Soul

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Radio Ballarat and South West Victoria on January 22, 2021.

(PG) ★★★★★

Director: Pete Docter.

Cast: Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton, Rachel House, Alice Braga, Richard Ayoade, Phylicia Rashad, Donnell Rawlings, Questlove, Angela Bassett.

The acid was kicking in hard.

In recent years, Pixar has pushed into some stunningly deep territory for so-called kids films, dealing with grief, complex emotions and even the future of humanity over the past decade and a bit. 

But in Soul, Pixar tackles the biggest question of them all: why are we here? It's a question tackled in a beautifully rendered existential style not a million miles away from Inside Out (which is the greatest Pixar film of all time), taking us into visual representations of philosophical ideas that are breathtaking, ingenious and funny at every turn.

The film's central soul is Joe Gardner (Foxx), a music teacher still chasing his dream of being a full-time jazz musician. When his big break finally arrives, he finds himself stuck between life and death after an unfortunate accident. As Joe wanders the various planes beyond the physical realm, wondering if he ever really "lived", he meets an old soul (Fey) content to have never really lived.

Once again, Pixar has done the impossible. Not only does it examine the purpose of life and how one finds that purpose, but it does so through a lens of jazz music and a bizarre range of astral existences. It's almost as if Pixar picked the hardest thing they can make a movie about and then asked "how can we make this harder?".

In Joe Gardner, Pixar not only have their first black protagonist (finally) but they have a wonderfully complex character. Extremely talented and hard-working, Joe's near-death experience forces him to look at a lot of "what ifs", and question what is really important in his life and what his life has amounted to. These are powerfully deep questions and so Pixar balances the heaviness by using a cat-human body swap, a weird sign-slinging tripper, and a bean counter named Terry to inject laughs.

These aspects of light shade work wonderfully well, and so does the exceptional voice cast. Also outstanding is the music. Jon Batiste's jazz work and a surprisingly new-agey score from Nine Inch Nails duo Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are at another level. 

The visuals are also exceptional. From its abstract Picasso-esque soul counselors to its plodding doomy lost souls, the film continually finds fascinating ways to draw fascinating concepts. Its animation of new souls is obviously deliberately cutesy to offset the heaviness, it all works in a beautiful way. From its New York City streets to its Elysian-like fields, the look of the film is exemplary. 

Pixar remain an amazing filmic institute, and this is yet another example of their prodigious ability to elevate CG animation to a level of art that is astounding, thoughtful, emotive, and profound.