'Soul' Film Review: Pixar Gets Existential in Dizzying Animated Film

Pixar’s latest entertainment continues the studio’s successful quest for emotional domination of the animation space. Having mined your heart in “Up” and penetrated your brain with “Inside Out,” now they reach right into your “Soul.”

“Soul” is perhaps the most existentially ambitious film ever attempted by Disney and yet it pops with colorful visuals and gentle wisdom while the story clips along despite the dizzying height of the concept. Only in the final stages do the knots of plot complexity get the better of the characters, but audiences will have been well won over by then.

The film premiered to a reduced, socially-distanced audience on the big screen at the BFI London Film Festival on Sunday but it will, of course, make a larger, more controversial, non-theatrical bow on Disney+ on Christmas Day, where it is sure to prove a destination watch for many families around the world over the holiday period. They are unlikely to be disappointed, although some of the gorgeous splendor of the computer-generated animation is bound to be lost on smaller screens.

Also Read: Pixar's 'Soul' to Skip US Theaters for Christmas Day Disney+ Debut

Joe Gardener (voiced by Jamie Foxx) is a middle school band teacher in Queens, New York. The dissonant strains of his class attempting “When You Wish Upon A Star” cleverly play over the traditional Disney opening logo, leading Joe to demonstrate to the listless students his own piano skills, which reveal that he still nurses dreams of making it in jazz rather than in the classroom.

The day he is offered a full-time teaching post, with a pension plan and security, he also gets a call from a former student, a successful drummer called Curley (the voice belongs, almost inevitably, to Amir “Questlove” Thompson). Curley is offering the man he still calls “Mr. Gardener” the chance to sit in with famed saxophonist Dorothea Williams at the Half Note in the City that very night.

Ignoring his mother’s pleas to take the teaching job and give up the jazz dream, Joe hurries over to the club to audition. He gets the gig after impressing Williams (Angela Bassett), who calls him “Teach” and tells him to get a new suit. Excitedly rushing home through the New York streets, Joe has a series of amusing near-misses until a sudden drop down a manhole throws him, and the movie, into another dimension.

Now re-drawn as a “soul,” Joe is on a conveyor belt — shades of Powell and Pressberger’s “A Matter of Life and Death” — to the Great Beyond. However, one more deep plunge takes him into another realm, where a wraith of a woman with a clipboard (Alice Braga) explains he’s now in The Great Before, where baby “new souls,” drawn as cute blue-ish bubbles with faces, are assigned personality traits before they are sent to Earth.

Like I said, it’s complicated, the sort of movie that must have been hellish to pitch. Director Pete Docter’s previous form with “Inside Out” certainly will have inspired the giant leaps of faith required (and the fact that he has eight Oscar nominations and two wins and is the chief creative officer of Pixar no doubt helped, too).

Also Read: 'Soul' Teaser Celebrates Black Voices and Music in Pixar's Latest Film (Video)

To earn his ticket back home, Joe is assigned a mentoring role, put in charge of a reluctant soul who doesn’t want to be sent to Earth. She’s called 22, played by Tina Fey with a full range of one-liners and cute backchat that has previously defeated the patience of a long line of mentors from Mother Theresa to Carl Jung and Gandhi.

Philosophically and thematically complex as it might sound, the clarity of animation styles and the razor-sharp expository dialogue makes it all seem perfectly reasonable. This is a cartoon for children of all ages, looking at how human personality is formed and how choices, dreams and creative spark impact our lives. There’s a lot to take in, but it doesn’t feel overstuffed with ideas. Not yet.

Joe and 22 do return to New York, and the film then takes on a comic, body-swap element involving the wrong soul in the wrong body. Joe has come back as a cat, and I don’t mean of the jazz hepcat variety.

It’s a change of tack and tone. There ensues a race against time for Joe to get his body back, repair his suit, fool his Mom, inspire a trombone student and make it to the gig, all while 22 (now contained in Joe’s body — stay with me on this) learns what it is to live in the big city, to wear shoes, take the subway, to taste pizza and get a haircut for the first time.

Also Read: Pixar's 'Soul' Trailer: Tina Fey Asks What's So Great About Earth? (Video)

I haven’t even mentioned a surprisingly large part for British chat show host Graham Norton voicing a twinkly, spiritual leprechaun-type figure called Moonwind who sails a galleon on the Astral Plane rescuing moody, dark-grey lumps he refers to as “lost souls.” He exists, too, in New York, as a sign-twirler who can help 22 return to the Great Before.

