DAD: “So kids, are you ready to see the new Pixar movie?”
KID 1: “Yeah!”
KID 2: “What’s it about? Is it like Finding Nemo?”
DAD: “Sort of. It’s about a band teacher who gets his big break playing in a jazz club…”
KID 1: “The thing Ryan Gosling invented?”
DAD: “Uh, sure. Anyway, Joe, the jazz guy, gets his big break, until he steps into an open manhole cover and dies, and his soul goes to the Great Before, which is like Purgatory, or maybe the Medium Place, but not quite. But it turns out, Joe is still alive, and he, as a soul, takes 22, also a soul, to Earth to return to his body. Ready to go?”
KID 1 AND 2: [stare blankly]
Pixar is rolling the dice on this one. I can’t wait. Here’s the official plot synopsis:
Joe Gardner is a middle-school band teacher who gets the chance of a lifetime to play at the best jazz club in town. But one small misstep takes him from the streets of New York City to The Great Before – a fantastical place where new souls get their personalities, quirks and interests before they go to Earth. Determined to return to his life, Joe teams up with a precocious soul, 22, who has never understood the appeal of the human experience. As Joe desperately tries to show 22 what’s great about living, he may just discover the answers to some of life’s most important questions.
Soul, featuring the voices of Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Questlove, Phylicia Rashad, Daveed Diggs, and John Ratzenberger (of course), and a score from Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor (some days you want to f*ck like an animal, others you want to provide the music for an animated Disney movie) and Atticus Ross, opens on June 19.
