Soul (2020)

Director: Pete Docter, Kemp Powers

A musician who has lost his passion for music is transported out of his body and must find his way back with the help of an infant soul learning about herself.

Cleverly titled, ‘Soul’ can refer to smooth soulful music (jazz), or the human soul, since the movie deals with death and the afterlife, as well.

‘Soul’ features fantastic animation. I really enjoyed the film’s protagonist, Joe, whom I can relate to in many aspects. His perseverance was justified, and I rooted for him all the way. I enjoyed his family set-up and back story. I really felt and understood his determination.

This might be one of the top rated films according to IMDB, but (for me) it never reached the emotional depth as films like ‘Inside Out’ – which it is often being compared to. Maybe this was due to the ever-present humor. In a way, it almost felt as if they used the idea of ‘Inside Out’ and tweaked it a bit to give it a different appeal. Some of the dialogue, manner of speech, and characters sounded and looked as if they were taken right out of ‘Inside Out’ – especially the character ’22’. There’s even a bit of ‘Finding Dory’ here, with Tina Fey sounding a lot like Ellen Degeneres at times.

‘Soul’ is a jazz-infused animated film with soul! It has a powerful, positive message. The film deals with death in an uplifting manner – as to appeal to a younger demographic in an easy to understand way, I suppose. Regardless, the film didn’t stir my senses as I’d have liked it to, and therefore I’d much rather watch ‘Inside Out’ again instead of giving this a second viewing. Nevertheless, I do recommend seeing this film at least once.

‘Soul’ won numerous awards including Best Animated Film, Best Original Score and Best Original Screenplay.

Would I watch it again? I don’t think so.