If we’re brutally honest, this element is a stretch for both the film’s narrative twists and for Norton’s vocal talents. (Of course, in many territories, the character of Moonwind will be voiced by someone else, so this may not be a huge concern, but it will clang, in English-speaking nations, as slightly odd voice casting.)

“Soul” aims admirably high, yet ultimately can’t quite fulfill the scale of its ambitions. There are a few loose ends, not least the character of Lisa who gets mentioned as some suggestion of a thwarted love interest for Joe, yet about whom we hear no more as the story heads toward a climax I couldn’t quite fathom in terms of the “great Pixar lesson.”

Is it about living your dreams? Or about life being more than that? Or less than that? About finding a true purpose, or just getting approval from your mom and enjoying a pizza and the falling leaves?

There is so much to enjoy and ponder in “Soul,” not least the predominance of African American characters and some fine music, with contributions from jazz luminaries including Herbie Hancock, Roy Haynes and Jon Batiste. It will light up Christmas Day, no problem, but I felt some residual disappointment, a lingering tinge of regret that it doesn’t have the courage of all its convictions.

Weirdly, amid all the glistening animation, layers of polished storyboarding, tidy life philosophies and zingy dialogue exchanges, what’s missing at the end, is a bit of soul.

All 26 Pixar Movies Ranked, Worst to Best (Photos)

TheWrap’s film critic Alonso Duralde rates all of Pixar's features.
Also Read: Top 40 Pixar Characters, From ‘Toy Story’ to ‘Finding Dory’
26. "Cars 2" (2011) "They should let people see the movie for free," one pundit opined, "since Disney will make all their money back on the bedsheets." Some of Pixar's best movies are sequels, but this follow-up to an already inferior studio entry seemed like nothing but a craven bid for more merchandising money. The results were good for shareholders but middling for moviegoers.
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25. "Cars" (2006) Never underestimate little boys and their love for automobiles. This brightly colored but dramatically flat tale is most enjoyed by a) male moviegoers who b) saw it before they turned 10 and c) have no idea that it tells virtually the same story as the Michael J. Fox comedy "Doc Hollywood."
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24. "Cars 3" (2017) It's a movie about middle age and the fear of obsolescence -- you know, for kids! While Lightning (Owen Wilson) tries to soup himself up to take on young, faster rival Jackson Storm (Armie Hammer), the veteran racer mentors Cruz (Cristela Alonzo), a trainer who gave up her racing dreams. It's visually sumptuous and has a few good ideas, but the "Cars" series remains Pixar's blandest.
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23. "A Bug's Life" (1998) Back in 1998, the second Pixar feature was racing to the big screen against the thematically similar "Antz." Neither has achieved iconic status, notwithstanding the "Bug's"-themed kiddie area of Disneyland. The film does provide memorable voice roles for "The Ref" co-stars Denis Leary (as a manly-man ladybug) and Kevin Spacey (scaring the little ones as an ant-exploiting grasshopper).
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22. "Monsters, Inc." (2001) The things that go bump in the night are just doing their jobs, collecting the screams of boys and girls to power their monstrous alternate dimension. Leave it to Pixar to turn childhood terror into something fuzzy and huggable while also sneaking in a metaphor about over-reliance on fossil fuels.
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21. "Onward" (2020) Pixar sticks the landing with another memorable you-WILL-cry ending, but most of the movie that leads up to that denouement doesn't really merit that level of investment. Two elvish brothers have 24 hours to find a stone to bring their dead dad momentarily back to life, and while the gags and the action are fun, the character-building and world-building are both a little sketchy.
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20. "Lightyear" (2022) Ostensibly the 1995 movie that stoked young Andy's desire to get a Buzz Lightyear toy (thus kicking off the events of the original "Toy Story"), this is a perfectly-fine outer-space adventure that doesn't live up to the high standards of Pixar in general or the "Toy Story" series in particular. Chris Evans makes a suitably stolid hero, but the movie belongs to Sox (Peter Sohn), our hero's robot emotional-support cat.
19. "Monsters University" (2013) This colorful prequel, featuring Mike (voiced by Billy Crystal) and Sully (John Goodman) as college freshmen, plays like a G-rated "Revenge of the Nerds," and that's mostly a good thing. Is this the first kids' movie to suggest that higher education isn't necessarily for everyone?
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18. "Up" (2009) Like "WALL-E," this movie opens with a chunk of filmmaking perfection as we get to know the life, and losses, of our elderly hero. But while there's nowhere for his balloon-festooned house to go but up, there's nowhere for the movie to go but down after such an auspicious beginning.
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17. "Ratatouille" (2007) Follow your bliss, says this entry, even if you're a sewer rat who wants to be a gourmet chef. It's lovely, and its ending will be forever cited by critics of every medium, but some screenwriting contrivances make it good-but-not-great Pixar.
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16. "The Good Dinosaur" (2015) Frightened, awkward dino Arlo (Raymond Ochoa) travels home through a savage landscape with the helpful accompaniment of a feral boy named Spot (Jack Bright), who generally behaves like a dog, in a movie where the stakes are slighter but the character bonds are nonetheless rich.
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15. "WALL-E" (2008) The first half or so of this ecological fable -- a silent comedy about the titular robot tidying up an abandoned earth and longing for love -- is Pixar's greatest achievement. Unfortunately, it gets dragged down by a lot of loud chasing in the second half.
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14. "Brave" (2012) Despite a rough production, this saga offers us Merida, one of U.S. animation's most self-assured characters, who refuses to be married off by her father as though she were your run-of-the-mill princess. Merida's skill with a bow and arrow made archery look even more appealing than Jennifer Lawrence does in the "Hunger Games" movies.
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13. "Finding Dory" (2016) What this follow-up lacks in The Feels, it more than makes up for with The Laughs and The Thrills. Ellen DeGeneres returns as the famously forgetful fish who sets off to find the family she forgot she had. Witty, bright, and exciting, even if that tissue in your pocket winds up going unused.
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12. "Inside Out" (2015) An 11-year-old girl's brain becomes the backdrop for another hair-raising adventure, as her emotions fight to find balance during a rough patch in her life. No shortage of jokes and excitement, and early screenings have seen crusty film critics openly weeping in their seats.
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11. "Soul" (2020)

