Disney's 'Soul': Visually Beautiful but Occasionally Soul-less

Soul focuses on Joe Gardner, a down-on-his-luck jazz musician who faces the choice between chasing his dream and settling to become a full-time music teacher. The film is visually gorgeous, the abstract animation and character design completely blowing me away. It almost made me sad that I couldn’t experience the film on a real cinema screen.

 

After an accident, Joe finds himself in the world of ‘spirits’. I would have liked to have gotten a little bit more from this world, as I felt it had a lot of potential and could have done with slightly more exposition. And I found that some scenes grew tiresome, such as with the merry band of hippies Joe and 22 get to help them on Joe’s journey back to earth. The character “22”, who Joe mentors and acts as somewhat of a sidekick/partner for the rest of the film, was also a little annoying – but that was part of the character.

 

I did find that I only laughed a few times throughout the film, namely in scenes featuring the character Terry. Or the scene where 22 finds herself in a cat and we quickly flash to seeing the cat on the conveyor-belt-like path up to the spirit world, which I found hilarious. But again, when Joe and 22 go back to earth, I found it a little tiresome and my attention definitely drifted during their escapades.

 

Overall, the film is visually stunning and carries a great message; just living is enough, and it’s important to find joy in the simple and seemingly mundane parts of life. I would have liked to see more between Joe and his mother, as their relationship was engaging, and the brief image we get near the end of the film of the two of them standing on a beach, presumably following the death of Joe’s father, had me tearing up a little. I also felt that Joe was dominated by 22, and the theme of him giving up his life and dream to support her felt a little problematic to me. However, the film was quite enjoyable as a lazy-day, post-Christmas watch, and the soundtrack was also very impressive.