Soul (2020 Disney+)

[Greg]

Pixar brings us the story of a jazz music teacher who desperately wants to make the leap to playing in the band. The chance comes to audition for a quartet and he gets the job only to die on the way home. Soul is the story of Ted Gardner's quest to get back to his body, because he feels he died too soon.

Now, my first thought was that it was just a riff on Heaven Can Wait (Or to go way back, Here Comes, Mr. Jordan) but it's more than that. This movie is mainly centered in the after life and how souls get chosen for which bodies. There is lot about living a good life and what constitutes a life well live.

There's a moral to the story or it wouldn't be Pixar. I thought there would be more discussion of Jazz but that doesn't really happen. It has a lot of the same DNA as Inside Out probably because they are both directed by Peter Doctor.

It was an enjoyable film. There are some laughs. But there is a lot that it seems we've seen before. 

And I don't know who this film is geared towards. I'm not sure if kids will get all the themes the movie explores. Might have to watch again myself to see what I missed.

[Greg]

Soul fun fact that really surprised me is that Trent Reznor did the score.

[King Bob]

I thought it was fairly enjoyable, but like Greg not sure of the audience. I think maybe 20 somethings who grew up with Pixar.

[Drunk Monk]

Enjoyable. I was enamored with the music, both Reznor's work and Baptiste's. And I liked some of the imagery, particularly the lost souls. They kinda had tentacles. It was very Pixar for sure. I think their audience is somewhere between kids and parents and sometimes they miss one or the other. This was somewhat a miss of both perhaps. 

I was disappointed by Tina Fey. I luv her work, but here she felt like a weak Ellen, as in Mushu is to Sisu as Dory is to 22. She just didn't quite make it as a voice actress for me. 

For extra credit, I watched 22 vs. Earth, with Tina reprising 22. It says it's 9 mins, but it's only half that. The rest is credits in all the foreign languages. The end credit scene was mildly funny. It's dismissible however, negligible, not worth the time, like a cutting room scene that should've stayed on the cutting room form. 

No sword fights. Not particularly DOOM recommended, especially since half of us have seen it already.