Quartile rating: 9/10 · 2 ratings
Joe Gardner is a middle school teacher with a love for jazz music. After a successful audition at the Half Note Club, he suddenly gets into an accident that separates his soul from his body and is transported to the You Seminar, a center in which souls develop and gain passions before being transported to a newborn child. Joe must enlist help from the other souls-in-training, like 22, a soul who has spent eons in the You Seminar, in order to get back to Earth.
Soul is a remarkable Pixar achievement that tackles weighty existential themes—the meaning of life, purpose, and passion—with unusual philosophical depth for an animated family film. The plot is inventive and emotionally resonant, blending jazz culture with metaphysical concepts in a way that feels wholly original. The cinematography is visually stunning, contrasting the vibrant, textured realism of New York City with the abstract, geometric beauty of the Great Before. Novelty is high: no mainstream animated film has quite occupied this thematic and aesthetic space. The voice performances are solid and warm but not transcendent—Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey are charming without being career-defining work. The ending, while emotionally satisfying, leans into a somewhat expected redemptive resolution that slightly softens the film's bolder philosophical edges, making it the weakest link in an otherwise exceptional package.