The Disney Pixar movie, Soul, was released on Disney+ on Christmas of 2020. It is about a Jazz musician, named Joe, whose life suddenly comes to a stop just before he is about to get his big break. He tries to get back into his body on Earth before this life-changing performance with the help of a young soul named 22.
The movie’s main message is that your passion is not necessarily your purpose, and that the purpose of life is to simply exist and enjoy life. We waste so much time searching for our “meaning” of life when the meaning is to just experience everything. I thought that the movie strayed away from Disney’s usual content and catered more towards the older audience since there were some deep topics covered such as death, astral projection, and the meaning of life. I’m really glad with the direction that Disney took with this movie and excited for their future movies to come.
It has caused so many people, including me, to start rethinking their life and make some positive changes to make the most out of the one life that we get. The app Tiktok has become a platform for many people to share their theories about the details in the movie and here are some of my favorite ones.
*BEWARE THERE ARE SPOILERS UP AHEAD IF YOU PLAN ON WATCHING*
1) @TheSamuelBeez: “It does not show the title until the end of the film because this is when his life really begins.”
Usually in movies, we see the title being shown in the beginning of the film, but in this one, it isn’t shown until the end. For most of the movie, Joe is in denial of dying and even when he does get back he takes the small details of life for granted, such as eating your favorite food and conversations with people. It is not until the end of the film that he says that he decides to live every moment of life. This is finally when the title appears and this user believes this is because this is the moment his life really starts to begin.
2) @BarbaraKendrick: 22 is Inside Out’s Riley.
At the end of the movie, they do not reveal who 22 becomes when they finally get to go to Earth and become alive. However, there is a theory that all Pixar movies are connected in the same universe in some way. Due to 22’s playful, fiery, and stubborn personality, it has caused many people to think that they might have become Riley from Inside Out.
*Exactly my face after I watched this Tik Tok video*
3) @caro.oke: When 22 is in Joe’s body, she goes through the stages of life in chronological order.
When 22 first goes into Joe’s body, they are in a hospital. This represents birth since it is a common place to be born. Next, 22 struggles to walk, fumbles with pressing the elevator buttons, and eats for the first time. This represents a baby’s first steps, learning motor functions, and eating (which is not something they were able to do in The Great Before, so it was her first time tasting food). Then, 22 goes to Joe’s apartment where they talk to one of his middle school students, Connie. This represents 22’s teenage stage. In the next scene, Joe has to get a haircut and has a meaningful conversation with the grown people in the barbershop about existence. This could represent his adult years. The last stage is when 22 and Joe get to The Half Note, ready to switch bodies, and 22 becomes fixated on the dead leaves blowing in the air. It represents the final stage of life: death.
4) @Matthewables: A link between an upcoming Chinese Pixar Movie and 22’s whereabouts.
22 is heading towards Asia when they are finally going to Earth to be born. This user zoomed in on an actual map where he thought that 22 was going to land based on the way they were flying and found that they were going towards China. Pixar has an upcoming movie called “Turning Red” which is coincidentally taking place in China. It is about a young girl who turns into a red panda and is coming out in 2022.
5) @ImmortalZen: The Flow State
In this video, the user goes through the many ways that the movie handled spirituality, but this was my favorite out of the list. When Joe is “in the zone”, he is taken to the flow state where one is doing something and starts to lose track of time. This state is between the physical and spiritual state. You can be there for a good reason such as doing something that really makes you happy or it can be a bad thing where you become so fixated on something that you become a lost soul. As a lost soul, you get detached from life not because you are getting “into the zone”, but because you lose yourself in becoming obsessive.
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