Joe Gardner is a middle school music teacher in New York City, who fervently believes that "music is life". He auditions to play piano at a popular jazz club as part of a quartet led by Dorothea Williams. On his way home from impressing Dorothea, Joe tumbles down an open manhole and lingers in limbo between life and death.
Between the Monstropolis of Monsters, Inc and Inside Out's emotional headquarters, Pete Docter has long been Pixar's king of surreal worlds. That remains resolutely the case with the Oscar-winning Soul, which Docter co-directs with Kemp Powers (One Night in Miami). A matter of life and death that navigates its hidden depths with delicacy and world-building dazzle, Soul follows New York teacher Joe (voiced by Jamie Foxx), a frustrated jazz musician who meets an untimely demise. Determined to return to life from the "Great Beyond", Joe unites with sulky, unborn soul 22 (Tina Fey), sparking off a playful mix of celestial chase movie, body-swap romp, buddy movie, fish-out-of-water comedy and existential enquiry alike. Even if the free-jazz plotting seems initially wayward, the results brim with exuberance, invention, wit, and musicality. The film's disparate parts cohere beautifully in a bold take on life fulfilment that culminates in a finale as sweetly, softly poignant as Pixar's best.
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Joe | Jamie Foxx |
| 22 | Tina Fey |
| Moonwind | Graham Norton |
| Terry | Rachel House |
| Counselor Jerry | Alice Braga |
| Counselor Jerry | Richard Ayoade |
| Libba | Phylicia Rashad |
| Dez | Rawlings. Donnell |
| Curley | Ahmir-Khalib Thompson |
| Dorothea | Angela Bassett |
| Paul | Daveed Diggs |
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Director | Pete Docter |
| Director | Kemp Powers |
