Soul (2020)
"Joe Gardner is a middle school music teacher. Pursuing his dreams of playing with great jazz musicians in his time outside of teaching. In the pursuit of his dream, he stumbles into a new world. Where he helps his mentor realize their true passion and spark."
The Style of animation in the real world is the Pixar style that we're used to seeing with great details to facial expressions and textures. But the art style we see in the Great Before is totally different and unique. The Jerry(s) with their abstract design and movements matches with both the jazz music theme of the film as well as the abstract concept of the Great Before. The Souls designs are reminiscent of the emotions from Inside Out, with beautiful particle effects only seen in close detail. The world design of these mystical spiritual realms that Joe travels around to are beautiful and wonderous to look at.
The soundtrack for all the theoretical construct realms helped give the abstract mystical feel to the atmosphere. The Jazz music in the film was as fun as jazz music should be. I particularly enjoyed the big performance toward the end as that performance captured the essence of what Jazz should be. I highly recommend having a real life jazz music experience if you can. The Epiphany song that Joe plays before the climax was stunning and enforced the emotional message that the film tries so hard to teach, and it made me shed a tear both times I've seen it so far.
Every Pixar film has its own gimmick and theme that is seen as the face of their films' stories - What if toys had feelings? What if bugs had feelings? What if fish had feelings? What is cars had feelings? What if feelings had feelings? Soul's big gimmick actually entails perhaps the three biggest questions about existence - What happens before we are born? What is our purpose in life? And what happens after we die?
While the concept of death is not something I enjoy dwelling on, and the whole "life's purpose" topic is it's own conversation, I found the concept of the Great Before most fascinating, mostly because I never thought about it in the way I have with the other two big questions. The Great Before is a place for all souls to randomly be assigned personalities, and in order to get to Earth, or to the living real, they have to choose a "spark" that will motivate them through life.
Other than the fact that the Great Before was absolutely beautiful and ingeniously designed, I loved how a person's drive was something souls had to pick on their own. While personalities were dictated by the Jerry(s), every soul had its own decision (or at least it's not hand picked by the Jerry(s)) as to what would inspire them in life, and this is a concept I feel nobody is talking about. Could this be the film's way of saying everyone has a purpose or reason for living even if we can't see it right away? "Your spark isn't your purpose. That last box fills in when you're ready to come live."
What I remembered from the trailers was only Joe's "death" and some of his experiences in the Great Before. So when the Soul Swap sequence started, when 22 was in Joe and Joe was in the cat, I was surprised and didn't know what to expect. Of course, at first, it definitely came across as comedic relief for the kids, but this aspect of the story led to some heartfelt moments. 22 as Joe has interactions with a few people in Joe's life, like his student and his mom. Joe was able to view these interactions out of body as 22 got to experience life for the first time. This put a lot of things into perspective for both lead characters.
Soul hit me hard on a deep personal level (read philosophical analysis below). There was one moment in particular that can really hit home for someone with depression. When 22 becomes a lost soul she says - "I have no purpose, I'm not good enough, I will never find my spark." And all the negative and discouraging words every soul has ever said to her. When you have depression, you are your own worst enemy. All you think about is everything wrong with you and how poorly others think about you. You become trapped in your negative thought, and become lost, so to speak, in the depression that is knocking you down.
When you're at your lowest moment, you're open to your greatest change (Uncle Iroh quote, you're welcome). And sometimes, we all need our own Joe to help us through it, so we can find ourselves again and move on to a new and brighter future.
One of the big lessons Joe learns is that there is a fine line between passion and obsession. If you cross that line, your life can become unbalanced. You might loose relationships with people. If someone close to you is telling you to stop, you might keep going to prove them wrong, and think that proving them wrong will help but you just end up pushing them away. Obsession can also get in the way of the little life moments as you are constantly rushing to achieve your ultimate goal. The whole "the fish looking for the ocean" proverb was meant to teach Joe that even when you think you've "made it" in life, you may realize it's not as fulfilling as you thought it would be, and all that time obsessing over one thing can leave a hole inside. And maybe what you've been looking for the whole time, was right in front of you and you didn't see it.
Another huge lesson Joe learned is that things might not go as planned, but somethings are just meant to be and you just got to "jazz" with it. His ultimate endgame was performing with a highly respected jazz artist to obtain credibility and success. What he didn't plan on was being a middle school band teacher. He then realized that he can achieve his own personal success by influencing the lives of kids and to help encourage a musical passion that could last a lifetime. Success comes in different forms, as does one's purpose in life, as Joe learned with his experiences with 22.
What is our purpose in life? Another one of the three big existential questions we ask ourselves. Many people think a lot like Joe did - that the purpose of life is to find success in anything. Joe initially knocked down the validity of 22's spark of "enjoying regular life things" because of the circumstances and because he didn't think that was a purpose, but it wasn't his place to dictate that for 22. It was 22's own personal experience and reason to start living. Another aspect of purpose that Joe experiences is what happens when you achieve your endgame life goal? After Joe played with Dorthea, he was unsatisfied and was left with wondering "what now?" Life is about reaching your own goals, and creating new goals once it's achieved. You have to keep giving yourself a new purpose once one is fulfilled. For Joe, his first purpose was to become a piano player and jazz musician. Once he had the gig of a lifetime, it's left up in the air on what he did next, but I'd like to think he went back to his middle school job to help inspire kids to be passionate about music.
Soul is a film I wish I had as a teen/young adult when I was lost and confused with major life decisions, as we all are at that age. In modern society, we're taught the "correct" ingredients of success and are expected to accomplish certain goals in a certain way at a certain time. Some people do it and work their whole lives to a comfortable retirement. But not everyone can achieve their own success in the same and/or expected way. Once you realize that achieving your own goals, goals you make for yourself and no one else, that's what rewards a true sense of purpose. Once Joe allowed 22 to do that, 22 was ready to start life in the real world with her spark to "enjoy regular life things."
This whole concept of "regular life things" honestly changed my own perspective in life. I am not exaggerating when I say Soul impacted my life on a grand scale. I find myself enjoying the moment more than I've ever done before. If I'm outside during a sunset, I take a moment to enjoy the colors in the sky. When I'm around people that I enjoy being with, I appreciate whatever little conversation I'm having with them. Once I was eating dinner, and there was a moment where I stopped and thought "I am alive and I can taste and enjoy my meal." And I've definitely become more grateful for my past experiences, the good and the bad. The happy memories and the deep struggles made me who am. If I didn't have either, I wouldn't have been living this whole time.
22's purpose was to live. Ironic given her extreme disdain for the concept of living at first. It wasn't any sport, or art, or career that became her spark. It was (say it with me) Regular. Life. Things. Sometimes that's all we need to keep going. Our past, present, and future is made up of little moments. If we take time to appreciate those moments rather focus on the big picture, then we are really truly living in the moment.
My Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★