Soul

Why I ignore that rule and think, “This time will be different” I have no idea. So, I think you can guess what I looked like by the end of this movie. I guess I should be enjoying the fact I didn’t have to walk through a public place with my post-crying face on. I’d be surprised if anyone got out of this latest Pixar release. So I would have been in good company.

Soul is a gorgeous example of their style and finesse. Obviously, they are king when it comes to animation, but I could not get enough of the use of color. Pixar creates a richness with a spectrum of blues, purples, and blacks in the scenes with the lost souls. And especially in the monochromatic tunnel, the animators spin up eerily beautiful moments. The beauty of the film is only partially captured with visuals, though.

As you might expect with the title, the score pulls more than its fair share in this movie. Without it, I don’t think the emotional impact of the movie would have been as poignant. Joe is so steeped in everything to do with music, the film had to follow suit. And it absolutely does. Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, and Jon Batiste did a phenomenal job. It would not surprise me to see them win gobs of awards this season.

The acting talent runs deep in Soul. Jamie Foxx plays the determined Joe Gardner. Joe’s mother is voiced by none other than Phylicia Rashad. Tina Fey is the intransigent 22. Graham Norton assists lost souls as Moonwind. Questlove and Donnell Rawlings both work to get Joe to his ultimate goal as Dez and Curly, respectively. Angela Bassett takes a break from her role as Queen Mother of Wakanda to step into Dorothea Williams, the bee’s knees of the jazz circuit. And there are many, many more wonderful talents displayed here. The casting director could not have chosen a better cast.

Does anyone else ask themselves, is Pixar really in the business of producing kids’ movies? This question rolls around in my head after many of their releases but has really stuck since watching Soul. I’m not saying their movies are inappropriate for kids or anything. They’re excellent for kids. These stories are constructed with a layer intended for only kids to get and enjoy. If I were a kid nowadays, Pixar would be at the top of my list regardless of what they put out.

But when you get down to it, Pixar uses a medium traditionally reserved for kids to give adults stories addressing some pretty big pressure points for adults. For example, Up addresses some huge hitters like infertility shame. And they did that in what the first ten minutes? I’ll let you imagine what kind of mess I was after that one. And this film is really no different. Soul starts swinging away in the first thirty seconds with job ennui. Opening the movie with an off-key rendition of When You Wish Upon a Star was a wonderful and sense grating touch.

Job ennui might not sound like a subject that would hit you in the feels the way Up manages to, but it is. I don’t have Joe’s passion for music. But the hesitation and disappointment he showed when the principal handed him his full-time job offer were not strangers to me.

They’re good friends, actually. They come over at least once or twice a week.

And that’s part of Pixar’s magic. They give us reflections of ourselves filtered through the lens of animation. This hyper-fictionalized view disarms any defense mechanism that might be tripped by seeing a live-action version of the same story.

I doubt I’ll be able to do the same Slackers Guide to the Oscars series like I did last year, but I am sure Soul will be in the running, if not the front runner this year.