Soul (2020)

[kenmorefield]

Nothing quite says these boards are in a post-PTC era than seeing there is no thread for a forthcoming Pixar movie.

But I digress...

I was delighted after five minutes, worried after 10, really worried after 40 and gradually moved in a second half of the film that seemed to work to me much better than it had any business doing so. 

It seems to be not content to hit just the standard Pixar beats, and there is emotional (and dare I say moral?) complexity here. I was happy for a lot of things they *didn't* do, though I guess my sadness is the "real" world was always more interesting to me than the metaphysical one and I kept wishing for a movie that was about that in a more straightforward matter. 

Still a big step up from Onward (in my opinion).

As an aside, this movie got me thinking about Wall-e a bit. Not in terms of plot but just because that film always seemed tonally jarring to me (frist half and second half). There are some similar broad scale structural shifts here, from heavy material to slapstick/farce. It didn't bother me as much as it did in Wall-e. Not sure why.

[Andrew]

My fellow mental health professionals who are practicing mindfulness-based psychotherapy are gonna eat this up.  It's hard to find a film that everyone in my household enjoys, but this was universally loved.  Among 2020 films, only American Utopia kept me smiling throughout like this did.  I agree with you, Ken, there are some major tonal shifts, from serious to slapstick to contemplative, but they somehow make it work here.  Similarly, I dug the music, and there again the shifts worked, from Ross and Reznor's airy, hopeful Great Before music to Jon Batiste's piano playing.