Film Review: Soul

Soul is Disney Pixar's latest existential animation film, and was played on my TV at home on Disney+ rather than the movie theatre because of the COVID pandemic. Never would I have thought to watch a new film like this at the comfort of my own home, but I like it that way because of the convenience factor. Writing this was originally giving me HSC English vibes like analysing a text so I tried to avoid doing that subconsciously.

Note there are spoilers ahead in this rambling blog post of mine, from the lens of a hedge fund equity analyst. I'm probably the last kind of guy on earth to give his 2c on a Disney Pixar film... But here goes! I am assuming as well people reading this have watched the film...

"Soul" as described by Pixar, is about "Joe who is a middle-school band teacher whose life hasn't quite gone the way he expected. His true passion is jazz -- and he's good. But when he travels to another realm to help someone (aka "22") find their passion, he soon discovers what it means to have soul."

Tldr, I give it a 7.5/10. The music and animations were incredible, but that's expected of Pixar. I personally liked the idea of Pixar's Inside Out > Soul, though both were solid plot lines in their own right.

Longer answer, I felt like this video isn't the easiest to understand for the typical age group of Disney which tend to be children < 18 years old. This film is a body swap situation, where Joe and 22 take the form of a cat and Joe's body, respectively.

My key takeaway, was that "Soul" is about finding the beauty in life. Kind of cringe I know, but let's roll with this message...

Like seeing family and friends, eating New York pizza, etc. The film also shows to 22 that there is still a point to living on earth. Joe is fixated on Jazz at the expense of everyone, which is when you become a "lost soul", disconnected from all aspects of life (this was exemplified in the comical "hedge fund manager" as being the ultimate "lost souls"). I took that quite deeply to heart, given my current work.

It made me question myself as to whether I was a "lost soul" solely focused on investment performance from the stocks I picked. I'm not here to defend the actions of why all of us chose our jobs in the hedge fund industry because it differs for each individual's circumstance. When I think about my own circumstance, I admit I've often lost sight of the broader beauty in life at times because I was too fixated in the stock market. Some will say maybe it's just a disciplined and burning passion of mine. Others will say its insanity. I think I'm somewhere in the middle (hopefully). I don't think there's a clear cut right or wrong to be honest. Everyday it's a balance and I admit I'm trying to focus more on the former, and I've recapped some of the outside interests I've been focusing on beyond stock markets, like pilates, Sydney Science College, and mentoring others myself in this A-Z reflection of 2020 post here.

That above paragraph was a personal ramble... Anyways, I suspect many of the adults out there watching this film, would have liked to balance their life better, e.g. spending more time with family and friends, but couldn't because they were fixated on something else too, e.g. work, hobby, etc.

Joe went through a similar experience. Getting the hollow victory of finally getting to play at a jazz gig, meant that he missed out on a lot of the beauties of life in the process. This also means he had let 22 down. Doing what he was doing, meant that he was ending up like those other "lost souls".

Joe realises after playing at the jazz gig, that there is very little in his life to celebrate this with. He might reach “the Zone” when he takes the Blue Note stage, but he can’t live there. If he tried he might become a zombie like other soulless automatons who wind up there, like the Wall Street hedge fund manager we saw earlier in the film.

By Joe insisting that life is about one thing, one purpose, and that 22 can’t find her own, he offered her exceedingly negative reinforcement. This is not to say that Joe intentionally harmed her. He’d grown to like 22 as a teacher might celebrate a prized pupil. But as with many teachers and parents before him, Joe is forced to become aware of the dangers of negative reinforcement, and essentially demeaning a young mind’s spirit and unintentionally pushing them toward apathy, or worse, resignation.

And 22 is certainly resigned by the climax, giving into the cynicism of every harsh word she’s heard over the centuries and millennia from "mentors". When Joe enters the dark void she’s created, like the other zombies who lost their souls to their obsessions, he sees all the cruel things 22’s other mentors have said to her, but none is quite so monstrous as her vision of Joe, who is an enormous figure she imagines is screaming down at her, insisting she has no reason to live or exist.

By seeing his own mania through the eyes of another soul, Joe sees his failures clearly, both toward 22 and himself. It is only then he is able to break through to 22 and give her the inspiration she needs to embrace life… and in the process he saves his own life.

This line from Joe rang true to me, "What would you want to be known for on earth? We only have a short time on this planet. You want to become the person that you were born to be - don't waste your time on all the junk of life! Spend your precious hours doing what will bring out the real you! The brilliant, passionate you, that's ready to contribute something meaningful into this world."

Throughout his whole life, Joe had a drive to do one thing, but he discovers much more beyond his one passion. The ending's final words "just live it" reminds us all to appreciate every moment in life, both the highs and the lows. The original ending line was meant to be "enjoy every moment", but the producer, Pete Docter (also the guy who produced Inside Out - which remains my favourite Pixar film to date aside from Ratatouille), scrapped it to impose a more realistic view of the world. Not every moment in life is enjoyable, but at the same time, that doesn't mean that life is not worth living.

The film's ending is deliberately ambiguous because life is the same. You never really know what the future holds...

I'll shamelessly take this opportunity as a Christian to complete that statement however.

You never really know what the future holds... But you know God holds the future.

Wishing everybody a happy and safe 2021,

Michael Li