A lot of people have been raving about this movie Soul and how good it made them feel. I was not a big fan of the movie. It looked nice. Had good music. But I wasn't moved by the story whatsoever. This music teacher named Joe Gardner has dreams of being a great musician for a living. He is offered a teaching job but gets a great gig playing piano and ends up falling into a manhole and dying. I guess. I'm not quite sure honestly. Like, he isn't bruised or anything but is on an escalator to the Great Beyond and hops off saying he has to get back for this performance. Wait. He's in a coma. That's fucked up that he is moving on from a coma. He meets these soul counselors and he pretends to be an instructor and gets the task of finding a “spark” for someone named 22. 22 has chased away some of the greatest people in history with her behavior.
They end up back on Earth but 22 is in his body and Joe is in the body of a hospital cat. They escape the hospital and 22 is freaking out because she has never had a body before. In the cats body Joe messes up his hair, they head to a barbershop (which other than the soul babies is the best part of this), has great conversations with his mother, and performs well. 22 decides she doesn't wanna give up Joe's body before finding her own purpose and it turns into Get Out. They get caught by one of the Terry's and brought to the Great Before where Joe finds out that a spark just means a soul is ready to live. Joe gets his body back and performs but realizes it doesn't feel the way he thought it would. He goes into the zone and tracks down 22 who is a lost soul now. Joe convinces her that she is ready and she turns back into the blue thing and Joe gets his body back and learns to live life to its fullest.
Maybe I didn't dig this as much because I am not a fan of animated movies the way I used to be. CGI I mean. If this was a cartoon I would have been more excited. I like the voice acting but with some of the characters all I could picture was them in a booth recording dialogue which is something I shouldn't think of when watching something animated. Stop using celebrities for every animated movie. When did this become a thing? I know someone famous would pop up every once in a while but now these films are voiced by nothing but famous folk. “That's Jamie Foxx. That's Ashy Larry. That's Angela Bassett. That's Graham Norton. That's Richard Ayoade.” I also didn't like that this was hyped as Pixar's first Black starring film and it turns into a film about a Black guy damn near dying, getting turned into a cat, and then helping some lady actually find her purpose.
Jamie Foxx as Joe Gardner
Tina Fey as 22
Graham Norton as Moonwind
Rachel House as Terry
Alice Braga and Richard Ayoade as Soul Counselors
Phylicia Rashad as Libba Gardner
Donnell Rawlings as Dez
Questlove as Lamont "Curley" Baker
Angela Bassett as Dorothea Williams
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