Soul……

Pixar's movies have always been excellent, and if you loved "Inside Out" then their latest masterpiece is the next movie you need to watch today.

Drum roll!!!!!!!

Watch the movie Soul… I first watched this movie in January, and like the child at heart that I am, I have watched this countless times; man, does this movie unravel me and get me thinking. I believe that Soul is the perfect movie, even a sequel to "Inside Out."

Pixar has always been known for their, amazing formula that just appeals to anyone and pulls at our heartstrings. This movie does not disappoint. "Soul" talks about soul's and asks the question, what happens to them, dives into the afterlife and transports us into vibrant New York.

Pixar's award-winning formula for the more mundane beauty of life is once again captured in Soul. For decades, the animated studio giant has created movies that portray feelings and experiences. From Toy Story, Up, Finding Nemo to the Good Dinosaur, it has brought the world's concepts to our living rooms with love and beauty.

Inside Out broke me as an adult when we watch that young teenage girl as she tries to deal with her core emotions. Then the pain of moving home and being alone and outcast in a new city. Pixar does know how to do the warm and fuzzy's. Pixar films not only ask universal questions that humans have, but you see them come to life. Somehow amongst all of that, the stories and characters come together. In amongst these beautiful tales are all those big questions we as adults think about, but in this beautiful way where kids and adults can meet in the middle and enjoy what is in front of them.

Pixar never disappoints whether on the concepts of meaning and food for the thought. I would say food for the Soul, actually. They bring all those concepts we think about, as do children from loss, the meaning of companionship, what being alone feels like, the effects of change, and the beauty of letting things go. Plus, many more.

I must say Soul brings all of the goods. Soul somehow tackles purpose, the meaning of life, and the concept of legacy. It really captures the essence that we all have something. You know that thing, passion that drives us. That gives us the motive to look and onward go, seizing the day.

The purpose is a concept that is hard to capture. But we all know about it. We certainly miss it when it is not there and feel lost without it. Purpose is something we all have to have. For us as adults and children, purpose speaks to us. It is that small voice in life that tells us what to do, influences what we love, and what choices we make. It is that thing that makes us tick. That itself is just amazing, and to be honest, I would have been happy with that concept. Then, the use of purpose and meaning and how those things shape our legacy. What!!!! This blew my mind, as this is an equally hard thing to convey, and hey, let's put all of the things into one movie, and it's not complicated. It is amazing.

All I can say is mind blown.

So, incomes this thread of legacy, and they have intertwined purpose and legacy in this just beautiful thought-provoking way. It speaks to the Soul of those watching it and asks "what is legacy?"

"What do you want to be remembered for?" Then "Soul "questions the point that we can get obsessed with life chasing a purpose and forget to stop and smell the roses.

"Soul" has only a few main characters, but it basically centered around Joe Gardener, who is played by Jamie Foxx. Joe is a middle-aged music teacher who teaches in middle school. He is also a cool cat pianist with, an underlying high-functioning obsession for jazz music. He is convinced that his only purpose in life is to play in a jazz band and make "it" in the world of music. Jazz is his thing, and obsessive is an understatement; it not only is the thing that lights him up, gives him hope, is his purpose, but it is also the only thing he seems to care about. One day, one of his former students, Curley, comes by to do a lesson. The lesson does not go entirely to plan; Joe also gets an invite to play in a famous band that is headed by the famous Dorothea Williams, who is played by Angela Bassett. He does so and, the band is impressed with him. Cue his break into the life he has always wanted. Unfortunately, he gets into an accident and his soul parts from his body. He ends up on the path to The Great Beyond from the accident. He is not happy about this, having just receiving "his big break." So, he sneaks into a realm of The Great Before. This is a vibrant place where soul counselors with recurring names help new souls. This realm's role is to assign new souls their personalities and essentially train them to become people. Joe feels like if he hangs out here, he can work out how to get back to earth to continue to live his now-famous life. He meets a soul named 22, who is played by Tina Fey, who is basically deemed the "troublesome soul" and is happy not doing anything with the living experience.

Joe and 22 are put together, and they both have to discover what the meaning of life is. This shared experience is engaging for the audience but evokes emotion, as classic Pixar does. I must say I personally cried, laughed, was angry, rolled my eyes at Joe's coldness, the works. It just has this incredible way of bringing about food for thought and the Soul with laughs and also the viewer's emotional and conceptual epiphanies. Those ahhhh, moments where you are Soul searching in a kid's movie, mulling over your life, while walking through the life of Joe and 22. It Is crazy how Pixar is so good at this. Like for example, "I'm Just Afraid That If I Died Today My Life Would Have Amounted To Nothing." That statement, let's be honest, might fly over the heads of younger children, but I grantee not the head of a teenager or adult. I don't know how many times I have thought about that concept.

