Soul

It's another Pixar's classic, Pete Docter is able to bring another Pixar's classic on to the table. This movie reaches a standard of what Pixar's movie should be, and it definitely will win 2021 best animated features Oscar.

Personally, I like that Soul has constant comedy bit from beginning till the end. Big props to all animators and artists working on this project, the character designs are very unique and I've never seen New York city so alive and as detailed as in this movie.

A fabulous story about a near-death experience, with some conventional and some interestingly non-conventional statements about life and the afterlife. I really appreciated the major lesson that Joe/Joe's Soul/22 learn over the course of the movie: that one's "spark," or inner motivation, isn't the same as obsession about something (like getting a great gig), because obsession drives many people to become lost souls, despite still living. This observation is made explicitly by one of the "Jerries:" divine(?) beings who control the "Great Before" where souls go before their incarnation, whose straight-line forms suggest computer vector graphics; but they also appeal to quantum mechanics as if to a divine law. These angels of science aren't evil, per se, although the cosmic accountant Terry reminds me of a gnostic demiurge, a being of imperfect knowledge striving for "justice" rather than "mercy." In any case, Soul is enveloped by non-denominational, quasi-scientific, and morally ambiguous pre- and post-mortem realms and their governing angels.

Despite their imperfections, the "Jerries" mean well, and prove their good will at the end, when they offer Joe another chance at living after he selflessly concedes his "badge" (and thus his life) to 22, whom he then shepherds into the next world. For much of the movie, especially when 22 inhabited Joe's body, I was convinced that Joe's body would survive, but that it would no longer be ensouled by his own soul, but by 22. That would have allowed some truly interesting reflections on the nature of personal identity, especially the inner dynamics of major changes to one's motivations and values in life.

Artistically it's a masterpiece without no doubt, it's incredibly inventive like most of the Pixar movies and deeply poetic like just their greatest ones. It manages to use the animation to create and rationalize images, worlds, characters and concepts so complicated and imaginative that usually can only find their form inside minds. But at the same time narratively it feels rushed and this makes it hard to be involved, moved and you find yourself detached; so many aspects about the main character, the dimensions he cross and about the philosophy behind them and the main story needed more attention, a more elaborated development, especially in the first half where the movie don't find the right rhythm running and running without a breath, a beautiful, essential breath. Maybe it just needs to be watched a second time or even more to be fully appreciated. Still it really is a good movie, even a masterpiece under some aspects as already mantioned, but it could have been a masterpiece under every aspect if it lasted longer. It had so much to say and too little time to do it.

Before explaining why I liked this movie, I'd like to point out that the main idea of the movie is *NOT* that you need find your purpose to have a happy life. It's the exact opposite! I'm not saying this just to be a professor, but because it's really important and that's why I loved the film so much. You don't need to be fixated about something to find a meaning in your life. You need to savour it and learn to enjoy the little moments instead of waiting for something big to happen to reach happiness. It's so profound and refreshing. A movie just about a guy waiting for his big moment and feeling fulfilled after having reached it would have been dull, boring, trite and most of all wrong, like pretty much all "self-help" advices. Instead the opposite idea is presented and if you just pay attention to the dialogues -and the story, really- you'll understand what I mean and most importantly what you might apply to make your everyday life better. But back to the movie I've got to say I almost cried as the end was approaching as much as I was going to turn off the tv when the movie started. The whole initial setting reminded me too much of Inside Out, a film I quite disliked, so I was worried it was a copy of it (it kind of is in the beginnin). But luckily the second half steered away from it and developed in one of the most moving film I've seen in a long time. Undoubtedly one of Pixar's best.

There are times during the first quarter when you may believe someone's spiked your drink with an hallucinogenic as Disney's innovative way of capturing our entrance and exit to the world is developed but, as you will find, this is a film to get you thinking and, more importantly, thinking about yourself - reflecting so to speak. Delivered with the usual Pixar excellence, if this doesn't make you realise that tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life then rewind, pause and start again, because the message is universally important to all - and that includes you!!!