Disney and PixaWelcome to the final day of The Gateway’s 12 Days of Holiday Movies! For 12 days over the winter break, we’ve been sharing a holiday movie that fills us with holly, jolly, and everything in between. Come along and find the next movie to add to your holiday watchlist!
Of all the holiday myths, none are more fantastic than the suggestion that sometime between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day we can all suddenly transform ourselves from jolly-filled gluttons to born-again disciplinarians. It’s a harebrained conspiracy bordering on delusion, and if you are like me and you plan on doing it all over again this year, why not top up some of that wishful thinking with a little cinematic magic from Pixar’s latest release, Soul?
Although Soul was released on Disney+ on December 25, 2020, the movie has nothing to do with Christmas. It instead tells the story of Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx), a middle-school band teacher and struggling jazz musician who finally gets his big break, only to die on his way to the gig. I know, pretty fucking dark for a Pixar movie.
Joe soon finds himself in the “Great Beyond,” and what follows is an oftentimes funny, sometimes anxiety-inducing back-and-forth as Joe’s soul struggles to find a way to cheat death and make it back in time for his 7 p.m. curtain call.
Despite the plot being so bizarre it sometimes feels outrageous, even for Pixar, Soul is an incredibly likeable movie. Soul is the first Pixar movie to feature a Black protagonist. As a Black kid who grew up watching Pixar movies and had to wait 22 years to see one with prominent Black characters, the significance of that was not lost on me. The movie also manages to address heavy topics like death and failure with Pixar’s trademark skillfulness, never skirting the subject but always keeping a smile on your face.
Finding the purpose and meaning of life is one of Soul’s big themes, and an incredibly appropriate one for this time of year. Joe spends a lot of time coming to terms with the disparity between the person he thought he was, the person he really was, and the person he thought he should be, which pretty much sums up my New Year’s Eve. Soul also asks some important questions about what it means to treat life like a gift, rather than a series of boxes that need to be checked
The start of a new year is an exciting time, but it can also be incredibly disheartening. The longer it takes for you to shed those holiday pounds or chip away at your 2021 reading list, the easier it is to throw your arms in the air and give up entirely. The truth is that the magic of New Year’s has nothing to do with the changing of the calendar and everything to do with your outlook.
That can be a lot harder to change though, and if you ever need a quick 90-minute shot of positivity, put on Soul and let yourself be reminded of just how important it is — and how precious it is — to live.
