2 l December
20 - 26, 2020
Northeast Oregon TV Weekly
BY GEORGE DICKIE
“Soul” begins streaming
Friday on Disney+.
Animated Disney+ feature
considers how a soul
becomes a ‘Soul’
We’ve all imagined what a human soul
might look like. But Disney+ makes it the
centerpiece of a storyline in an animated film
that begins streaming Christmas Day, Friday,
Dec. 25.
In “Soul,” we are introduced to Joe Gardner
(voice of Jamie Foxx, “Ray”), a middle-school
band teacher with a passion for jazz, who falls
through a manhole in the middle of New York
City and into The Great Before, a fantastical
place where new souls get their quirks,
personalities and interests before they head off
to their human incarnations.
There he meets up with 22 (voice of Tina
Fey, “30 Rock”), a precocious soul who
never understood the allure of the human
experience. As Joe tries to show 22 that life as
a living, breathing person has its upsides, he
sets off on a journey that may help him answer
some of life’s more important questions.
The film was directed by Oscar winner Pete
Docter (“Up,” “Inside Out”), who years ago
became fascinated with his own infant son’s
apparent personality and soul at birth. More
than 23 years later, he turned that into a story
when he began questioning his own life path.
“(It) just inspired him to think about
his kids,” explains Dana Murray, the film’s
producer, “like his son when he was born, just
(how) he showed up with so much personality
on day one. And how is that? Where does that
come from? And so really just those two things
really inspired the spark, really, for the idea.”
As for portraying the soul itself, Murray
and the team at Pixar Animation Studios did
plenty of research, talking to a wide range of
spiritual people, including priests, pastors,
Buddhists and Shamans to get their take on
how a soul might appear.
“And across the board,” Murray says, “it was
very, very similar in how people described it:
ethereal, vaporous, no form. And so we were
like, ‘Oh, well how are we going to portray
that on a screen? We need something.’ But we
didn’t want it to be ghostlike, like Casper the
ghost.
“So from that research, we just started our
character artists down a path of exploring and
they went down all kinds of crazy routes and
we went back to a drawing that Pete had done
at the very beginning. Super simple, of just
like that light bulb shape.”
Indeed, this is prime Christmas Day viewing
for the family. Murray thinks it has something
for everyone.
“I feel like after 2020 and just the year I
think the world has had ... often the holidays
can be a time of reflection,” she says. “And so
I’m hoping people can walk away from the
film wanting to just take a look at their own
lives and think about: Are they spending the
limited time they have on Earth wisely and
what would they change? And just to be kind
of grateful for what they have around them.
But I feel like there are a lot of themes in the
movie that it’s just interesting, I hope everyone
walks away feeling something different.”
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