Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1334563
j a n • f e b • m a r c h 2 0 2 1 c g w 7 J oe Gardner (Jamie Foxx) is a middle-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 op- portunities – whether it was helping a friend or assisting his mother. But he never game 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 on a moving staircase heading toward The Great Beyond (where souls go aer they leave a person's body), only to escape to 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 addi- tion to Monster's Inc., Up, and Inside Out. The concept for the film originated 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, specif- ic sense of who we are," Docter says. Thus, everyone in Soul begins 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 precocious 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 de- signs, even the music. The dichotomy creates a rich tapestry of characters that are uniquely connected and yet worlds apart. New York Cy Joe is the first Black lead character in a Pixar film, and Soul is the first Pixar film with a predominantly Black cast. "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 Gard- ner – 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 cultur- al advisors, including a group within the company, Ruffin being one of them, as well as those outside, along with music teachers and working jazz musicians – all in an effort to make sure the story was authentic. And Co-director Kemp Powers, also a writer on the film, drew from his own experiences. "One place I spent a lot of time before the pandemic was the barbershop, so we took our crew there so they could see and feel what it was really like to be in one. We also went to New York for research trips, visiting a public school in Queens, since that's where Joe teaches in the film," Kemp says. "Of course, we had to visit a bunch of [jazz] clubs in Manhattan." Because the film had to transcend one person's life, Powers stressed that his experiences alone do not represent those of Joe Gardner (far right) is the first Black lead character in a Pixar film.