Disney+ Soul (Pixar) (2020) (1 Viewer)

[Jake Lipson]

My point about Soul was that the construct of all that was going on in the "other world" activities was extremely complex and disjointed. To me, the various creations within the "great before" (personality badges, earth badges, sparks, zones, counselors, mentors) were extremely confusing, making it difficult for kids to understand

Well, I don't have kids and I am no longer a kid. So I can't say definitively one way or the other. I think my kid self would have been able to understand the enough of the movie's basic plot to enjoy it. But because I am now 32, that's not a testable hypothesis.

All I said was that based on the studio's track history, Soul does not seem to fit well into Pixar's canon. In my opinion, it's a departure from Pixar's norm (to me, that seems obvious).

As to all your examples of adult themes in Pixar/Disney movies, I believe those back my "smart, adult-friendly kids movies."

The examples I stated which you believe support the label "smart, adult-friendly kids movies" are why I believe that Soul does fit into Pixar's canon and why I would never call them "kids movies." I think they are "movies," period, for which kids are a part of the audience. The subject of whether animation is for kids or adults was a branch off of that conversation. @Edwin-S addressed this. I didn't mean to put words in your mouth.

It is fine that we disagree on this, and I think we have reached a point where debating it further would just be going back and forth in circles. It's too bad you didn't enjoy Soul more because I would never wish anyone a viewing experience they don't enjoy. But I certainly appreciate the lively discussion. HTF would not be as interesting place to hang out if there wasn't this kind of nuanced discussion.

 

[DaveF]

I’m hearing some kids like it, others don’t. Friends with a third grade daughter, she was completely disinterested and left the room after 20 minutes. But they’ve got friends with same aged kids who were into it.

Maybe not as kid-accessible as most of their fare from the past 25 years.

 

[Jake Lipson]

USA Today published an interview with Pete Docter and Kemp Powers discussing various alternate endings and why they landed on the one they used. This includes heavy spoilers, obviously, so don't click the link if you still haven't seen the film and don't want to know.

Spoilers! Why 'Soul' filmmakers decided on that powerful ending (and nixed many others)

Disney+/Pixar's 'Soul' ends powerfully for its main character (Jamie Foxx), but filmmakers nixed many finales, include a big downer. (Spoilers!)

www.usatoday.com

Spoiler

I find it really interesting that they considered an ending with Joe seeing 22 and recognizing her because I got the impression from the film that Joe would be unable to do that if he saw her again.

I think what they said in here makes sense as justification for the choices they ultimately made.

 

[jayembee]

USA Today published an interview with Pete Docter and Kemp Powers discussing various alternate endings and why they landed on the one they used. This includes heavy spoilers, obviously, so don't click the link if you still haven't seen the film and don't want to know.

Spoilers! Why 'Soul' filmmakers decided on that powerful ending (and nixed many others)

Disney+/Pixar's 'Soul' ends powerfully for its main character (Jamie Foxx), but filmmakers nixed many finales, include a big downer. (Spoilers!)

www.usatoday.com

Spoiler

I find it really interesting that they considered an ending with Joe seeing 22 and recognizing her because I got the impression from the film that Joe would be unable to do that if he saw her again.

I think what they said in here makes sense as justification for the choices they ultimately made.

Toward the end of the movie, my wife thought that

Spoiler

Joe would get together with the woman he talked about, they'd get married, have a baby girl, who would turn out to have 22's soul. I thought it was a nice idea, but pointed out that the timing wouldn't be right (even though we have no idea how time passing in the Beyond relates to time passing on Earth.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Spoiler

Obviously it is all subject to interpretation but I felt like once 22 fell to Earth, she would inhabit a body right away. If she ended up as Joe's daughter, that would be a long time after the events of film because he isn't even dating during the events shown.

 

[DaveF]

Are there yet articles or interviews about Soul's animation and tecnical achievements? Soul had gorgeous animation! Not just one, but three distinct styles! This I think was new for Pixar. The style introduced by The Incredibles of cartoon-realistic humans, set in a near photo-realistic world. This would typically be the work of an entire movie, just to get this one style right. But also the world of the Souls. These fuzzy, chromatic-aberrated blobs. Like Hair in Monsters Inc, this would have been an entire movie’s worth of endeavor previously. But, also, a third completely novel style: the glowing, line art of the Jerries and Terries! And then they merged Terry into the Real World! Visually, this was phenomenal! Just, wow!

 

[Sam Favate]

Seems to me this is going on every critic's 10 best list for the year. It's certainly on mine (which admittedly isn't hard, since I didn't see that many films); it may have been the best 2020 movie I saw.

 

[TravisR]

Seems to me this is going on every critic's 10 best list for the year. It's certainly on mine (which admittedly isn't hard, since I didn't see that many films); it may have been the best 2020 movie I saw.

It's a toss up between Soul and Mank for me.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Are there yet articles or interviews about Soul's animation and tecnical achievements?

Well, it's not an article, but there's The Art of Soul coffee table book.