Pixar's first film with a Black lead features some of the company's finest animation (particularly its evocation of autumn in New York) and memorable music from Jon Batiste, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, even if the script doesn't quite nail the requisite three-hanky ending.
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10. "Coco" (2017) The Mexican Day of the Dead celebration brings a young boy face-to-face with his ancestors, teaching him the importance of family and allowing him to settle a generations-old misunderstanding. Colorful, poignant, and loaded with great songs and cultural specificity.
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9. "Incredibles 2" (2018) Picking up right where the excellent original leaves off, this boisterous sequel sees the super-powered Parrs still dealing with the outlaw status of costumed heroes while Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) becomes a stay-at-home dad as Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) shoulders most of the derring-do. And villain Screenslaver is a perfect commentary both for the film's 1960s aesthetic and for the internet age.
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8. "Toy Story 4" (2019) The world didn't necessarily need a follow-up to the sublime "Toy Story 3," but this sequel is as funny, moving and eye-popping as its predecessors. And with the introduction of the hand-crafted Forky, a "Toy Story" star is born.
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7. "Turning Red" (2022) The explosion of adolescence is portrayed as both adorable and beastly, as 13-year-old Meimei (voiced by Rosalie Chiang) discovers that when she gets agitated, she becomes a giant red panda. It's an empathetic exploration of mothers and daughters and the way in which growing pains can challenge relationships without necessarily destroying them. The faux boy-band songs co-written by Billie Eilish are terrific, too.
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6. "Luca" (2021) For kids, this tale of two sea monsters assuming human form is a sweet tale of friendship and being true to yourself. For adults, there are plenty of other metaphors and readings beneath the surface that make this lovely summertime tale even more meaningful and heartbreaking.
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5. "Toy Story" (1995) The one that started it all and kick-started a whole new way of making cartoons. Its characters became instant icons while its gleaming surfaces changed animation more than any other single movie since "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."
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4. "Finding Nemo" (2003) Albert Brooks and Ellen DeGeneres have the precision timing of a vaudeville comedy duo as two tiny fish who brave the big, wide ocean to rescue a missing youngster. This parable about the push and pull of parent-child dependency offers some of Pixar's finest blending of adventure and comedy.
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3. "Toy Story 2" (1999) Wherein we learn that toys need to be taken out of their mint packaging and loved if they're to be truly happy. And that a Sarah McLachlan song about a doll who misses being cared for by her owner can reduce grown men to sobbing.
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2. "The Incredibles" (2004) Probably the greatest superhero movie ever made that's not based on pre-existing characters from another medium, and better than almost every other superhero movie, period. Brad Bird's attention to character detail and freedom with gravity would serve him well later as the director of the live-action film "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol."
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1. "Toy Story 3" (2010) Andy goes off to college and must leave childhood, and its playthings, behind. An exciting and funny meditation on death and growing up and I'm going to need a handkerchief now.
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