Pixar’s Soul movie review: New Disney+Hotstar film makes you do some soul searching

Things such as cakes, working from home, cyber schools, online groceries, zoom calls with the family, cricket and football in empty stadiums, and when everyone is asleep over their video screens, you binge watched all the grown up content there is to watch on every OTT platform. We mourned the loss of millions (some we knew and loved) and we learnt to appreciate the healthcare workers on the front lines.

The 2020 was spent in splendid isolation. We learnt to live in ridiculously-close proximity to our families and discovered more joys than sorrows there. Our planet seems to have healed from our absence. But most of all, as we step into the new year, I am glad that the year gone by has helped us rediscover ourselves. It took Pixar’s animation films to show us that part of us which corporate life, social life blithely asks us to put away.

Soul may be animated, but it is certainly not meant for the kiddies. No popcorn emotions here, no laugh track. You need the best amber in your cabinet, poured over two ice cubes in your best 12 oz. glass to watch this film. As you dim the lights and settle down to watch the film, you realise that the music is legendary. None other than Jon Batiste (you have heard his music in the incredible documentary American Tap, and seen him in the Stephen Colbert Show) is playing the piano for the high school band teacher who is the hero of the film.

It is the perfect film to end the year or begin a brand new one. A second chance at life. What would you do differently? As ‘22’ in the film (voiced so brilliantly by Tina Fey) says about Soul crushing, "That is what life on Earth is all about."

Are we going to continue to lose hope? Remember Inside Out (yet another Pixar film currently showing on Disney+Hotstar) when the ever chirpy joy begins to understand why sorrow exists and the memory beads begin to fade?

Just as the little girl Riley from Inside Out needs to realise that Bo Bo is her imaginary friend and that she needs to give up on some things to really grow up, Joe Gardner in Soul needs to appreciate the good things in his life that make living worthwhile. We may not be dead, but we have been forced into isolation by this pandemic and this film reminds us that we need to pressure wash the windows of our soul (and homes) and find joy again.

As Jon Batiste’s nimble fingers on the piano remind Joe that he needs to fight to stay alive, because performing is the one thing he lived for, it also shows 22 that life on Earth is not as bad as she thought it would be.

I loved how 22 has been counselled by everyone from Mother Teresa to award-winning scientists that living is wonderful, it takes music to see that everyone needs a rhythm to groove to in order to really, really live. You and I have given up so much in life in order to be someone. We talk about opening that restaurant or a homestay up the mountains for writers to retreat and write that novel, but we are mostly stuck in a grind of paying bills and fees and EMI on the latest thing of the moment.

Soul just makes you pause momentarily on the ‘pay bills’ life and wish it turns into a playbill life with you as the star. It was a good watch to see both Joe and 22 in a funny body swap discover the purpose of life. I would love to have as much dignity that Dorothea Williams and raise an eyebrow to speak the way she does. Yes, I also want a voice like Angela Bassett.

We spend all our lives striving to create something for which people will remember us. And, Pixar has managed to do this again and again. Especially when it comes to souls. If you have not it is time to watch the film Coco. A little boy, Miguel, takes on this humongous task of making a girl remember her father who is no more. The little girl too has become grandma now and what Miguel goes through is fun and laughter and bright coloured banter, but he is losing himself too…

In Soul, Moonwind reminds Joe and 22 that you have to remember the best parts of your life as if life itself depends on it. I was shook at how misery envelops your souls and you become these creatures…

Soul has so much art that you will be stunned at the detailing that goes into creating a film like this one. But, simple things first, it is okay that you miss out on the Pixar lamp making an appearance in the movie, but watch out for the Pizza Planet truck they add so casually in every Pixar movie. The Hall Of Everything is worth pausing the film for and just marveling the sheer details of the scene. If you are a fan of abstract art, then you will see a bit of Kandinsky in the two Jerry’s. Pixar is such a great studio, they manage to add beauty when you are least expecting it. Especially when they are showing us that if we run after career achievements, life’s meaning becomes nothing if you have not enjoyed the journey.

Have you felt worthy of your life? Is there anything that you do that puts you ‘in the zone’? Have you ever felt that you were improvising on the mundane and creating jazz of life? It is a reminder to all of us that it is alright to be inspired to improvise and make spontaneous changes to our life. What a grown up movie tells you that it is okay to make mistakes because we can use the mistakes in the music of our life to find a lovely tangent to meander into.

It is a film set in New York, and usually you expect car chases, rats carrying pizza slices, super humans fighting aliens or romances set around the New Year. But the soul of the city - and I would recommend that city in a flash to anyone - is jazz. It is a city that will make your heartbeat change its rhythm and you will find yourself. And yes, Jamie Foxx - who won the Oscar for his performance as Ray Charles, the jazz musician - is the voice of Joe Gardner.

After Coco, there is another hidden gem from Pixar on Disney+Hotstar is Onward, where the concept of that one chance at living again was quietly introduced. It is about an elf world where you are looking for your father. Soul is like a perfect trilogy for life.

Joe is accompanied by a soul called 22 who has to learn why life on Earth is wonderful, and the first time I watched Soul I wished they had called her 21 instead, because it is the new year and we like 22 need a new beginning. But, just digging for a few facts made me realise that Soul is the 22nd Pixar film and hence…

Whatever the reason, I think Soul is a perfect film with which to begin a new year. It has, like all of us, doubts and fears about new and uncharted territories called life. It has jazz to remind us to improvise no matter what our situation is, and it gives us hope about life on Earth, even though it comes in the form of a winged seed, a note on the piano, the child who learns to not to give up on passion or everyone’s eternal favourite, the pizza.