Soul (Docter, 2020)
Reviewing Inside Out 2 on At the Movies last night, I was reminded how much I enjoyed Pixar’s Soul, which was released (if you can call it that) back in December 2020.
RNZ stops reviewing cinema on radio in December every year so I try and pick up the slack with written reviews for the website. Soul turned out to be one of my favourite films of that year:
Soul is the story of a jazz musician named Joe (Jamie Foxx). He’s talented but like so many in New York City, he’s getting by teaching surly teenagers in a high school band rather than wowing grown-ups in clubs. On the verge of giving up his dreams, he gets a surprise opportunity to audition for the great Dorothea Williams (Angela Bassett), finds himself in the zone and nails it!
Rather less fortunately, he remains in the zone on the way home and falls down a manhole and wakes on a stairway to heaven (or somewhere less culturally specific). This particular version of a half-way house afterlife is presided over by several counsellors (including instantly recognisable voice of Richard Ayoade), helpfully explaining how things work and a bean-counting bureaucrat with the voice of New Zealand’s own Rachel House.
…
Pixar’s resident genius Pete Docter has made a film about the interior that matches or exceeds the jaw-dropping Inside Out from 2015. In that film, he was interested in the brain and the ways our emotions dictate our behaviour. Here, he’s interested in what happens before (and after) that. And the perfectly reasonable message that our only purpose here on Earth is to continue to exist, savour every moment, be with people.
Where to watch Soul
Worldwide: Streaming on Disney+
Further reading
As someone who has been judging children’s movies by adult standards for nearly 20 years now, I thought I could take a look at TV for littlies. So I reviewed Bluey, Frog and Toad and Kiri and Lou for the RNZ website here.
