USA TODAY International Edition
Pixar’s spirited ‘ Soul’ hits right notes for our times
Pixar’s newest animated jam “Soul” is a jazzy and profound riff on humanity and the hereafter, an entertaining, exuberant effort about our existence with comedic shenanigans, deep thoughts and wondrous imagination.
“Soul” ( eeeE; rated PG; streaming on Disney+) brings a cartoon New York City to vibrant, diverse life with its first Black lead character ( played by Jamie Foxx) and also takes audiences to a weird, minimalist yet still adorable version of the afterlife, where the road to heaven has grumpy bean counters, and new souls skydive to Earth to be born. It’s not as strong all around as director Pete Docter’s previous effort, 2015‘ s brilliant “Inside Out,” though “Soul” aims to tackle a much headier target: the meaning of life itself.
Joe Gardner ( Foxx) is a part- time middle school band teacher who lives to play jazz piano. His principal offers him a permanent gig – Joe’s mom ( Phylicia Rashad) yearns for him to have steady employment – but he’s not ready to give up on performing. A former student ( Questlove) gets him a tryout with a famous saxophonist ( Angela Bassett), he earns a spot in her band, and in a “Looney Tunes”- y sequence, an exuberant Joe has a couple of near- death experiences before falling down an open manhole.
Next thing he knows, he’s a cuddly spirit with glasses and a fedora on an escalator to The Great Beyond. As any of us would, Joe freaks out and falls into a trippy landscape called The Great Before, where souls receive their personality quirks and await the mysterious “spark” that makes them them. It’s there where Joe meets 22 ( Tina Fey), an aggressively precocious and irascible soul who has memorably stomped on the nerves of Abe Lincoln, Copernicus and Mother Teresa. Joe is tasked to be her new mentor and wants to show her how great it is to live ( Music! Pizza!). They embark on a crazy journey to Earth that features various mishaps, illuminating moments and a pudgy therapy cat.
Foxx and Fey make a deliciously complementary duo: He brings warmth, humor and an occasional touch of exasperation to Joe, while she’s at first a sardonic rapscallion, Fey lends a fun sense of wonder to 22 once she begins to enjoy the little things about being alive. The soundtrack to Joe and 22’ s adventures is fairly spectacular, from Jon Batiste’s lively jazz numbers to a lush, rhythmic score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross that gives the more otherworldly “Soul” locales a beautifully ethereal quality.
“Soul” hits the usually high bar for Pixar animation.
What it lacks, though, is the kind of winning balance between the metaphysical and reality that “Inside Out” so successfully captured.
The Great Before is an enjoyable place to visit – and watching the snarky 22 give a dismissive “meh” to chemistry and rocket ships as Joe shows some of the wonders of Earth in “The You Seminar” is rather fun. Yet it’s not until Joe and 22 are on Earth together that “Soul” finds its connective groove. There’s a nice heart- to- heart between Joe and his mom, and one meaningful scene unfolds in a barbershop, where Joe runs into a belittling local nemesis ( Daveed Diggs) and, during an enlightening chat with his barber ( Donnell Rawlings), finally begins to see how he fits in the grander scheme of things.
Joe’s exploration of passion, purpose and ( to a degree) the destinies we often force on ourselves would be universal at any time, and for any age, though burrows in a little deeper right now when we can’t hang at a coffee shop or go to the movies like normal. ( A thoughtful animated movie is a much more fun cause for an existential crisis than a pandemic, for the record.) And that little extra “Soul” hits just the right note.