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November/December 2020

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DEPARTMENT www.postmagazine.com 24 POST NOV/DEC 2020 J oe Gardner (Jamie Foxx) is a mid- dle-aged middle school band teacher who is passionate about jazz. All his life he has dreamed of a career as a professional jazz pianist, and he's had numerous shots at a stage career, but his kindheartedness always thwarted those opportunities — whether it was helping a friend or assisting his mother. But he never gave up on that dream. And then, out of the blue, he is offered a once-in-a-lifetime chance to play with one of the greats. He is determined that this time, nothing is going to stop him. He gets the gig, and is elated. On cloud nine, Joe shimmies and sashays down the streets of busy New York City with an obvious spring in his step. His lifelong dream has come true: He will be playing alongside jazz legend Dorothea Williams (Angela Bassett). A misstep on the street into an open manhole makes that dream (and Joe) short- lived, as Joe finds himself in The Great Beyond (where souls go after they leave a person's body), and then in The Great Before, a strange place where brand-new souls get their personalities, quirks and interests before arriving on Earth. This unique adventure is the basis for Soul, Disney-Pixar's 23rd animated feature, the fourth directed by Pete Docter, in addition to Monster's Inc., Up and Inside Out. The concept for the film was born more than two decades ago following the birth of Docter's son — who seemed to have been born with a personality. "It was pretty clear that we're all born with a very unique, specific sense of who we are," Docter says. Thus, everyone in Soul is born with a soul — "and those souls just don't show up unprepared; they're trained and given personality and interests [before arriving on Earth]," says Docter of the new souls. Of course, there is a place — The Great Beyond — for old souls, too, like Joe. But he wants no part of this. He wants to return to Earth in time for his long-awaited performance. And a preco- cious soul named 22 (Tina Fey) might be his ticket to doing just that. Soul is set in two totally-different yet fully-re- alized worlds: Earth, specifically New York City, which is steeped in reality; and the imagined celestial world of The Great Before. Everything about each world is unique and specific to that realm: the aesthetic, the character designs, even the music. The dichotomy creates a rich tapestry of characters that are uniquely connected and yet worlds apart. NEW YORK CITY Joe is the first Black lead character in a Pixar film. "There is so much to Black culture and my upbringing that I just wanted to fit it all into this film, and being able to do that honorably and responsibly was a blast," says Pixar's MontaQue Ruffin, an African-American animator. "We tried to capture this feeling of when you walk into a barbershop or when you walk into a tailor shop or are walking in the shoes of Joe Gardner — the details, the mannerisms." Approximately half the film occurs on Earth, where artists used a realistic style — with a rich, vibrant feel — for the characters, environments and so forth. CULTURAL INFLUENCES Work on the film began approximately four-and- a-half years ago, "when the world was different" than today. Throughout, Pixar received advice from a number of cultural advisors, including a group Soul Searching Pixar gets jazzed for its film, which explores new beginnings BY KAREN MOLTENBREY The concept for Soul dates back more than 20 years.

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