Soul (2020)
10/10
Filled with soul
30 March 2021
Pixar is one of the finest animation studios to exist and one of the few studios today for anything to continually deliver. Sure they did become less consistent post-'Toy Story 3', but in the 90s and 2000s their work was of higher quality than Disney's generally and hit more than it missed. Pre-'Toy Story 3', the one slight disappointment was 'Cars', the others are very good to brilliant and even their lesser work is still watchable.

'Soul' is nothing short of amazing and proved to be one of the few highlights this year. Not just as an overall film, but everything about it is fantastically executed. It has a huge amount of soul and heart, true of Pixar at its very best, and also filled me with joy and hope (and goodness don't we all need it right now). In my view, 'Soul' is one of Pixar's best post-'Toy Story 3' films alongside 'Inside Out' and 'Coco'. And as far as the studio's overall filmography goes it's definitely in the top 10.

As cliched as this sounds, everything in 'Soul' works. The animation, as usual for Pixar, is stunning. Consisting of some of the most gorgeously vibrant colours for any animated film in recent memory and some very imaginative backgrounds. A major star is the music, one of the studio's finest scores, one that really celebrates the style and does so so affectionately, and this is coming from a studio that always delivered in this aspect. The music here is so catchy, full of heart-pumping energy and poignant emotion.

The voice acting is dynamite, meant in a good way. Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey are at the top of their game, voicing their characters with deep feeling and infectious enthusiasm. The characters are ones worth rooting for, feeling like real people and not stock caricatures. The script is playfully witty, beautifully affecting and also honest, there is nothing childish here and to me coherence actually wasn't an issue. Really admired the message of you can change and that it is never too late to do so, such a good message honestly delivered and it resonated with me.

When it comes to talking about the story, the one in 'Soul' is more thematically ambitious than most Pixar films. Which is amazing considering that Pixar have had a number of mature and ambitious themes and stories. 'Soul' executes this in a very bold and never dumbed down or convoluted manner. Can understand where people are coming from when they talk about it being more for older viewers than children, but from my experience as a young adult but a child at heart 'Soul' made me laugh and gave me the feels, as well as left me deep in thought. Something that Pixar was very good at in most of their films. Personally didn't find the ending rushed or too neat, and actually found it pretty poignant.

Brilliant film and more than deserving of its acclaim. Thank goodness it came along when it did. 10/10.
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