As I write the Soul movie review today, I keep thinking how often I have said this before: Pixar has a knack for picking the most fulfilling stories. Proving it yet again, the animation studio walks in with another enriching and alluring tale. This time, it addresses a familiar problem: leading a monotonous life.

Aren’t we lost in our jobs so much we forget to pay attention to the little things around us? We have invariably accepted a way of living that tries to define us. What we fail to understand is that we are not our jobs.

We fail to notice how the monotony of life takes its toll on us. Little by little, we start merging with the oblivion.

Lost souls are obsessed by something that disconnects them from life.

Soul movie is an eye-opener for those who have been lugging their lives for so long that they have forgotten the reason they were born in the first place.

It is not just about being good at something. Instead, it is about experiencing, really experiencing, everything that life throws our way. It is about finding life’s countless pleasures even in things that seem inanimate.

Keeping that in mind, I write the Soul Movie Review to shake you out of the nightmare you have been living for so long that you have forgotten how it was to live, to really live.

Spoiler note: The following discussion includes plot details and dialogue from the ending.

The Theme and Plot of Soul Movie

Soul movie carries a fun theme that aids it in not getting preachy. The movie carries a story ingenious enough to open the pores of your brain. It will force you to think of a possibility of limbo, a before, or an afterlife.

What happens after you are gone? It is a question posed by thousands of movies across time. Soul movie layers its own version by giving you another go at a theory that would blow your mind.

Here, director Pete Docter and co-director Kemp Powers play the strings of Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx), whose love of music starts early. Convinced that he was born for it, Joe constantly keeps rummaging for his big break.

Until one day the unthinkable happens. He has an accident. His soul leaves his body, and he is already on his way to the other side.

You have to watch it to understand, how important it is after death for all souls to head towards the Great Beyond. Breaking that code, the protagonist of the movie Soul escapes into the wombs of the Great Before instead.

Even if you don’t consider Soul to be an allegory, it retains a very straightforward theme of stepping back and watching your whole life play by. You can only imagine how gorgeously Pixar crafts it around a simple plot like that.

If you try to understand the real thought behind it, you would know it is basically a man watching a childhood flourish after having a near-death experience. He gets to spend some time in it to understand what wrong he has been doing all his life.

Joe and 22: Two Ways of Seeing Life

22 gives that thought its other half. Joe knows exactly what he wants from Earth, while she cannot see why anyone would want to go there. Therefore, their pairing is more than a way of moving the plot along. It lets the movie look at the same world through two very different appetites. One character has reduced life to a goal; the other has not yet found a reason to begin. That contrast gives the lesson its warmth. It also keeps Joe from carrying every idea by himself.

For me, the distinction between a spark and a purpose is what makes Pixar’s Soul worth returning to. The film does not ask Joe to stop loving music. Instead, it asks whether that love has left room for anything else. An ambition can enrich a life without becoming its only measure. That is a gentler, more useful thought than simply telling somebody to find a different job.

Great Animation and Screenplay

In the animation department, there is no beating Pixar. The level of painstaking detail they put in their flicks, brings to mind the meticulous detailing of Incredibles 2.

The studio maintains their hard work here as well, making their cartoons go through a tunnel of realistic CGI. They look absolutely stunning.

Joe, 22 and the counsellors in the Great Before in Soul

Don’t worry, they’re fine. You can’t crush a soul here. That’s what life on Earth is for.
Jerry · Soul (2020)

The screenplay of the movie is no less too. There are walking metaphors that would force you to pause and rewind.

A Lesson in Life

Soul movie is an important lesson per se. At times, we convince ourselves that we exist for one particular job or one particular experience. However, life does not limit us to that single task. It is for the whole thing, for the whole living experience. We have to learn how to live it, experiencing everything as we grow.

Jerry: So what do you think you will do? How are you gonna spend your life?
Joe: I am not sure. But I do know, I am going to live every minute of it.

The human condition is a slave to its own mind. The importance of any particular task in our life is subject to how much precedence we give it over others. We have to train our minds to experience every teensy tiny bit of nature and try to live in the moment. That moment can be good or bad, but we have to accept it as it comes with open arms.

It’s just I’ve been waiting on this day for my entire life. I thought I’d feel different.

Like Pixar has in its previous movies, it walks in with countless metaphors handing us an allegory of a movie. Personifying lost soul and converting it into clouded little monsters, you can’t help but marvel at the great minds that have come up with such a brilliant notion.

You know, lost souls are not that different from those in the zone. The zone is enjoyable, but when that joy becomes an obsession, one becomes disconnected from life.

The Final Verdict

Soul Movie is a cathartic experience per se. I highly recommend it to those who are darn sure of their purpose in life. There is a purpose you are missing out on, and it is almost time for you to stop and recount your actions.