Soul Review

*SPOILERS*

Pixar movies just have an incredible way of storytelling to reach their audience. Their movies are so meaningful yet very enjoyable.

Soul is exactly that.

It’s a movie with an immense level of depth but the message applies to everyone.

Continue reading to find out what its all about!

Synopsis

Soul is about a part-time music teacher – Joe Gardner. His biggest passion is playing jazz music on his piano and wants to pursue playing in a jazz band.

Just like his father.

His mother (Libba) doesn’t approve of his lifestyle because he’s always looking for a gig, and that doesn’t pay the bills.

It’s not a sustainable career choice.

He’s offered a promotion to become a fulltime teacher, but just in time, he gets a big shot to play in a jazz band with a great musician called Dorothea Williams.

That’s his dream come true!

He gets very excited, stays on call while walking/skipping around, doesn’t look at where he’s going, and BAM falls into a manhole.

However, he’s not dead…

He’s in a ‘holding pattern’. His body is in the hospital bed, but his soul goes to another dimension where he has to move towards ‘The Great Beyond’ (place after death).

When he realises that he’s a soul heading towards his death, he’s in shock.

How can he die when he just got what he was dreaming about his whole life?!

Of course, he’s not too happy about that and his resistance to going to ‘The Great Beyond’ leads him towards ‘The Great Before’.

He believes that because he just achieved his desire, his life has just started.

‘The Great Before’ is where all the new souls get mentored and then get sent to live a life on Earth.

New souls must get a personality, and most importantly a spark.

The spark is something that a soul is so passionate about that when they get into it, it leads them to the zone (a place of complete bliss).

Joe’s spark is playing piano. And he believes that your spark is your purpose in life.

To avoid going to ‘The Great Beyond’ Joe pretends to be a mentor. Once a mentor has helped a new soul find their spark they go to ‘The Great Beyond’.

Luckily, Joe gets a disobedient new soul called 22, and she really doesn’t want to live life on Earth.

She’s had many mentors before Joe that really tried to help her find her spark, but they had no luck.

Joe sees this as an opportunity and convinces 22 that if they find her spark and she gets her Earth pass, Joe can take that and go to back on Earth.

Terry (the accountant) makes sure that every soul that has entered their dimension goes to the ‘The Great Beyond’ and finds out that there’s a soul missing.

Despite of everyone’s protest that the count has never been off, Terry proceeds to finding Joe.

With 22, Joe finds that his life was meaningless, and this motivates him to get back on Earth and live his dream even more.

22 sees that even though Joe lived a sad life, he still wants to get back on Earth. 22 becomes curious and takes Joe to Moonwind.

Moonwind is a soul that stays in ‘the zone’ part of the dimension and helps lost souls to reconnect with their life on Earth.

Lost souls are those that have been completely disconnected from their life either because their passion has become an obsession or they’re not living their life.

Moonwind helps Joe’s soul connect to his body on Earth, but Joe rushes the process by jumping into the Earth portal and accidently takes 22 with him.

In the hospital laid his body and a therapy cat on his lap. When Joe jumps back to Earth, he falls into the cat’s body and 22 goes into Joe’s body.

While guiding 22 as the cat on how to move and what to do, he’s still persistent on going to the gig.

He finds Moonwind in his physical body back on Earth and asks him if he could swap souls.

Moonwind knows a ritual where this is a possibility, and he arranges to do this right before his gig.

Meanwhile Joe gets 22 ready by getting her a suit, and haircut. Through 22 Joe gets to see life in a different perspective.

22 starts to really enjoy living. 22 helps Joe rekindle his relationship with his mother and speaks to Joe’s barber like never before.

Joe finds out that the barber (Dez) also had dreams and a spark of his own, but he never got to achieve them because of his life circumstances.

Nonetheless he was a happy man.

Just when Moonwind was going to swap the souls and it was Joe’s turn to do the gig. 22 protests.

She wants to find her spark on Earth and runs away from Joe.

Terry finds them both and gets them back into the other dimension.

When they back, 22 sees that she got an Earth pass. She found her spark!

Joe and 22 have a conflict, and he tells her that she has no purpose and she enjoyed living because she was in his body.

22 then gives up her Earth pass to Joe.

A very excited Joe goes back to Earth and lives his dream. But it wasn’t satisfying. He thought he would feel different.

After chasing his dream his whole life and living it, he still feels empty. Why?

Dorothea uses a fish metaphor to help Joe understand.

“I heard this story about a fish.

He swims up to an older fish and says, “I’m trying to find this thing they call ‘the ocean.'”

“The ocean? the older fish says, “That’s what you’re in right now.”

“This?” says the young fish. “This is water. What I want is the ocean!”

I think she was explaining to him that he already had what he wanted but just didn’t think it was enough so kept chasing.

Joe realises that due to rushing his life he wasn’t really present. He had flashbacks of his life and realised every moment was special.

He also grasps on to the fact that he took away the gift of life from 22. He plays his piano and gets into the zone.

Moonwind tells Joe that 22 has become a lost soul. Completely disconnected.

Joe tries his best to reach out to 22 and tells her that she does have a purpose, and this encourages 22.

He gives her the Earth pass knowing that his time is up and she goes to Earth.

The mentors, being very impressed with Joe give him another chance to live life on Earth and he takes it.

Joe gets to live once again.

Likes

The story is unique, portrayed with great animations and the moral is applicable for everyone.

The message that I took away from this movie is to live every moment because it’s amazing just to be alive.

Considering that I overthink and daydream a lot it’s a reminder to stop wishing to be somewhere else and stay present.

To be able to laugh, smell, touch, see how the seasons change, share a passion, teach, every moment is terrific.

It’s time to process everything and truly live rather than moving from one thing to the next completely missing the journey.

It also got me curious about my spark.

There are different things that induce a great feeling, but I don’t know if gets me into “the zone” ….

That can also be a takeaway from this movie. Finding your passion.

Dislikes

This is not a major dislike; I think the movie is absolutely incredible, but it was a little unclear if Libba (Joe’s mother) knew about Joe being in the hospital.

After he returned to her, they had a conversation about his gig and not where he had been so that was a little strange.

Correct me if I’m wrong!

Recommendation

There are people that have desires and are busy chasing them.

This movie can remind them to appreciate life for a minute and respect the journey.

On the other hand, there are people that don’t know where they are going and may not see a point in life.

The message still applies to them too. If they enjoy just living, they’ll have a great life.

Sometimes all we need is a moment of epiphany to live differently.

This movie can do exactly that!

I highly recommend everyone to watch this movie. It’s a must see, less than an hour and a half, great movie.

What is your spark? What is your interpretation of the fish story?

Read, share, comment, and let me know what you think!