Dabian Witherspoon
Soul (2020)
Director: Pete Docter
Production: Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation
Genre(s): Animation, Adventure, Comedy, Family, Music
Rating: PG
Runtime: 1 hr 40 min
Data Source: IMDb.com
*** Spoiler Alert ***
Disney’s and Pixar’s Soul is an uplifting animated story about Joe (Jamie Foxx), a part-time music teacher and aspiring jazz musician. Soul asks, “What is the meaning or purpose of life?” Unfortunately, it is possible to acknowledge the movie’s themes, dismiss them as unimportant, and focus on criticism that may be unfounded.
The arguments that often black characters spend much of their screen time in a transformed state and that black lives are often filtered through white lenses are valid, but Soul is a poor example to base these discussions on. Comparing Soul to other movies is a matter of comparing apples to oranges. It is also unduly contentious to suggest that Soul is not a black story.
The film's title prepares the audience for its content, and viewers do not wait long for an inciting incident that contextualizes the story. Joe dies. He spends about 40 minutes as a body-less soul, which makes sense. It is not problematic, especially since his black body has not disappeared. During that time, 22, an unborn soul whose physical body and race have yet to be determined, is living Joe’s black life in Joe’s black body.
Maybe, a black actress should have been cast as 22, but to argue that the casting of unseen white actress Tina Fey has overshadowed the story is a stretch. A human being is a soul residing in a physical body, not the other way around, and the “real” Joe is still black.
Moreover, Joe does not simply sacrifice himself to save a white woman in the end. He is already dead, and he was never supposed to be allowed to return, to begin with. With only one pass to the living world available, Joe must make a decision: sneak in again or do the right thing. Thus, he ensures that 22 is the rightful recipient.
Joe and 22 have helped each other “wake up.” Joe has figured out what he would do differently if given a second chance at life, and 22 has finally found the courage to make the leap of faith to begin a life of her own. Regarding faith, Soul is not rooted in a single religion, and it avoids offending viewers who might have expected or hoped for a more religious message. It is about overcoming the sense of hopelessness and finding one’s path or purpose in life, which is the most important element of Joe’s story.
Nevertheless, Soul is indeed a black story, or at least, it is centered on the life of a black man who is surrounded by black culture. The movie does not rely on the stereotype that all black people have “soul” (like artists such as James Brown, Bobby Byrd, and Eric B. & Rakim), and it acknowledges that black people are not monolithic.
Recognizing that soul is something much deeper, the movie would still need to present its themes differently for the sake of authenticity if it had portrayed Joe as non-black or race-neutral. Disney and Pixar could have told a different story, but this story would have lost its essence if Joe had not been black.