FilmSnobReviews

Title: Soul
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Pete Docter, Kemp Powers
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins

What It Is: Joe (Foxx) is a pianist/piano teacher. He’s dreamed of playing that one big club show. When he gets a chance to audition for Dorothea (Angela Bassett) it’s a dream come true. The pinnacle of a life spent loving and appreciating music. Then Joe falls down a manhole. When he wakes up he is only a soul. No longer connected to his body. When he’s given the task of trying to get another bodiless soul (named 22 and voiced by Fey) to earth. A task no other mentor has been able to accomplish.

What We Think: Peter Docter is the best director Pixar has. This film really gets to the soul (no pun intended) of humanity. What makes a human? That existential question is wondrously pondered. The answers we get may not be the ones we would think about. Sure there’s one plot point that I think really bogs this down but the overall message is not and never does get lost in the sum of the parts of the film. Jamie Foxx was the man for the job here as Joe and adds the needed pathos to the character to get us to love, hate, and emote about the character. For her part Tina Fey is great. Her voice summates her character’s relative youth and hopelessness while assuring that 22 has been there…many times.

Our Grade: A+, Pixar crafts another amazing tale. One soaked in humanity and marinated with the charm and grace we’ve come to expect from the studio. This emotional, honest look at everything human is so excellent I can’t believe it’s available on Disney+. The frontrunner for the Best Animated Feature Oscar is here and it’s tough to imagine anything standing in its way. Perhaps Netflix’s film Over the Moon. Even then that one didn’t have me a blubbering mess as this one did. This is such an admirable venture from a studio that rarely disappoints.