Pixar has always been a childhood thing but ever since Inside Out & Coco it has turned into a staple for children and adults alike, particularly adults who have forgotten what it was like to be a child.
Coco was a no-brainer ’cause family and tradition are things us Asians know too well about. But Inside Out, now that was refreshing. Who knew when we generally dismiss teenagers for being dramatic about pretty much everything, right? Sure I remember my teen years as a very frustrating and confusing time but to see it played out the way Inside Out did was just brilliant. Granted, the animation was there, the tear-jerking moments were there, but the science? Now that was something else. To have that kind of foundation and grounding speaks to how well the movie was thought about and crafted. Just brilliant. So you can imagine my excitement when I found out that Pixar was coming out with a movie about something even bigger… the soul. This is a challenge in itself and a really hard one at that because emotions, no matter how lofty it may seem, you can nail down to a science (to a certain extent). But the soul? I wanted to see how they would handle the intangible and the profundities that come with it.
Disclaimer: I’m not a film expert in the technical sense (though I have more or less an idea of what makes a film good) so I won’t be delving into that, and it’s Pixar anyway. As we all know from the studio’s body of work, they are the gods of animation. What I will go on about though is the story and the learnings that come with it since I am a human after all.
There are a lot of lessons to be gleaned from the movie since it skews you towards the existential route. First, living in a hyper-capitalist world, it pushes you to reject this mindset and to be above it, to be in the now. Not so much in the mindfulness sense but more on appreciating the little things in life, or the in-betweens. The movie starts with the down-on-his-luck main character Joe Gardner who suddenly gets his big break but then dies the same day. He and his companion throughout the movie, 22, find themselves in the real world and given that 22 has never actually lived sees everything through fresh eyes, from the leaves rustling in the fall to the image of a family afternoon rendezvous. Because he is a jaded middle-aged man, Joe doesn’t appreciate or take notice of anything else other than fulfilling his dream of becoming a famous Jazz musician. But there is more to life than the self. Again, very Asian of me, but Joe is a stark individualist which you can see most clearly in 22’s (in Joe’s body) conversation with Dez the barber. Joe, in a cat’s body, is unable to speak and so ends up listening to Dez’s story for the first time after having known him for years. The self-absorption is just clear as day when Dez quips “You never asked!”
Perhaps not the most obvious insight but part of living with purpose is also living for others or at least living not just for yourself. The entire movie up until Joe finally decides to make things right with 22 after that climax fight is the only time he truly thought about someone else. Granted, he was very frustrated throughout his entire life — he was talented but no one could just get him and so no opportunities. Getting consumed by just that is a real loss of life, which in its extreme is how one turns into a “lost soul,” a truly scary form in the movie.
The day of Joe’s supposed big break is the day he dies which really just makes you think and come to terms with your own mortality. It’s true — you really can die the same day, no warnings whatsoever. And at the end of it, just like in the movie, we ask ourselves, “Did your life amount to anything?” The answer is not so simple. It would depend on your definition of ‘success,’ whether by worldly standards or more of the transcendent sense. I’d go with the latter because ultimately, we are not our jobs, we are not brands. We are not merely what we do. As human beings we are far more complex than that, which makes you want to ask Joe, “Have you stopped to smell the roses ever?” Because even when Joe does get his big break eventually, there’s an emptiness that comes immediately after. “What happens next?,” he asks — a dark truth to applaud a children’s movie for. Because life is not just that breakthrough moment that most movies lead up to and end gloriously with. The stuff of movies are incompatible with reality. You have the rest of your life to live, the in-betweens.
Joe’s lightbulb moment comes when he realizes that passion does not equate to purpose. You may be all about a certain something where it be sports or music like Joe but that is not all you are. Honestly, it was still a bit confusing when one of the Jerry’s said “Your purpose is your meanings of life.” Yes, a straightforward concept but the movie just didn’t hit it perfectly. You’d have to rely on your own understanding or interpretation that doesn’t seem so far off from what the film is trying to say overall. But one thing that did hit perfectly — when 22 goes “You can’t crush a soul here. That’s what life on Earth is for.” Ah, sweet sweet cynicism. Life is sad, we live in a broken world, but I personally still appreciate it for what it is. Acceptance is what Joe Gardner needs. It is what it is but we just make do with what we have, right?
Lastly, you’d think that with the different scenarios in different places, dimensions even, that this is a completely ground-breaking movie by Pixar’s standards, but no, it’s still your traditional hero’s journey in the end, just a little muddled I guess. And that bit about one of the Jerry’s giving Joe a second life was just too cliché for my taste but hey, it’s still a children’s movie.
Overall, you have to give it to Soul for being ambitious in its metaphors for both children and adults alike. It does tackle after all one of the most complex issues of all time. That and the animation and soundtrack just take you to another world — an escape albeit still tackling the harsh realities of life, whether you are a child or an adult. Despite that, at the end of the day, it’s heart-warming, which is really what Pixar is all about.
