-conceived notions of purpose: do we really need it? And why do we so often feel that we must prove we have it? “The movie’s aim is really to say that we’re already enough,” Docter says. “We all can walk out of the door and enjoy life without needing to accomplish or prove anything. And that’s really freeing.”

I haven’t seen many movies tackle such a difficult concept with the ease that “Soul” does. It’s visually intriguing; not to mention, animation was a great choice. Animation is a great tool to dance on the lines of realistic, but otherwise hard to depict.

Many of my favorite TV series and movies are animated, which allows them to freely explore the abstract. The TV show “Tuca and Bertie” imagines anxiety as the body literally falling apart. “Inside Out” imagines emotion as living creatures in your brain who fight for control. And “Soul,” bless its heart, imagines the line between “alive” and “not really.”

In addition, Foxx and Fey are excellent voice actors. I thoroughly enjoyed each of them in their respective roles—I couldn’t have picked better choices. I also loved the idea of the “Jerrys,” who are hard to explain but a cool concept in viewing. The soundtrack was lovable, and the animation suitable.

“Soul” might be a movie that goes over kids’ heads, but I’m not sure that the target audience is for them anyway. It is equal parts charming and hard-hitting, both without trying too hard to be. I recommend “Soul” to anyone currently dealing with an existential crisis, with a high rating of 4.5/5.