C. S. Thurman

Pixar has always held a special place in my heart. Growing up as a child it was filled with movies like Toy Story, Bugs Life, and many many more. Between now and then I’ve had the chance to grow and learn about what makes a story a story, and what you can do to either make it, or break it.

With their newest release of Soul I found the concepts within it amazing. In many ways it had the same feel at Inside Out. I was looking for a heart wrenching story, something that would help fill me with a sense of nostalgia or even a sense of loss. I kind of felt that, but it never hit me as strongly as it had in other movies. Even The Good Dinosaur helped me feel that sense of loss. In Soul I felt that it had 2 messages that it was trying to get out and missed on both accounts.

At first I thought that they were going to show that teaching was his true passion, or that it was his purpose in life. They drop in those little tidbits with how he helped that girl in his middle school class realize just how much she loved music, or how he helped Curly realize he loved to play the drums. My wife thought Joe would’ve felt the satisfaction when he actually played in the band he would feel that special moment.

Spoiler…

We were both wrong.

He never received either of those moments.

Instead Pixar decided to make it about the joy of living. Dorothea’s story at the end about the fish asking to find the Ocean wasn’t about finding life’s purpose, but about living life in the moment. Enjoying the everyday, normal experience of life. It’s a good message, but it wasn’t delivered in the best way. Pixar gave us 2 red herrings and then told us that oops, Joe actually needs to enjoy everything, not just Jazz music or teaching. But I feel like this message couldn’t be conveyed in the 1 hour and 40 minutes they give us. It felt to rushed, and too generic to be real.

For me it’s the question that a child will ask their parent as to which is better; to dream to be a fireman, or to dream to be an actor (or actress) only to be told “both is good”. I’m left still feeling lost and unsure what to think. Pixar didn’t give us that solid connection to what’s important. There was so much of Joe being selfish that we missed it all, just like he did. For me, Joe’s aha moment of discovering how to enjoy life wasn’t laid out very well.

From a Father of three children, I also find that a lot of the concepts in this movie would go over my kids heads. None of them are able to understand the concept of the afterlife yet, and the Jerry’s and Terry’s would be too much for them altogether. Even for me they are more of an enigma than proper characters in a story. Overall I would not say that Soul is a very good kid film, or anyone for that matter.

I feel Pixar and Disney missed out on a great opportunity to create it’s first animation film directed toward adults. Soul had a lot in the making to be a more adult film with the concepts that were presented in the film. If they gave the film an extra 20-30 minutes I feel that it could have really pulled it off. However, the plot seemed rushed and it didn’t give the viewers enough time to comprehend what was happening.

Overall, the film was a 2.5 out of 5 for me. The film had just enough to it that I could enjoy it, but not enough for me to ever want to come back for more, or to recommend it for others.