A music-loving teacher finds himself in The Great Before in the new trailer for Pixar’s Soul. Disney’s opted for a streaming debut on Disney+ for the family-friendly animated film from co-directors Pete Doctor and Kemp Powers.
Pixar’s also just released new details on the voice cast, including how Jamie Foxx’s got into his character, Joe. “Like Joe, I hear music in everything,” stated Foxx. “When you’re a jazz artist, man, you talk a little different: ‘Hey, cat!’ I got a chance to go to a few jazz fests and meet Herbie Hancock, Chick Correa—hang out with those guys. They have a way of talking, a way of dressing—everything funnels toward their music, toward the jazz.”
Director Docter explained what inspired his work on Soul. “I’ve been so lucky to work with some incredible people and make movies that have been seen around the world,” said Docter. “But I realized that as wonderful as these projects are, there’s more to living than a singular passion—as expressive and fulfilling as that may be. Sometimes the small insignificant things are what it’s really about. This film is about broadening the idea of a singular focus to thinking more widely about what life has to offer and what we have to offer life.”
“We’ve been working on Soul for years, but the film feels timelier now than we ever could have imagined back when we began,” added co-director Kemp Powers. “In a year where everything we know has been turned upside down, we’ve all been forced to find new meaning both in the relationships we have and the small moments that truly make life worth living.”
The voice cast also include Tina Fey as Soul 22, Graham Norton voices spiritual sign twirler Moonwind, and Rachel House is the count-obsessed Terry. Alice Braga, Richard Ayoade, Wes Studi, Fortune Feimster, and Zenobia Shroff provide the voices of the Counselors. Comedian Donnell Rawlings is Joe’s barber Dez, and June Squibb is Gerel. Phylicia Rashad, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Angela Bassett, and Daveed Diggs also lend their voices to the Pixar film.
Soul will premiere on Disney+ on December 25, 2020.
The Plot:
“What is it that makes you…YOU? Pixar Animation Studios’ Soul introduces Joe Gardner (Foxx) – 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 (Fey), 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.”
