What is life all about? Self-exploration is good for the ‘Soul’

What is life all about? Self-exploration(ˌekspləˈrāSH(ə)n) is good for the ‘Soul(sōl)’

By Michael Ordoña

“Soul” isn’t what most might expect from a big-studio, animated movie for kids, but Pixar’s success affords it the freedom to try new things — including exploring(ikˈsplôr) the oldest of questions.

“I think a lot of us have fallen into that idea of ‘Just find your passion; do what you love, and everything else will fall into place,’ and I came to a point where I’m like, ‘Not everything is coming into place. I’m not happy and content all the time just because I love doing animation,’ ” says “Soul” director and co-writer Pete(pit) Docter, a two-time Oscar(ˈäskər) winner.

“What’s life really all about, and what are we meant to be doing? The film was really an investigation into that.”

“Soul’s” main character, Joe (voiced by Jamie Foxx), is a frustrated jazz(jaz) musician-turned-teacher about to get his big break at a club when he unexpectedly dies. His struggle to return to his life (accompanied by a kind of baby soul voiced by Tina Fey) to fulfill what he sees as his purpose forms the story. As Docter says, “Soul” is not concerned with religious(rəˈlijəs) dogma(ˈdôɡmə), but with being present and alive right now, which makes the highly improvisational(imˌprävəˈzāSH(ə)nl) art of jazz an appropriate theme(THēm).

It helped considerably that co-writer Kemp Powers used to cover jazz as a journalist, but there’s no replacement for lived experience. Docter refers(rəˈfər) to the opening scene, in which Joe conveys(kənˈvā) to his students how he fell in love with jazz when his father took him to a club:

“Where that came from was me asking Jon Batiste(bəˈtēst), who played the music, ‘Describe to me a moment like this.’ And I almost literally(ˈlidərəlē) transcribed(tran(t)ˈskrīb) what he said and put it in the film.”

…
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/awards/story/2021-01-25/soul-animated-feature-pete-docter-jazz