Film Review - Soul (2020)

 Soul is the new Pixar film that has gone from cinemas straight to Disney Plus due to 19 and is the first Pixar film with a black lead named Joe voiced by Jamie Foxx who is a teacher and wanna be Jazz musician who after falling down a hole in New York finds himself in the Great Beyond a land where Souls go to die but Joe feels it isn’t his time to go yet so he works to get himself back to the land of the living.

 

Soul is an interesting Pixar movie and its one also that I did enjoy watching but its also one that I have some issues with but before I delve into those I want to write about what I did like:

 

- Firstly the film has some gorgeous animation in it from the more realistic looking animation of Joe and his day to day life to this almost hand drawn look to the spirits that work in the Great Beyond and the Great Beyond itself feeling like both this black unending void with the white light of the divine at the centre of it and then the Great Before which is like this big wide open space with blues and purple skies, visually this movie is just delightful and if the previews were a guide it would’ve looked great on the big screen.

 

- Secondly the voice acting is really good, Mr Foxx is in a role that I have genuinely enjoyed him in for the first time in what feels like a long long time and he is really good in this movie, I also enjoyed Graham Norton as Moonwind the spiritual guru and sign twirler who helps Joe get back home and Angela Bassett in a small role as well.

 

But about those issues with the film:

 

- Well firstly a lot of the spiritual aspects of the storytelling felt very weird to me in that when I was sitting there watching the film I said to myself “This is weird” and not in the best of ways either and I find myself wondering how this would’ve played during a normal School Holidays release in cinemas and I can’t help but think that it would’ve played best for that 7-12 year old audience that sometimes is catered to in some School Holiday blocks.

 

- And secondly I really didn’t like Ms Tina Fey as Soul 22, her character annoyed me a fair amount and it feels like its more her story than Joe’s and that really bothers me I mean Pixar finally gets to do a story with a black lead voiced very well and for so much of the film he’s relegated to a side character while this other person takes centre stage and it feels like they are intruding.

 

Now to be fair it does lead to some touching moments and the film does pull on the emotional cords well but after a while I didn’t have that proper Pixar emotional feel like the end of Toy Story 3 or Monsters Inc where you really do feel for the characters on screen and the bond they share and when it was over I didn’t have tears in my eyes.

 

And so that was Soul and it’s a good solid Pixar affair that I did like and I did enjoy but its issues hold it back from being one of their best for me, 3 out of 5.