See on Amazon

I don't have the one for Soul yet, but I do have other recent Disney and Pixar art books. Generally speaking, they are beautifully designed and feature concept art and images from various stages of development, many of which are in full color. The one for Soul is obviously pretty new, so it costs $36 right now on Amazon. Sometimes they don't go down (The Art of Mulan has been $33 on Amazon since it was reissued in February), but sometimes they do if you wait a bit and get lucky.

The Art of Onward came out in March and the price tag was similar to what Soul is going for now. I waited until August 14 and grabbed it for $19.30. I got The Art of Toy Story 4 on June 26, 2020 (a little more than a year after the film came out) and paid $18.85.

So you can get good deals on them from time to time. You just have to be patient and check on them from time to time to see when Amazon happens to have a price drop.

I would like to end up with the one for Soul eventually, but I'm perfectly content with waiting and not paying $36.

I think the high prices for these are fair, if you have the money for them, because they are really well-put-together. But I'm also happy to play the waiting game for a little bit in case there is a drop because it doesn't feel like something that I need immediately, and that strategy has worked out for me recently.

But in my experience the books are usually really good.

 

[BobO'Link]

I watched part of this at my son's house Christmas day and didn't realize it was a new film (I do not keep up with what's newly released). Bits were quite good but the body swapping routine felt quite recycled from other films. I enjoyed much of the music, just not the story so much as it felt somewhat disjointed (could be due to me coming in late). None of his kids (4, 7, and 9) watched more than a few minutes, generally treating it as background noise, and I didn't think it was all that great as an "adult" animated film. Maybe I need to see it from the beginning to more fully appreciate it.

 

[Tino]

Maybe I need to see it from the beginning to more fully appreciate it.

Always a good idea with any film.

 

[Sam Favate]

Always a good idea with any film.

Woody Allen once said he couldn't go into a movie if even the opening credits have started. We generally don't have opening credits anymore (I miss them!) but I feel the same way.

 

[Tino]

I have never watched a film and formed an opinion of it unless I’ve seen the entire film from beginning to end.

 

[Bryan^H]

I have never watched a film and formed an opinion of it unless I’ve seen the entire film from beginning to end.

You have never once stopped a film you a started watching because you didn't care for it?
In other words you watch everything you commit to no matter how bad?

 

[Tino]

You have never once stopped a film you a started watching because you didn't care for it?
In other words you watch everything you commit to no matter how bad?

99% of the time yes.

On the extremely rare occasion that I don’t, I don’t have an opinion other than I didn’t finish it. My point being you need to watch an entire film before you can have an informed opinion of it...imo.

 

[Bryan^H]

99% of the time yes.

On the extremely rare occasion that I don’t, I don’t have an opinion other than I didn’t finish it. My point being you need to watch an entire film before you can have an informed opinion of it...imo.

Informed opinion yes. That makes sense, however
If I stop watching a film, it is of my personal opinion that it sucks hence the reason I couldn't finish it--

 

[Edwin-S]

I watched part of this at my son's house Christmas day and didn't realize it was a new film (I do not keep up with what's newly released). Bits were quite good but the body swapping routine felt quite recycled from other films. I enjoyed much of the music, just not the story so much as it felt somewhat disjointed (could be due to me coming in late). None of his kids (4, 7, and 9) watched more than a few minutes, generally treating it as background noise, and I didn't think it was all that great as an "adult" animated film. Maybe I need to see it from the beginning to more fully appreciate it.

4, 7 and 9 and Christmas day?. I'd be surprised if they had paid attention to the film.

 

[jayembee]

99% of the time yes.

On the extremely rare occasion that I don’t, I don’t have an opinion other than I didn’t finish it. My point being you need to watch an entire film before you can have an informed opinion of it...imo.

There have been any number of times that I've watched a film where I spend the bulk of it thinking, "This just isn't working for me," and then, in the last 20 minutes or so, it all pulls together and I end up liking it.

I've given up on a film before (sometimes long before) the end, but have always kept myself open to the idea of giving it another try sometime, because I realize that I might be tired, or just not in the right mood, or whatever to be able to appreciate it. Sometimes, another viewing works in the film's favor, sometimes it doesn't.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I know a friend who watched about 2/3 of Soul three days ago and waited until yesterday to finish it. She still liked it, but especially for a short movie on first viewing, that's not something I would do. I wanted to make the experience of watching Soul (and Wonder Woman 1984 and Tenet) feel as close to being in a theater as possible. That meant I was going to sit there and let the film run and not interrupt it so I could take in the whole film as a singular experience.

 

[Malcolm R]

I'd probably watch more movies if I had the resolve to split it up, but I also cannot stop a movie in the middle and pick it up another day. If I don't think I want to watch a movie from start to finish in one sitting, I won't watch it. That's why lack of chapter stops and auto-resume on discs doesn't bother me as much as some others. I seldom ever stop a film and start later, or skip around chapters.

I've also never walked out of a theater in the middle of a movie, no matter how bad it is. Unless you're going to demand a refund, which I don't think is usually given for not "liking" a movie, I've never seen the point.