Soul

Rating

Director

Pete Docter, Kemp Powers

Screenplay

Pete Docter, Mike Jones, Kemp Powers

Length

1h 40m

Starring

Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton, Rachel House, Alice Braga, Richard Ayoade, Phylicia Rashad, Donnell Rawlings, Ahmir-Khali Thompson aka Questlove, Angela Bassett, Cora Champonmmier, Margo Hall, Daveed Diggs, Rhodessa Jones, Wes Studi

MPAA Rating

PG

Original Preview

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Review

The concept of an afterlife is a key component in many religious faiths. Pixar’s Soul doesn’t go for the same corny interpretation of those ancient ideas, but rather gives us a fascinating and more compelling version of a pre-life where new souls are given their spark and sent off to Earth to try and express it.

The story is about middle school band teacher Joe (Jamie Foxx) who longs for a career as a jazz musician, but cannot seem to find the right break. When an accident sends him into the afterlife, his push to return to earth and play in the gig of his career puts him on a collision course with 22 (Tina Fey), a soul who cannot seem to find the spark that will allow her to join her fellow new souls on their way back to earth for a new life. Paired with Joe, they hatch a plan to get them back to earth, which meets another setback when they return with 22 in Joe’s body and Joe in the body of a cat. Will the duo find a way to reverse the body swap before the abacus-counting Terry (Rachel House) drags them both back.

Foxx’s vocal style doesn’t always fit the self-conscious teacher who longs to be a working jazz pianist, but he makes most of it work. Fey delivers a performance that’s almost unrecognizable as the dismissive and adrift 22. Her typical comedic style is subsumed by the role giving it personality and energy. Richard Ayoade and Alice Braga deliver wonderful support as two soul shepherds while Angela Bassett and Phylicia Rashad remain magnificently dependable in their roles as a popular jazz saxophonist and Joe’s mother respectively.

It’s a shame the pandemic hit when it did. Soul is Pixar’s best film since Inside Out and stands easily within the upper echelons of their all-time output. A theatrical release would have benefitted this meditative film about finding one’s purpose in life and igniting one’s spark. In the hands of experienced director Pete Docter and neophyte co-director Kemp Powers, the material bursts from the screen. On paper, the concept might have seemed similar to Pixar’s previous film Coco about the realm of the dead, but Docter, Powers, and Mike Jones craft a script that stretches beyond the gimmicky adventures of that film, which give Soul a spark of its own.

While it might not be a film that could help the audience discover what their spark is, it should help convince them that even if it’s not something they are great at, all they have to have is passion for its pursuit and that will be more than enough to satisfy their soul’s enrichment.

Review Written

May 10, 2022