The “theological” underpinnings of Pixar’s animated film may be difficult for some viewers to swallow, but whatever your reaction to that aspect of the latest from writer-director Pete Docter (Up, Inside Out), it represents yet another triumph for Disney’s specialist arm. What sets the studio apart from other animation factories is not merely technical finesse, which has become a given, but the imagination behind the storytelling and Soul is certainly imaginative.
Its protagonist is Joe Gardner (voiced by Jamie Foxx), a part-time middle-school music teacher in New York who has always wanted to be a professional jazz pianist. No sooner does the principal offer him a full-time permanent position than he is invited to audition for an opening in a quartet headed by Dorothea Williams (Angela Bassett), an iconic saxophone star.
When he gets the gig, Joe is so happy that he stumbles into an open manhole and finds himself in the Great Beyond, a blue blob with some of his features on an escalator carrying him and other souls of the dearly departed toward the White Light that spirits them off to who knows where. Unwilling to abandon the chance to fulfill his dream, Joe pushes past the souls behind him until he reaches the Great Before, a corporate-minded way station for souls not yet born, who are assigned seasoned mentors to shepherd them to find their “spark,” the ineffable quality that will become a driving element of their being.
Mistaken for a mentor by the organizers of this process—a bunch of bureaucrats who resemble surrealistic line drawings—he is given the job of dealing with a soul called 22 (Tina Fey), who has resisted efforts to embrace her destiny to become human. Taking her to earth, Joe has to balance the responsibility to help her find her “spark” with fulfilling his own dream, even as one of the otherworldly bureaucrats, detail-obsessed Terry (Rachel House), discovers that something is amiss and tries to track down Joe and bring him back.
Further complications arise, including transformations involving Joe’s comatose body, the still-unformed 22, and a therapy cat named Mr. Mittens, as Joe comes to understand that his teaching is no less important than achieving his dream and 22 begins to appreciate the ostensibly trivial but tactile joys of being human. And there is yet another character called Moonwind (Graham Norton), who captains an otherworldly ship dedicated to rescuing “lost souls,” among whom Joe or 22 might eventually wind up.
A noteworthy element of Soul is its embrace of African-American culture, which has been conspicuously lacking in Pixar products until now. With humor that will amuse children, emotional complexity that will appeal to adults, and dazzling visuals that will engage everyone across the age spectrum, Soul, like all the finest Pixar films, speaks to both the head and the heart. Strongly recommended.