The Co-directors Kemp Powers and Pete Doctor have done the most beautiful job; at not only diving headfirst into the imaginary version concept of the afterlife. But capturing the lively life of living in urban New York, and the meaning of life and "what is really life's purpose?"

You venture along with Joe and 22 from everywhere from the barbershop, subway, busy streets, and a dimly lit stereotypical cool cat jazz club. This film also kicks some other serious goals; it is Pixar's first African-American-led film. That is super beautiful, and they have done well to just focus on the culture, jazz music, as not to overcomplicate it too much. Which I think is lovely, they could have tried to do more than just one cultural concept, but I think they would have lost the beauty of what they ended up doing. I have read a few reviews where other people have said Pixar has not captured enough of all the African- American lifestyles. That is ok, but I do feel sometimes you just can't do all of the things. It definitely does not capture all aspects of African- American life, but I feel like that just focusing on one aspect is still good. They just might have to keep making movies exploring more concepts. But personally, I think this aspect that they have started with is a great start. It focused well on the jazz way of life and has done a good job at trying to capture that side of its culture. It explores Jazz's carry-down legacy, the Soul of traditional loves being passed down through families, and the generational love African- American families can have for one another, which have been captured so well.

The animation portrays those otherworldly aspects and the afterlife ideas and what a soul might artistically look like. The movie's overall feel is beautiful and is set in these wistful and striking scenes. However, there are all these levels between the afterlife and real life. The shift between lifelike aspects of the real world like the crazy subway, and the beyond is both impressively done and really captivating. Even though these places are both so different, there is this beautiful flow between, them and it is not disjointed at all. The Soundtrack offers a gorgeous backdrop. The wonderful teamwork of Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Jon Batiste have just worked so well together to create this beautiful musical arrangement. This beautiful combination of electronic and the occasional stunningly peaceful piano is accompanied by the mesmerizing and complex jazz scales.

The thing I personally love about Soul is it, is more than just a story. It is so vastly layered that you can't take it in all in at first glance. I have watched this several times, over a span of 5 weeks, and each time I find something more. Each time I still get all the emotions, and end up with more questions. There are these hidden concepts that I really feel. Like the concept of chasing your dreams and what other people verbalize to you about your dreams. Those words that have been spoken over us and how these interactions affect us as people. In Soul, Joe's dream, and society clash. It does a great job exploring the concept of what happens to Joe and his musical dreams when they don't meet the real-world pressures and expectations of society and our loved ones. Due to his age and not having made it yet and his mother Libba, who is played by Phylicia Rashad, is on Joe's back all the time. She is a loving mother, who at her heart, just wants the complete best life for her son. However, she tries to push her son to do something else, despite the overwhelming desires of Joe. She wants him to just settle down into a life of stability and give up on his dreams.

This concept is something that most children and adults have experienced. Those voices that want to crush your dreams, regardless of it coming from a caring place. It speaks to us and the struggles we all have when we identify with Joe's dreamer side, regardless of whether we are adults or children. We all have had our dreams crushed. I see a lot of this in my profession, people coming in with the vision that can be so real to the person who has that heart's desire; however other people tear it to shreds as it looks too farfetched to them. From the age of eight to currently, I have always wanted to make money from my paintings and be a paid artist, and I have lost count of how many people, including family, have told me that I won't be able to do that or make a "living off painting." So, I really sympathize with Joe. I am still pursuing that, and I am working on combining that desire to be a qualified art therapist and go with my other passion, Life Coaching. I have the Life Coaching happening and currently working on Art Therapy.

However, still, I have people tell me, "life coaching is not a real job, and art therapy is stupid. Why can't you stay as a program coordinator at St Vincent de Paul and get a full-time job there and be happy with that? It's a good job." But that's ok; we all have experienced the cutting edge of people undermining our dreams. But also the euphoria around being hyper-focused on a dream and what we want to achieve to make it happen.

Once Joe and 22 come together, they help each other discover their individual purpose for life and the importance of the small wonderful moments. The movie has all these beautiful flashbacks sown through it where you see the beginning of Joe's love for jazz music and how it grew to be his passion. This was introduced to Joe by his father, and you see and explore with Joe the lasting impression his father had on him, and how he supported Joe in his dream, and the impact that had on Joe.

Naturally, I left wanting to know more about Joe's background. However, the movie delivers just an adequate amount of history about Joe to get the gist of what makes Joe, well, Joe. Pixar achieves this by combining appealing visuals, that abundant Soundtrack, and small snippets of conversations about life.

