My review of Pixar's Soul

Don't love one thing, love everything, and pass it on.

By AnhPhuong

January 10^th, 2021

Pixar is a master in decoding complex human issues and retell it in a simple and captivating way. Once again, they've done it with Soul. Soul is an extremely enjoyable movie for many things, including the vivid visual experience, the beautiful musical experience, and the profound takeaway message about a life: it's not about finding one thing that you love, it's about learning to love everything in life.

The story is told efficiently through the encounter of two very contrasting souls:

Joe Gardner. Pianist slash middle school music teacher. 30 something. He lived too little and died too soon, but he has a calling so powerful that it helped him force his way to escape the eternals: jazz.

Soul 22. A tenant in a place called The Great Before (or U Seminar) where new souls are trained to find their purpose in life. Soul 22, voiced by "a middle aged white woman", has been at U Seminar for millions of years and still never bothered to taste life on earth.

When these two meet, their differences were bound to make them question their ways, a feat that no one has been able to accomplished in Joe's thirty years on earth and Soul 22's millions. Through Joe's loyalty to his calling and beautiful New York hometown, 22 got the chance to experience life's simple yet great pleasures (pizza, most prominently) and found a reason on Earth to stay: She didn't know what is was that she loved, but she wanted to figure it out by experiencing all of it.

Joe's extraordinary to return to life led him to fulfil one of his biggest dream: playing with the great jazz legend Dorothy Williams. He was so busy dreaming about this big gig, that he has never thought about what he wanted after it. In fact, he felt empty, still. And being the witness through Soul 22's adventure to learn about all living things, Joe rediscover the secret to life, to not just this one big thing, but enjoy all of it.

The theme of finding happiness and purpose is not especially new, but Pixar's rendition is especially refreshing and effective as it can utilise its animation format to form an unimaginable pairing that the live actions cannot: a human, and a soul. Throughout Joe and Soul 22's incredible journey from earth, to the Great Beyond/Before, back to earth, then back to the Great Beyond/Before, then back to earth again, there are three other underlying theme and lessons that emerge: The mentors, Deaths, and Souls.

Even a million-year-old soul need a mentor to appreciate life. So don’t be scared to find the teachers in your life.

The Mentors in Our Lives

Joe was 22's literal mentor in the Great Before, and 22's was in a way, Joe's. Through their encounter they left with a better understanding of life and themselves than before they had met. That what mentors do. Real life mentoring comes in imperfect ways and not always most obvious or easy, but real mentors come through. For 22, when her insecurities about her past self overcame her and made her a literal obsessive monster (or "Lost Soul") was when Joe show up and help her to evolve. For Joe, his dissatisfaction after his long-awaited jazz gig was healed after he found the falling tree leaf that 22's has picked up. Her innocent eyes lent him a new lens through which he saw life.

Outside of Joe and 22 relationship, Soul depicts types of mentors and methods of mentoring rather effectively as well. Think Des the hairdresser as your street guru, think Gerrys as your orthodox teachers, think Joe himself to Connie and the kids in the music class as those that just ooze inspiration that you want to model after. Two methods of mentoring employed in the Great Before: the Hall of Everything offers the Try and Error method to finding your passion, while the Hall of Life Highlights is an example of learning from the said-and-done of Role Models.

The key takeaway: Even a million-year-old soul need a mentor to appreciate life. So don't be scared to find the teachers in your life. They can be anyone, and can come from anything.

Death can play a part when we’re still living. Therefore, we don’t need to know what happens after Death to learn from it.

Death

Death appears suddenly in beginning of the movie and repeated two more times, each with a new piece of meaning.

The first time death appeared, it was not just a device to introduce Joe to 22, but started the question "If you die today, what has your life been like?". Joe was not happy with his answer. He had had one calling, jazz, and all this time his life was just leading up to it. He needed a last shot to prove that his life has been worth it by striving back to earth to fulfil this calling.

The second time, death reappeared after Terry, the Great Beyond accountant responsible for the accuracy of number of deaths, caught up with Joe and 22. Death plays two roles here. While it has lit an even stronger desire for Joe to come back, it discouraged 22 to live again as she began to delve into her insecurities. This is such a jarring analogy to what death means to people. Death is a motivator for people with great zeal to do more. And Death is an escape for the many that struggles with purpose and self-love.

The third and final time, death took Joe in when he was in the zone and chose to leave his earthly life to save 22. Death is the beginning for 22 the new soul. Death is a second chance at life for Joe. A new start helps both of them look at life in completely new light. Thanks to Death.

Death is the big question of all living things: Is there anything more after it? The film never explains, but it still narrates through these three meanings that Death can play a part when we're still living, and helps us make sense of all the nuanced feelings we have thinking about Death before. Therefore, we don't need to know what happens after Death to learn from it.

If I did not learn anything else from this movie, I would at least learn to intently listen to music whenever I feel lost.

Soul

Souls, the movie title, are the real main characters, who are depicted in many forms: little teal lights, in human bodies, or even in cats. They are assigned personalities, have a "spark" before being sent to Earth. It is explained that Soul becomes its own and leave the human bodies in a few ways that:

Death is the first and most obvious way.

Second way is to be "in the zone", when you are so lost in passion that you temporarily lose your bodily senses and left with only your soul in the moment. It can happen when you play music, or sports, or just anything that you really like doing, in one case it is flipping promotional board.

Finally, souls can leave the human bodies if it has been too obsessed, when you are stuck with one idea or thoughts, or can even be a passion that got out of hands into obsession. How do you heal an obsessed soul? With music, or touching a cat, or little life's joys, evidently.

These three phenomenon lively paints numerous ways that we can take care of our souls, to recognise the "in-the-zone" moment that takes your breath (or your soul) away, to be vigilant in times that we might not know we're lost. If I did not learn anything else from this movie, I would at least learn to intently listen to music whenever I feel lost.

The end.

Soul is a wonder of a story that crosses the border of age and experience. Anyone that has the concept of Death will understand and enjoy it. It is a refreshing breath of fresh air that comes in a time when humanity can really need an encouragement. Carry on, choose to live, choose to fall in love with everything.