Soul was released on Disney+ on Christmas Day. The film is co-directed and has a story and screenplay by Pete Docter who also directed the brilliant Inside Out (2015). His co-director is Kemp Powers, he adapted the drama One Night in Miami, and also worked on the story and screenplay. Mike Jones also wrote Soul’s story and screenplay, he wrote the screenplay for the upcoming Luca. A movie about the afterlife is challenging like Coco (2017). There are some brilliant movies like Albert Brooks’ clever comedy Defending Your Life (1991) and what I consider the most beautiful and developed afterlife worlds in What Dreams May Come (1998). The opening with the Disney logo has an off-key middle school band playing “When You Wish Upon a Star”, very funny jab at the parent company. The teacher, Joe Carter (Jamie Foxx), has them play another jazz song, but it has no energy, most the kids don’t play. Foxx is of course known for playing Ray Charles in the 2004 film.
Connie (Cora Champommier) on trumpet is filled with the energy of jazz and takes it solo. She is mocked by the other kids. He explains that what she did is good and tells them about going to the Half Note jazz club. Joe starts playing, he has long fingers, and this gets the attention of all of the students. The jazz compositions are by Jon Batiste who is on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The score is by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. He is interrupted by the principal who tells him that he is hired full time. Joe is not enthusiastic, he was meant for to play jazz. Being a teacher and inspiring others will fill the world with more jazz, life should be fulfilling, but Joe doesn't understand he is narrow minded and a little selfish. At his mother, Libba’s tailoring shop, she (Phylicia Rashad) is excited at his steady job. Rashad also was in Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey. She doesn't understand her son's need to perform like his father. Joe gets a call from a former student, Curley (Questlove), who now has a gig as a drummer for Dorothea Williams. Questlove is of course in the band The Roots and was a writer of a song in Detroit (2017). Curley tells Joe that he could try out for Dorothea’s quartet. Joe races over to Dorothea’s club and meets with Curley. Dorothea is on stage playing the sax. Joe watches in awe.
Dorothea (Angela Bassett) is unimpressed at a middle school teacher. She has him tryout on the piano and Joe is uncertain about what song they are practicing. Dorothea just starts playing, Joe picks up, and then starts his off riff and we get him silhouetted in blue. It looks like Joe is getting lost. When he finishes, he looks up to see Dorothea and the rest of the band silent. She tells him to get a suit. Joe is excited, talking on the phone, and not paying attention to traffic and the street around him. He falls in a manhole and lands as tiny, blue version of himself in the darkness. It looks like in the afterlife you turn into Casper the Friendly Ghost. There is only echoes of his voice, he sees the black stairs go to a nova of white, but runs down the stairs that look like reverse piano keys. He meets three spirits that are waiting to go to the Great Beyond. Joe sees them turn into balls that are blue and then white going into the nova. He starts running, there are crowds of blue spirits, and then Joe falls off the stairs into darkness. Joe falls through abstract dimensions before falling into giant, blue stalks.
He is surrounded by tiny baby spirits. A tall, line form appears before him, calling herself Jerry (Alice Braga). The actress was in the New Mutants film. She thinks he is a mentor. Joe wonders if it is Heaven and Jerry explains that he is in the Great Before. In What Dream May Come, a familiar figure acts as a guide to help the soul understand what it is happening, there is also a “guardian angel” in the Twilight Zone episode “A Nice Place to Visit” (1960). Jerry transforms into an equestrian from and takes Joe and several baby spirits along. At the stairs, two bureaucrats notice that there is a soul missing. This seems like a very unorganized afterlife. Jerry points out white structures that the souls go to the pavilions to get personalities. She points out that the souls go to the Earth portal, a gap where the baby souls drop down. Joe attempts to leap down, but ends up back in the Great Before. He is given the choice to be a mentor or return to the stairs and he takes the sticker badge.
The accountant, Terry (Rachel House), meets with Jerry to tell her about the lost soul. He goes to check on the files, it is several rows of files on a block that extends to a warehouse. Joe goes to see a Mentor training video in a theater called the You Seminar. The host shows the personalities that fill a soul, a dial of different aspects with one missing slot which the host calls the Spark. He says that the mentors can go to the Hall of Everything to find the one thing that will inspire a person and also the Hall of You, that shows the life story of a mentor that could give the Spark. This gives Joe the thought of helping a soul be inspired by jazz and returning to the club. After the presentation, another Jerry (Richard Ayoade), matching up mentors with souls. Ayoade voiced Zero in The Mandalorian and also Mr. Pickles in The Boxtrolls (2014). Joe finds that he has the sticker badge of Dr. Borgensen! Jerry says that he is matched with 22 and goes to struggle with her to go on stage.
They are moved into the doorway which leads to the Hall of You. The Twilight Zone episode has a Hall of Records and Defending Your Life has a defense attorney assigned as you review footage of your life to see how you move on from Judgment City. This is a brown tinted world that has spotlights on Dr. Borgensen’s life. 22 (Tina Fey) explains that she has countless mentors of famous people who all failed. Fey is of course known for 30 Rock and also Mean Girls (2004). 22 is a large, mushroom-like head blue spirit like the other baby spirits, but with reddish cheeks. So 22 is a new spirit, but world weary voiced by Fey, really this leaves out the pre-teen audience. Joe tries to explain he is not Dr. Borgensen and 22 shows him how to change the Hall of You. It shifts to the blue light of his life which is Joe sitting around watching television and also his rap group. He sees the turning point of his life at the jazz club with his father, but then the endless string of disappointments and sitting alone eating at a diner.
Joe wants 22’s badge. She tries, but it always reappears on her, 22 needs an Earth Pass. Joe says he will help her, He wants her Earth Pass and 22 wants to stay in the Great Before. Joe says jazz is his Spark, his music doesn’t interest 22. Joe asks 22 why she sounds like a “middle aged white lady”, very funny, and she can sound like anyone, but her voice is the most annoying! 22 leads Joe to the Hall of Everything, a faintly gold tower that has every interest, but 22 just ends up saying, “Meh!” The difficulty with 22 is that she hasn’t experienced anything before. She’s seen and known things, but it is the difference of putting on a VR headset to go on a trip or watching a documentary and actually traveling there. There is also The Zone where living persons are inspired and connect with the afterlife. Moonwind (Graham Norton) is the pilot of a ship with tie-die sails sailing the Zone. Norton is the long time host of his own chat show, The Graham Norton Show.
Moonwind is also connected to the real world as a sign twirler! We have 22 ending up with Joe’s journey and she actually experiences human life and finds it fascinating. Joe gets caught up in trying to get to his gig that he doesn’t realize that their time is exciting her about being human. He has become jaded about things that excite 22. Yes, fulfilling his dream is important, but Joe has to appreciate things along the way. Terry tries to pursue Joe, but he only becomes a problem when he needs to for the story. Donnell Rawlings voices Dez, Joe's barber, who speaks some truth he needs to hear. Rawlings is from Chappelle's Show. The vision of the afterlife is not stunning visuals or compelling like Coco or What Dreams May Come. If you need some jazz inspiration, I would recommend the Rhapsody in Blue sequence in Fantastia 2000 (1999). There is some predictable twists to Joe’s story, but it is an uplifting message. Soul is about life, finding your purpose, and just a little jazz to go along with it!
Three Earth Passes out of Five!
#Soul, #PeteDocter, #JamieFoxx, #TinaFey, #PhyliciaRashad, #AngelaBassett, #AliceBraga
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