Soul - Another Beautifully Animated Movie from Disney/Pixar though Hardly the Most Memorable & Touching on a Personal Level

Yesterday this highly anticipated movie from Disney Pixar was finally released on Disney+, and as a fan of their works, I was definitely going to choose this one to watch despite there were other new movies available on different streaming platforms. Anyway, let's just get on with it.

Brief Story Line

When a middle school music teacher named Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx - Project Power, Ray etc) somehow gotten the gig of his lifetime to perform in a quartet with the famous jazz musician Dorothea Williams (Angela Basset - American Horror Story TV series, What's Love Got to do with It etc), he was so excited despite the disapproval from his mother Libba (Phylicia Rashad - Creed 2, Good Deeds etc).

Sadly though he got into an accident and his soul was meant to go to The Great Beyond. Not ready to leave his life, Joe tried to escape and return to his body. During this escaping attempt, Joe met with a young soul simply called 22 (Tina Fey - Date Night, 30 Rock TV series etc) who was being trained with other baby souls to be ready to live on earth. Joe saw this as an opportunity and tried to be his mentor, but it would be a really difficult task as 22 was not keen to live her life on earth.

So what would happen to Joe and 22? You can find them all in this drama comedy movie.

End of Brief Story Line

It's funny how high expectation on a movie sometime actually failed to totally impressed me on a personal level. This movie was one of those. Because of the highly critical comments and branded as "Peak Pixar" by critics and audiences, I was looking forward to the film so much that when I have completed it, I was a bit confused by the lack of emotions I had compared to other Disney/Pixar movies. But after thinking about it further, I guess it's just a matter of my taste. 

The movie started of quite nicely with the introduction of our main character Joe (Jamie Foxx really nailed his role) who was trapped in a life he did not appreciate as he wanted to be jazz musician. But once he became a soul, then the story grew funnier albeit in a weird way. Not until the character 22 (fantastically voiced by Tina Fey) was introduced that it became livelier. Then suddenly the story became quite hilarious after that one incident and it was more enjoyable for me, even if it was not the most original idea. The rest of the story was a bit familiar with a quite predictable outcome.

Now I am not saying this is a terrible movie as it is far from that. I quite agree with some of the comments from critics or audience about the beautiful animation (sooo lovely and realistic especially during the Dorothea Williams quartet playing music). The story was also pretty good with a really creative take about souls (heavy on philosophy part). The music was amazing if you happen to be a jazz lover (as I am not one of them, I could only enjoy a bit). But somehow the emotional moments could not really touch me the way previous Disney/Pixar movies I saw earlier like Coco or Finding Nemo or even the early part of Up. Yes that scene towards the conclusion was quite heart warming and if I watch it with my wife, she whould be emotional too. However, it seemed to just pass by for me.

I actually like the story telling as it was done in a straight forward manner and the way the Great Beyond (or the Great Before) were explained, it was quite easy to understand. Nevertheless, I do not think it would be easy enough for young kids (likely it has to be explained by parents, which would explained the PG rating). The young souls were very cute and most probably would be loved by children (even I thought they look adorable). There were some funny moments but I loved it the most during the second half of the movie where I could laugh out loud. It has a duration of around 101 minutes including closing credits that was fun to watch till the very end.

Overall I like this movie and I thought it was great with its superb animation and some hilarious moments. But since enjoying a movie also requires personal preference, this was not the best Disney/Pixar for me as it did not really touch me on a personal level. As I am sure that everyone has their opinion or idea about which movie they think is best (which is not a right/wrong question), I believe that this one probably is the best for some people, just like different movies are best for the rest. So if you love to watch Disney/Pixar movies, obviously you got to watch this.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars