Soul
Academy Award × 2
Rent/Purchase
Joe Gardner is a middle school teacher with a love for jazz music. After a successful audition at the Half Note Club, he suddenly gets into an accident that separates his soul from his body and is transported to the You Seminar, a center in which souls develop and gain passions before being transported to a newborn child. Joe must enlist help from the other souls-in-training, like 22, a soul who has spent eons in the You Seminar, in order to get back to Earth.
What critics thought
Broadly acclaimed as a return to Pixar's most ambitious form, Soul draws particular praise for its jazzy score, visual invention, and the kind of existential reach usually reserved for adult drama. The sharpest debate, however, runs along racial lines: several Black critics argued that the film's treatment of its Black protagonist — including the now-familiar Pixar device of transforming him into a non-human creature — reflects a perspective calibrated for white audiences rather than an authentic celebration of Black culture, a criticism that sits awkwardly against the film's otherwise rapturous reception.
“Soul comes across less like an earnest and casual celebration of everyday Blackness, and more like a twee depiction of it that's meant for white audiences' consumption.”
Charles Pulliam-Moore·Gizmodo
“The most glaring artistic error in 'Soul' is its misprision—its elision, really—of what soul means for black culture.”
Namwali Serpell·The New Yorker
“combination of skill, feeling, and inspiration”
A. O. Scott·The New York Times
“[veered] off in many unexpected directions, so that even the inevitable end point feels just right.”
Kaleem Aftab·IndieWire
Genres
Adventure, Animation, Comedy
Cast & Crew
DirectorPete Docter
StarringJamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton, Rachel House, Alice Braga
ComposerJon Batiste, Atticus Ross, Trent Reznor
Soul
Academy Award × 2
Joe Gardner is a middle school teacher with a love for jazz music. After a successful audition at the Half Note Club, he suddenly gets into an accident that separates his soul from his body and is transported to the You Seminar, a center in which souls develop and gain passions before being transported to a newborn child. Joe must enlist help from the other souls-in-training, like 22, a soul who has spent eons in the You Seminar, in order to get back to Earth.
What critics thought
Broadly acclaimed as a return to Pixar's most ambitious form, Soul draws particular praise for its jazzy score, visual invention, and the kind of existential reach usually reserved for adult drama. The sharpest debate, however, runs along racial lines: several Black critics argued that the film's treatment of its Black protagonist — including the now-familiar Pixar device of transforming him into a non-human creature — reflects a perspective calibrated for white audiences rather than an authentic celebration of Black culture, a criticism that sits awkwardly against the film's otherwise rapturous reception.
“Soul comes across less like an earnest and casual celebration of everyday Blackness, and more like a twee depiction of it that's meant for white audiences' consumption.”
Charles Pulliam-Moore·Gizmodo
“The most glaring artistic error in 'Soul' is its misprision—its elision, really—of what soul means for black culture.”
Namwali Serpell·The New Yorker
“combination of skill, feeling, and inspiration”
A. O. Scott·The New York Times
“[veered] off in many unexpected directions, so that even the inevitable end point feels just right.”
Kaleem Aftab·IndieWire
Genres
Adventure, Animation, Comedy
Cast & Crew
DirectorPete Docter
StarringJamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton, Rachel House, Alice Braga
ComposerJon Batiste, Atticus Ross, Trent Reznor
Rent/Purchase