Soul

Released 25th December 2020, Soul was the first Pixar film which wasn’t released theatrically (due to Covid-19). This film is about a jazz teacher pursuing his dreams and confronting the inner workings of the human soul; so, the inner workings of the human soul – sounds kind of similar to 2015’s Inside Out doesn’t it (the two films even share the same director and studio: Pete Doctor & Pixar)? Well mark my words; this film is a masterpiece.

Entering the 2000s, animated films began to garner a dishonourable reputation with child pandering and colour-fuelled films. This is obviously lazy and declines the artistic merit of animation as a medium of art, this proven time and time again to be profitable thus leading animation down a dark path. Every animation studio jumped this lazy bandwagon in some capacity or another and even the better animated films this decade have felt like they were made for younger audiences with adults being able to watch (albeit a couple of exceptions). With this in mind Soul is the anti-animated film.

Pixar took the animation medium which they arguably ‘reanimated’ at the turn of the century with their ever-impressive computer-generated animation and made a film for adults which children can follow and enjoy. The animators manage to make New York City feel like its own character alongside Jamie Fox and Tina Fey as Joe Gardener and 22, respectively. Both of these actors encapsulate their characters and their subsequent quirks with such nuance - and these characters have such strong and relatable conflict; internal and external thus taking us to the central idea of the film – what is your soul?

What is your soul? Does it determine your life’s journey? How does one influence another. These concepts are handled so thoroughly and with great finesse – it is essentially challenging your perception of life and what it truly is to be alive and what you do with your life. The ways it goes about this are most definitely for mature audiences to interpret and I highly doubt children would take as much away from this film as adults / young adults. Regardless, the story is told in a way that children won’t get lost or bored with the heavier themes present.

With that being said this film is also particularly funny without harming the tone of the film and subsequent tension building at points in the narrative. With the story being centred around an aspiring jazz musician, the soundtrack is a crucial component to the films success. One particular scene is carried purely by the soundtrack and it frankly encompasses everything that makes this film work as well as it does; insightful, song-like, beautiful, heart-breaking – masterful. Overall, Soul is a true whirlwind of emotion, technical prowess and artistry which manages to re-encapsulate Pixar's early 2000s-magic.