‘Soul’ Review: Do we need a purpose?
By: Patrick Z
Tags: Animation, Pixar, Movies, Movie Review

First thing first, I LOVE Pixar; I get Pixar related news notification in my Google feed; I make plans to watch Pixar movies as soon as they are released in theatre (or in Disney+ in current situation). Over the years, Pixar have released many animated movies with different themes, yet recently, they seem quite interested in one topic: Death.

Coco deals with death: Miguel has to sort out the conflict between his passion and his family by exploring the land of the dead and talking to dead people. Onward also deals with death: Ian sets the entire chain of events in motion because he desperately wants to meet his dead father. Soul takes “dealing with death” to another level: no more dead family members, Joe (almost dies) and try to finally starts to live the life he wants. To be fair, these three movies have different core messages, and it might be oversimplifying to group them together by “death” alone. But it does seem that Pixar does not want to shy away from “death”, the macabre subject parents dread to discuss with their kids. For what reason? I don’t know and I intentionally stopped myself from googling Pixar’s latest creative philosophy, but I guess it is about helping children understand the world better and targeting wider audience at the same time. They both make sense. Animated movies are not and should not be treated as simple educational tool for kids; done right, they could be powerful media that reach audience regardless of age, nationality and culture.

Sorry, let’s get back to Soul. As much as I love Pixar, Soul would not be one of my favorite Pixar movies. It did a lot of things right: from African American representation to Jazz soundtrack; from the giant-bug-zapper-looking “Great Beyond” to the rebranded “Great Before”; it even offered an explanation for the Knicks’ performance — I am sure there are quite a few professional sports team have been tortured by 22 and her associates for years! Its core message is clear — at least to me, it is: appreciate every moment and every day of your life, and don’t let other things get in the way, even your dreams. The movie wasn’t able to focus on detailing that message, however, and let the ending fall flat and feel sudden. I feel the need to “fill in the blanks” in my mind to make the story whole and it might be a difficult task for children, especially when the story’s message is philosophical by nature. Maybe the movie is not intended for children after all: how do we explain to a 5 year old about “You can’t crush a soul here. That’s what life on Earth is for”?

Yet the movie reminded me: Do we need a purpose? Do we need a “life’s purpose” to live a meaningful life? Do we need to lead a purposeful life to enjoy life itself? According to Soul, not necessarily. Joe has been chasing his music dream ever since that night in the Jazz bar; he is neither successful nor rich, but undoubtedly focused and driven. Unfortunately his best qualities also made him self-centered and miserable. He probably does not have many friends — he has never even thought about getting to know his barber because he only wants to tell his barber about his Jazz dream. His frustrating relationship with his mother shows how little he cares about the price others pay for his dream: his mother probably has been supporting him all these time. I was surprised the movie does not mention that Joe is one step away from becoming a “lost soul”: all the obsession about becoming a Jazz musician makes him forget about living altogether: “I’m not dying today. Not when my life just started!”

In other words, he thinks he has never lived till his dream come true. Lucky for him, his dream does come true, and then — only then — he realizes his life is not defined by his dream. All the misery, bitterness and discontent is just the result of him ignoring life itself. 100% happiness might be hard to achieve, but enjoying life is just a matter of being mindful. Most people might never see their dreams come true, some people might never figure out the true purpose of their lives, but that should not interfere with the actual “living”.

At the end of Soul, both 22 and Joe goes back to the Earth, and the movie does not give the any indication about how they will live their lives going forward. It might not be the best ending, but it might be the only good ending. We do not know how they make their choices in their lives, but we do know that they will “live” every minute of it. Or is that the ultimate purpose of life?