Soul moved to a streaming release due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Life is full of possibilities.
That’s the tagline for the new Soul trailer, released by Disney on Thursday ahead of the Pixar movie’s new Christmas Day release on Disney+. The studio announced the latest animated outing would debut on its new streaming platform due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which originally pushed the movie to November from its scheduled June release.
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The new trailer offers a bit more about the plot of the movie, which follows the existential musings of a middle school music teacher, Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx), who dreams of being a jazz performer.
“Music is all I think about. From the moment I wake up in the morning to the moment I fall asleep at night. I was born to play. It’s my reason for living,” Joe says at the beginning of the trailer.
Before he can achieve his big break, an accident causes his soul to separate from his body where he’s taken to The Great Before – a fantastical place where new souls get their personalities, quirks and interests before they go to Earth.
That’s where he meets Tina Fey’s Soul 22 and the two embark on an unprecedented journey to reunite Joe’s soul with his body.
“Life is full of possibilities, you just need to know where to look. Don’t miss out on the joys of life,” Joe says near the end of the trailer.
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Soul has been getting rave reviews, with a current 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The Independent‘s Clarisse Loughrey sums up why in her review.
“Not only does Soul live up to Pixar’s own impossibly high standards, but it represents the very best the studio has to offer: beauty, humour, heart, and a gut-punch of an existential crisis,” she wrote.
TheWrap‘s Jason Solomons agrees, writing: “Soul is perhaps the most existentially ambitious film ever attempted by Disney and yet it pops with colorful visuals and gentle wisdom while the story clips along despite the dizzying height of the concept.”
“Like some of the best jazz compositions, it uses a traditional framework to veer off in many unexpected directions, so that even the inevitable end point feels just right,” wrote IndieWire‘s Kaleem Aftab.
“It’s a vintage mix of the company’s intricate storytelling, complex emotional intelligence, technical prowess and cerebral whimsy on dexamethasone,” wrote The Hollywood Reporter‘s Leslie Felperin.
Soul hits Disney+ on Christmas Day.