‘SOUL’ CROSSING
Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey voice basic human quest in Pixar film
Pixar’s “Soul” is full of heart. The filmmakers behind the new animated movie starring Jamie Foxx dive into life’s big questions, including what fires our passions and purpose.
“Is there something inherent in us that is like a sense of destiny?” director Pete Docter mused during an interview with the Daily News. “Is [there] something we’re meant to do? Does that come preprogrammed? It led to this idea of the ‘great before,’ a place where our souls are given all of our personality attributes and interests.”
In the family film, out Friday on Disney+, Foxx voices middle-school band teacher Joe Gardner, who’s on the brink of his big break as a New York City jazz musician when he becomes involved in an accident.
Joe’s spirit ends up in the “great before” — where young souls figure out what they’re passionate about before they’re assigned to a body.
While he’s there, Joe meets a wayward soul named “22,” voiced by Tina Fey, who has no interest in finding her passion or in beginning a life on Earth. Together, they go on a journey that changes their perspectives.
“Jazz is improvisational music,” Kemp Powers, the film’s co-director, told The News. “One of the things that makes it the perfect metaphor for this film is the idea that you have to take whatever is thrown at you and turn it into something beautiful. That’s like the perfect metaphor for life.”
Many of Joe’s characteristics are based on Powers, a Brooklyn-born playwright who co-wrote the “Soul” script with Docter and Mike Jones.
“Soul” is the first Pixar movie to feature a Black lead, and Powers hopes it paves the way for more projects like it.
“If this film is received well in the way that we hope it can be, the way that we want it to be, and people can see themselves, see universal truths in this story with these very specific characters ... my hope is that it then opens the door and opens people up to telling stories with characters like this,” Powers said.
The moviemakers quickly targeted Foxx, 53, to star after hearing his voice during a blind audio test. Foxx, who’s won an Oscar and a Grammy, checked all the boxes.
“As we were making a list of things we needed, Kemp and I were like, we need somebody who’s funny but can also do the drama, ideally a musician, or somebody who at least understands music, and has a lot of energy, because those are all the things we want,” Docter said. “Of course, Jamie Foxx is, like, duh.”
Docter, chief creative officer of Pixar, also directed “Monsters, Inc.,” “Up” and “Inside Out” for the studio.
He’s proud Pixar asks life’s big questions.
“We’re asking anybody who’s in the storytelling position to dive into their own lives and pull from their own experiences,” Docter said. “If it’s something a person feels deeply about, and is struggling with, and has had success or failure or any of those things that’s burning inside of them, I think you’re going to see that on the screen.”