Note: This article contains spoilers for Pixar's Soul.
I’ll be entirely honest here: it’s been less than three months since I started Feels For Reels, and not in my wildest dreams did I expect to encounter a film that perfectly encapsulates what this website is about so soon after that. I know some of the things I’ve written so far have been emotional, and I’ve got plenty of articles in the pipeline that are just as personal – but one film this Christmas moved me to the extent I couldn’t help but try and get some thoughts down as soon as I possibly could. I am, of course, talking about Pixar’s Soul.
If you’re unfamiliar with the film, let me fill you in: originally slated for a cinema release this past summer, it was instead dropped onto Disney+ on Christmas Day for all to see at no extra cost. It follows Joe Gardner, a teacher who’s been trying for years to make it as a jazz musician, who dies just before he gets his big break. Determined not to let death stop him, Joe seeks to reunite his soul with his body by helping Soul 22 obtain their Earth Pass, which takes the pair on a journey through Earth and The Great Before, and forces them to question everything they previously thought about the meaning of life.
I’ll admit that what I’ve written there doesn’t at all do Soul justice, because the film itself is the best thing Pixar has produced in years. It’s pure cinema that’s grand, ambitious, and ever-so-emotional. But it’s also a small film, in many ways; it’s deeply introspective, and very much concerned with the Average Joe in the street (Joe’s name is no coincidence). By the time the credits started to roll, I could barely comprehend what I’d just seen. Soul told me things – it spoke directly to me about life, myself, work, purpose, and making sure we actually live. It’s nothing short of a masterpiece.
Soul told me things – it spoke directly to me about life, myself, work, purpose, and making sure we actually live
It’s worth noting up top that I see a lot of myself in Joe. He’s a musician who’s good enough to be a professional but hasn’t managed to catch a break, even though he knows he deserves it. It’s all he wants in life, even though he knows it’s stupid and insanely hard to get into, and it’s all he wants because it’s what he loves. I don’t wish to sound arrogant, but swap out “musician” for “writer,” and that’s me. Film criticism is hard to crack: I love movies, so I’m determined to keep at it, but some days the stress is too much. Soul showed me that – and it also showed me another way.
Soul is a movie that’s open to more than one interpretation (and I’d love to hear yours), but, to me, its ultimate message is that we are not defined by our professions. Comedian and writer Dewayne Perkins, I feel, said it best, writing on Twitter: “I hope some of y’all watched Pixar’s Soul and were inspired to make your personality more than just your career or job. Like you’re not a writer or an actor or whatever path you choose, you’re a whole ass person and your career is just one of the things you do.” He’s hit the nail on the head.
We’re brought up to believe that we must have a purpose in life: a reason for existing. Be it a job, a passion, or whatever else, something must exist to give us a reason to live – and if we struggle to figure out what that is, it becomes easy to feel lost. Joe has this exact mentality, and Soul takes the time to prove him wrong. When he finally gets to play the gig of a lifetime, he feels empty in the aftermath – he’s made it, but what now? “We do it again tomorrow night,” he’s told. That isn’t enough for Joe. And it isn’t enough for me either.
Another key component of Soul is the blank space in 22’s Earth Pass. Joe and 22 obsess over filling it in, and Joe firmly believes that what will fill it is their “spark” – their purpose. But that isn’t the case. 22 only fills in that final space after they’ve been to Earth and experienced life. As Joe says himself, that empty space gets filled in when we’re ready to live. There’s nothing to kickstart it, nothing we can do to make it happen, no way of knowing when it might happen – it just happens when we’re ready. And that’s the point that Soul is trying to make: there is no greater purpose in life, but that’s okay. What matters is that we take the time to actually live.
The moments worth living for aren’t our greatest achievements: they’re the little things, and to think otherwise is ultimately destructive
For Soul, living means taking in the little things – the tiny fragments of life that we so often take for granted. It means appreciating the world around us: the warmth of the sunlight, the smell of a bakery, the laugh of a couple on a date. It’s in these moments that we find who we really are, and why life is worth living. It’s these moments that give Joe a renewed outlook on life, and they are why Soul’s ending is so optimistic. For everything else the movie does right, I think this is its biggest strength. The moments worth living for aren’t our greatest achievements: they’re the little things, and to think otherwise is ultimately destructive.
Movies like Soul are why I started this website. All those feelings, emotions, and possibilities I talked about in the opening reel are present here. I lost count at the number of times I cried at Soul because it moved me to my very core, and it told me things that I so desperately needed to hear at this moment in my life. We are greater than our professions, and we all deserve to live. So stop. Take a moment. Put your phone down. Breathe. Enjoy life, because it moves pretty fast. And if you don’t stop to look around once in a while, you might just miss it.
I’ll admit that this post isn’t what I had planned for the end of the year! I was going to write something completely different, but when I watched Soul yesterday I knew I had to get something out there. If you haven’t watched it, then please do – I genuinely think it’s one of my favourite Pixar movies, and I’ll be revisiting it for years. Starting tonight.
Anyway, next month brings a new year with it! A fair warning that my first post of the month won’t be at all cheerful, but I think it’s something that’s absolutely necessary. It won’t be looking inwards, but outwards (and across the pond, too). Stay tuned for that, and subscribe at the bottom of the page if you want to keep up to date with me! Take care until then, and remember: you are more than just your profession.
Images: Disney-Pixar.