I am definitely not the general target demographic for most, if not all modern Disney releases. I struggle to find anything they release appealing to me, and I'm sure I'm definitely not alone there. Their remakes with live action have been met with plenty of criticism and controversy, and their animation side has been riddled with flops in the box office, and not all that loved by critics. Though this can be a bit hit and miss, with more misses rather than hits as of late. I also have zero interest in their franchise side of things. Star Wars and Marvel are of no interest to me at all. So, deciding to watch a modern Disney release seems like a rather dumb thing to do, sometbing one might think is more pertaining to self-torture rather than subjecting the self to entertainment.
The truth is, I want to be able to enjoy Disney releases. I'm also a major fan of stylistic animation, but I can't help but feel that Disney has abandoned its animation side of filmmaking. And Pixar, when you think about it, has been more of a tech testing company rather than animation studio, with their largest and most successful releases being 3D and known pretty much for their advanced computer generated effects for their time. Disney still has a few animation television series every now and then, but they each share the common, generalised cartoon style that most call the CalArts style. One that seems to be the norm of the animation industry, in which characters have what people refer to as "bean face". Essentially, Disney has lost its way in regards to the very thing that made it so magical in the first place. I mean, even the live action low budget films it used to make were better than its large budget releases of today.
I guess, to some degree, I could be saying that Disney has in fact lost its soul. Even those much loved Pixar releases themselves seem a bit lost, void of creativity but trying their hardest to send a message somehow. Some of these films are more cultural, however, which is something I've appreciated. Their messages being more for specific demographics, both spreading awareness of cultural traditions and appealing to them. I love different cultures and ways of life, so this, despite the other issues, is often something I can get behind.
Soul
I have known about Soul for a while now. But unfortunately due to the general disinterest I have in Disney releases, I just didn't really bother to watch it. That is, until another member of the community mentioned it the other day in their own review of the film. Remembering it, and wanting to watch something animated, I finally decided to give it a chance. This felt like a much more different newer release from Disney, definitely having much more of that soul -- okay, I know what I'm doing here and it isn't intentional -- in the story, characters, and the general message it was trying to promote. While I do have a few issues with the animation, with it being a bit less interesting and sometimes almost too realistic looking as if the backgrounds had been copied straight from photographs of locations in New York City. Admittedly, I like artistic animation in which things don't always look so realistic, pulling architectural design and anatomy that don't really have any place in reality. Mostly inspired by the imagination or purely works of fiction. So that isn't to say the animation is bad, but I'm very picky! Though some of the backgrounds, despite that closer realism, did actually look quite nice still, I admit. For the most part, the character design and exaggeration within their proportions is met within the film's other side of the story.
This story pertains to an aspiring lover of Jazz. Joe, being a music teacher at a middle-school, comes to a sudden end while running through the chaotic and unsafe streets of New York City, falling through a hole in the ground to his death. Thrown into another realm, he discovers a world in which there are souls old and new. The new souls are being prepared for life, unborn people essentially. This idea is pretty interesting. The idea in which we are all born with some sort of ambition or personality traits. Some higher purpose that leads to us pulling ourselves out of bed every morning in pursuit of something. These souls need to complete a series of tasks and by doing so fill their souls with personality traits to prepare them. Joe, through sheer luck, finds one of these and returns to Earth with her. This leads to Joe's own discovery of what it means to be alive, and have ambition and passion.
All of this is fine, in fact I quite enjoyed the story. The only thing I would say I felt I didn't quite like was some of the voice acting. It felt a bit off in parts. For example, I really don't think the really nasal voice of Richard Ayoade suits the film at all. Don't get me wrong, I think the guy himself is very good at what he does, just rather wrongfully cast here. His voice was the main one that sort of "ruined" some of that immersion for me, but his character didn't have a whole lot of screentime so it was easy to overlook. The rest didn't seem so bad. Especially given the fast-paced nature of the film for the most part, seeing characters roaming through the busy streets of New York City as Joe goes on his little adventure with the soul. A lof of these environments are the everyday locations one might notice. It really connects you with the present and the locations in which we ourselves often ignore and overlook despite the life and aspects of community being present. Particularly in the barber's in which Joe's body is controlled by the other soul, with Joe's soul being in a cat. We see how the soul uses Joe's body to talk and engage with those around him, which in turn open up with him and see him in a different light. There's this realisation of neglect within Joe as a result of these actions, and we see how such a normal environment can lead to this epiphany regarding his life.
I'm quite surprised by Soul, having neglected it myself for so long. This is a pretty nice film with a story on the idea of what it means to pursue something. Exploring the idea of passion and whether it is ever enough, or whether you need to be enough in the first place. We have this idea that we are not excelling enough in our interests, or that we could do more. We rarely stop and think and just accept the fact that we might be in the right place with the right skills at the right time. Not really needing to push beyond just yet, or at all. It looks into our human condition to which we endlessly look to the future, forever in pursuit of a higher position to the one we are at now. I liked the idea in which souls are born with certain traits, a bit of guidance that pushes them into discovering who they want to be and what to pursue. Some people find their purpose much sooner than others, some have that sort of natural intuition in certain areas. It was a very human look, with plenty of fiction sprinkled in, at the idea of existence and what we should do with our limited time.
