Review of Soul (2020) by Theredsky — 01 Jan 2021

A pleasant surprise considering the original trailer for this film made it look like Inside Out 2. This is a huge step up in quality from Pixar’s previous film Onward from last year. For reference, I gave Onward a 5/10.

Soul has probably the most gorgeous animation in a Pixar film and I know saying that good animation in a Pixar film is like saying water is wet but I really wanted to highlight it here because it’s incredibly gorgeous.

The way Pete Docter and the animators incorporate different colors and shots for both the spirit world and New York is beyond amazing. Some might be glad to know that this film doesn’t feel like Inside Out 2 like most were predicting.

They only spend maybe 1/4 or 1/3 of the movie in the spirit world and I really enjoyed a lot of the metaphysical jokes they made and the art style of it. It distinguished itself from Inside Out by doing this.

The story and themes here are captivating. We learn through Jamie Foxx’s character Joe that we need to slow down and not devout ourselves to only one idea or else we will get stuck in that pit never get out.

There is also a lot about our purpose and what we should do with our life which is represented through Tina Fey’s character 22. It’s surprising at how mature these themes are even for a film that is geared towards a younger audience.

I have to talk about the music too because it’s great. Scratch that, it’s incredible. It’s almost all jazz music and it fits the themes and tones of the film perfectly. You couldn’t ask for a better score than this.

My issues with the film are with its ending and one performance; Graham Norton. I think Norton is a fine talk show host but it was distracting whenever he was on screen here. They probably should have cast somebody else because his performance was average at best compared to the great performances from Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey.

The ending of this film is a little bit abrupt and a tad underwhelming. We get this absolutely incredible Jazz section with Joe reflecting on life before it takes us to a more normal ending and I kinda wish the film had been resolved in a better way.

I still think the ending is good but it could have been better. If you enjoy Pixar movies or just animated movies in general then I would highly recommend this.