Soul offers this whimsical adventure, but it has so many deeper messages. As an adult and a Life Coach, I equally love the link between mental wellness and balance. Even our deepest passion needs to have balance and not consume us, where this is showed by Joe's obsession with making it, just takes over his life. As adults and even children, we all need this reminder that life has to be balanced. It challenges the idea with a vaguely corporate business structure, the busyness of 9 to 5 life, and the importance of not letting life move by at a super-fast pace. It also challenges us in treating people and how obsession can lead us to miss out on life. When Joe upsets 22, and he is mean to her because what she loves in life is different from what his purpose is, it echoes that meaning of how you treat people affects them. 22 is lost and thrown into sadness because Joe's obsession becomes more important than her feelings. Once Joe realizes this, he tries to make it better, and basically, they live happily ever after. But it really makes you think about the importance of your words and how once a word is spoken, we cannot take them back. Soul equally tries to establish a sense of goodwill that carries throughout the movie, and the concept that maybe sometimes helping others is more rewarding than our "passions." Perhaps if we look to be not so self-focused, we will find the wonderful meaning of helping and serving others, which is more rewarding than just chasing our dreams. It heightens the examination of how life is currently operating for the viewer and left me thinking about scheduling out more time to make sure I enjoy the smallest and most joyous wonders of life and see how I can help people more.

Soul embarks on taking the viewer to their own deep revelations through its moments of stillness. Moments of simplicity and literal Soul Searching questions like; "Does fantasy and dreams ever live up to reality or that of the reality we want?" and "Can the choices that give our lives meaning and our passions actually completely satisfy us, or is there more?"

The timing of this movie is also very interesting; with the world currently finding its footing in the world of Covid 19, our lives within the Global community have overall changed. Some countries have had the most unimaginable horrific time in this space, and in some countries like where I live, luckily, we have not been as severely affected. But life has changed. That concept itself is similar to Soul, with the highs and lows of this movie. That rise and fall echo the turmoil in the year we've all have just had. Many of us have had our lives toppled, shaken, and turned upside down. That concept that life as we knew it changes and now looks different, and we either get to try and find the best in our day or become overwhelmed by the hardship of the pace of the world we are in. The conventional lives we are used to has changed., but there is still beauty out there for us to find.

Honestly, there is so much I love about Soul. I would comment on the joy and love I have that Soul has been included on Disney+, as due to the nature of how complex it is, this can allow the whole entire family to have the time they need to digest this movie. I had questions, so children will definitely have questions. The afterlife concept alone will spark interest, and then all the conversation I found, watching it with my friends and their kids, how excited the children were to convey the things they love the most. To hear about the goals and dreams, what they think their purpose is now, and their spark. As an adult, I would safely say any adult, be Parent or not, will probably go on an internal journey. Who will more than likely discover yourself asking those questions about what is your spark? Also, how can I change up one's life to get more out of it, and is that concept of paying it forward and kindness suddenly going to be something you want to work on more.

Soul challenges us to think outside the box. That we as people are better together, and although we all have different things that make our souls sing, we all need each other. It pushes us to evaluate some big life questions and encourages us to remember that everything added together and all in the right balance is what makes a complete and fulfilled life. There's a lot of profound concepts in Soul. We as adults will struggle with some really great ones, and those are far too complex for kids to a certain age. But you will be surprised how much they take in, which suits the nature of the film. It allows all levels of the audience to get something out of it. Plus, also come back for more when re-watched.

However, with its classic Pixar formula, somehow, this combination of conceptual ideas makes the watcher ask questions. It literally does some soul searching and is just beautifully thrown together for all to watch and explore through laughter, amazing animated visuals, beautiful and perfect music. These elements somehow have all come together to share the whole family's message to live for today, as tomorrow might not be promised. It beautifully captures the fear we have about life but the beauty of all being created as individuals.

22 states: I'm scared, Joe. I'm not good enough. And anyway, I never got my spark.

Joe: Yes, you did. Your spark isn't your purpose. That last box fills in when you're ready to come alive. And, the thing is, you're pretty great at jazzing.

I know there are people out there that don't like this film, but for me personally and having watched it with adult friends to kids, I love this movie for all ages. It is a story that you feel in your own Soul. Which just captivates the audience and sends a very important message about above anything else, our souls are all different, but we all matter. That and with the combination of the whole film's surrealness does not only create atmosphere. It allows you to float between atmospheres and levels that leave you with things to contemplate and appreciate.

"A spark isn't a soul's purpose; your purpose is your meanings in life."

And "I'm Going To Live Every Minute Of It."

I would combine this movie with my winning combination of; loved ones, pizza, some red wine for adults, popcorn as a starter, and some frozen coke for the children if they are around. Put some mattresses on the floor, and lots of blankets, put some candles on, then finish with chocolate cake for dessert, and immerse yourself in the world of Jazz and higher perspective.

Written by Emma White