S.A. native puts his heart, ‘Soul’ in Pixar movie
Screenwriter Mike Jones had big plans in San Antonio, his hometown, for the premiere of “Soul.”
Jones, who co-wrote the script for the Pixar film with directors Pete Docter and Kemp Powers, was going to rent a theater so he could watch it with family and friends. And since the story centers on a jazz musician, he wanted to have a party celebrating the film at Jazz, TX, the nightclub at the Pearl.
Then the pandemic hit, making gatherings like that unsafe. And Pixar’s plans for the film changed, too. Rather than debuting in theaters, the film will stream on Disney+ beginning Christmas Day.
Jones, a big fan of watching movies on the silver screen, noted that all of Pixar’s films are intended to be seen that way. So
the decision to bypass theaters was disappointing to him. But he also thinks it was the right choice.
“The desire for people to see it
on the big screen versus the desire for people to see it at the right time, to also have the maximum number of people to be able to see it, I think that kind of convinced us that Disney+ or streaming was probably the best way to go,” he said “And I think people need this movie now more than ever, to be honest. I think people need something positive and wonderful.”
The film follows Joe Gardner (voiced by Jamie Foxx), a pianist who makes his living teaching middle school band but dreams of getting his big break as a performer. On the day that he seems to be on the verge of achieving that, he has an accident that lands him in a coma.
His soul leaves his body, the start of an existential adventure that allows him to see his life through the eyes of a soul that has yet to be born (voiced by Tina Fey), giving him a fresh perspec
tive.
There are a couple of nods to Jones’ family in the story. Joe’s mom and dad, Libba and Ray, are named for Jones’ mother and stepfather.
And his dad inspired a key scene in the movie. In it, Joe pulls several items out of his pockets that spark memories of small moments that brought him joy. As he recalls riding his bike as a child and playing piano with his dad, Joe realizes his life has been much more fulfilling than he appreciated before.
Jones made it a point to fly back to San Antonio as much as possible during the last months of his father’s life and was by his side when he died.
“That affected me so profoundly that I went back and I wrote this scene,” he said. “As I was going through my father’s belongings, all of these things of his would have this charge to them — they would bring back these memories, so I thought, what a great way for Joe to come to a place where he can finally understand how fulfilling his life is, outside of whatever career success he has.
“Because that’s what I was thinking as I was with him — I
was thinking, what’s important to him as he passes away? And what is important to me? Is it that I wrote a movie for Pixar and that I have a successful career? No, not really. I think it’s the thing that I’m going to remember most, that I was with him holding his hand as he passed away.”
One of the threads in “Soul” is where people’s driving interests — in Joe’s case, it’s jazz — come from. Jones found his on regular trips to the Broadway Theater near the University of the Incarnate Word, which was within walking distance of his house when he was growing up. He saw the last movie screened at the theater before it closed in 1977, and he was interviewed for a television news story about it.
“I remember saying it was criminal that it was closing,” he said. “I had that much moxie in me and fire about it.”
He kept going to movies at every opportunity.
“I loved the idea of being in a theater full of strangers and all of us experiencing the same emotions,” he said. “As an introverted, kind of skinny kid, it made me feel connected to people. It was a place I could escape to.”
As much as he loved movies, working in the industry did not seem remotely possible. So after graduating from Alamo Heights High School, Jones decided he would become an English teacher. He spent a semester at the University of Texas at San Antonio, then transferred to the Uni
versity of North Texas. Friends there introduced him to a wider world of cinema.
“I grew up on a steady diet of ‘E.T.’ and ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ — big, tent-pole, fun movies,” he said. “They were showing me art films and independent films and foreign films, so my film diet changed, and I loved it. I loved that you could tell a story in a different way.”
As his understanding of film’s possibilities broadened, his career plans changed. He wrote a short script and sent it to New York University, the alma mater of Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese, in hopes of studying there. He was leaning toward becoming a cinematographer, but his professors steered him toward screenwriting.
He made his living for a while writing about movies. His time covering independent film for Variety inspired him to keep working on his own scripts on the side. The first to reach the silver screen was “Evenhand,” a cop story shot in San Antonio that screened at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin in 2003.
“My dad was there, who had been such a champion; so had my mom,” he said. “And it was kind of a wonderful moment.”
His mom continues to support his work. She has amassed a large collection of “Soul” merchandise, he said, and is so eager to see the movie that she watched a Youtube video of someone reading the children’s book adaptation of the story. He said they’ll watch the real thing together virtually when it starts streaming, though he hopes that in the near future, it will be safe for him to travel so they can watch it in the same room.
And, ideally, the next movie to be produced from a script he co-wrote will be shown in theaters. Pixar has “Luca,” the story of the friendship between a human and a sea monster in disguise, slated for release in theaters in June.
Jones is confident moviegoing will revive once the pandemic fades.
“I think that people are tired of watching on that smaller canvas,” he said. “And I also think that they want to have that group experience.
“There’s something about watching a movie on a big theater screen and not being able to look at your phone and not being distracted by anything around you and not being able to pause the movie that makes the experience very different.”