Get your tissues ready, Pixar has another film for you. This time they are delving a little deeper with their latest release, Soul, a story that explores what it means to have a soul, and what it means to find fulfillment for it. It’ll be interesting to see how the public at large reacts to a topic that starts edging closer and closer to the basis of many religions.
Along for the ride this time is a voice cast that includes Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Ahmir Questlove Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, and Daveed Diggs. In a surprise move, the film’s score will be composed by Nine Inch Nails Alums Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, but the film’s heavily inspired jazz theme will also get some help from the musical stylings of acclaimed Jazz musician, Jon Batiste. Soul opens in theaters June 19, 2020.
Next summer, Joe Gardner will discover his brilliant, passionate self. Watch the new trailer for Disney & Pixar’s Soul now. About Soul: Directed by two-time Academy Award®-winner Pete Docter, co-directed by Kemp Powers and produced by Academy Award®-nominee Dana Murray, Disney and Pixar’s “Soul” opens in theaters on June 19, 2020. According to Docter, the idea for the story is 23 years in the making. “It started with my son—he’s 23 now—but the instant he was born, he already had a personality,” says Docter. “Where did that come from? I thought your personality developed through your interaction with the world. And yet, it was pretty clear that we’re all born with a very unique, specific sense of who we are.” “Soul” introduces Joe Gardner, a middle-school band teacher whose true passion is playing jazz. “I think Joe is having that crisis that all artists have,” says Powers. “He’s increasingly feeling like his lifelong dream of being a jazz musician is not going to pan out and he’s asking himself ‘Why am I here? What am I meant to be doing?’ Joe personifies those questions.” In the film, just when Joe thinks his dream might be in reach, a single unexpected step sends him to a fantastical place where he’s is forced to think again about what it truly means to have soul. That’s where he meets and ultimately teams up with 22, a soul who doesn’t think life on Earth is all it’s cracked up to be. Jamie Foxx lends his voice to Joe, while Tina Fey voices 22. “The comedy comes naturally,” says Murray. “But the subtle emotion that reveals the truth to the characters is really something special.”