Pixar’s ‘Soul’ Is a Delight if You’re Facing an Existential Crisis
By: Bertilla Niveda
Tags: Life, Film, Purpose, Soul, Mindfulness

Pixar’s ‘Soul’ Is a Delight if You’re Facing an Existential Crisis

Photo by Rahul Pandit from Pexels

I had been waiting to watch ‘Soul’ for months because I knew from the trailer alone that it was going to be epic. And it was fully worth the hype. ‘Soul’ was deeply moving, heart-warming, funny and so real.

Firstly, I will never understand why so many people look down on the idea of adults liking animated movies. You can find the best, most insightful life lessons explained beautifully by animated films, many of which Disney’s Pixar is responsible for.

‘Inside Out’ is a very similar gold-mine of lessons on mental health and healthy emotions, but that would be a whole other piece. Or maybe several pieces, because it was that brilliant.

Here’s what ‘Soul’ is all about, and how this movie can change the way you see your life.

Joe Gardner is all of us

This normal, middle-class, middle-aged character voiced by Jamie Foxx is someone we can all relate to, on some level at least. He is earnest, hard-working, and has hopes and dreams. We also see that he has his flaws, as we all do.

Joe Gardner is a man who talks, breathes, and lives jazz music. He goes to sleep and wakes up thinking only about jazz. Jazz is his passion — it drives him, ignites his soul, and gives him a purpose.

But he’s also struggling to find big gigs. He works as a music teacher in a school and is finally offered a permanent job there, which his mother persuades him to take. Because how long can he be living so uncertainly, depending on gigs that never come?

This changes when Joe is offered a gig that will turn his life around. One of his old students gets him the opportunity to play in the quartet of Dorothea Williams, a famous saxophonist. He longs to make a living out of his love for jazz and he’s finally getting close to his dream.

Minutes after landing this terrific gig, as luck would have it, Joe falls into a pothole and dies.

He fights for the chance to make his life extraordinary

If you died today, would your soul be satisfied? I don’t know about you, but I feel like I have tons to see, so much to do and experience. If I died today, I would be hugely disappointed. I cannot bear the thought of leading a life that is so “ordinary”. So average. So wrought by nothingness.

And Joe is no different. He feels that if he could have just lived that night, playing the piano in Dorothea’s grand quartet, performing to his heart’s content, his life could have changed completely. He would have finally reached the heights that he had been dreaming of for decades.

Souls need to find their spark

And while Joe longs to go back to earth, he is also mentoring a soul in The Great Before. This is a place where souls are given a personality, and then go off to earth, to be born. Er, it’s a whole thing. You’ll know when you watch the film.

The catch is that before they go down to earth, they need to find their spark. A spark can come from anything. Souls get to try different things like sports, baking, music, teaching, painting, and much more. And when they really love something, their spark makes them ready to jump into life on earth, where they take human forms.

Joe gets assigned to a soul numbered 22 (voiced by Tina Fey), who finds everything pointless. Nothing sparks her. She is a borderline nihilist who feels life on earth is absolutely boring and crushes souls. She is the despair of reputed personalities like Mother Teresa and Abraham Lincoln, and self-help does squat for her.

Ahem. This would be a good time to acknowledge that I am indeed very much like 22. Earth has crushed my soul, and I haven't found my all-defying, mind-blowing purpose.

Lost souls and shining souls are divided by a thin line

Pixar movies have this immaculate way of explaining vast, serious psychological concepts in a matter of minutes, with aesthetic, simple scenes. And there are plenty of them in ‘Soul’.

There is an area where the souls of those still alive get to chill. Yeah, if you haven't watched the movie already, it will make perfect sense when you do, trust me. So, in this area, there are souls that are “in the zone”, and souls that are lost.

When we get really into something, put our hearts and souls into it, and are truly having a marvelous time, our souls transcend and enter the zone. Lost souls, on the other hand, are those who are spiraling out of control and struggling to cope with their lives.

Joe remarks on how unlucky these souls are, to which his guide explains that they are not much different from those in the zone. Quite often, seemingly flourishing souls in the zone tend to get obsessed with their craft, and they lose their passion, becoming lost souls.

Highly successful souls can morph into troubled, wounded ones who have lost their direction. In their pursuit of constantly being in the zone, they bar themselves from ever entering it again.

Doesn’t your purpose matter?

So many of us spend all our lives hustling to find that one thing that we can say is what we live for. The one that will help us detach from mediocrity and enter our zone. We are chasing this notion of meaning and purpose all the time, and we think we can’t die without finding it.

Who says your life is not special right now? Who decided that our lives are not worth as much as those who have won fame, riches, and accolades?

I’m not saying that we should give up on finding purpose. I most certainly will keep trying to find the thing that inspires me, and you can too. However, you cannot predict if you will surely be devoted to this purpose for the rest of your life.

You cannot tell if you will always feel this excited about it and if it will meet all your expectations. And that’s completely fine. You have to remember that it’s okay if you don’t find something that you are eternally passionate about. And, it’s okay if it takes you days or months or even years to even find it.

But, you need to find your spark today.

Find your spark and cherish it

A spark is caused by something that makes you happy — makes you feel something, anything. It lights up your eyes, it makes your heart leap, it makes your soul dance. Your spark can come from even the most “ordinary”, most mundane aspects of life.

My spark comes from simple things sometimes. A delicious slice of pizza, a glorious sunset, a sky full of stars, a fluffy cloud. Meeting my sister who lives away, after years. Hugging my grandfather who recovered from a scary health condition. Gifting my mom a cute handbag and seeing her smile.

My spark is everywhere. I’m just too busy confusing my spark for my purpose.

I’m clawing my way out of this “nothingness” while failing to see how this nothingness is what makes me feel alive. This is what makes up my life, and I love my life.