Soul (2020)

Pixar, now part of Disney, has done it again, with this sweet, clever, metaphysical animated story of a teacher, moonlighting as a struggling jazz pianist, who literally stumbles into the "Before Life" and makes a friend.

Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey, as Joe and 22, lead the enormous and distinguished cast of voices, with help from Graham Norton, Alice Braga, Phylicia Rashad, Questlove, Angela Bassett, Daveed Diggs, June Squibb, and so many more. I have to tell you my favorite line. Joe asks 22 why she, a disembodied soul, sounds like "a middle-aged white lady." She says, "I just use this voice because it annoys people."

Pete Docter is credited as director and Kemp Powers as co-director, with story and screenplay attributed to them and Mike Jones.

We streamed the soundtrack, by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste, immediately and repeatedly after watching the movie on Disney+ on January 8. You can hear the soundtrack with a subscription to Apple Music, or free on YouTube or Spotify, among others. As fans of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Jack and I are familiar with Batiste's music. We realized that the drawings of Joe's long fingers match Batiste's very well. The captions in the movie often mention "melodic trilling," and now we hear Batiste playing that on The Late Show from time to time. The soundtrack combines Batiste's jazz with the ethereal stylings of Reznor and Ross, a rap track by Diggs, and a folk song by Cody ChestnuTT.

Foxx was last blogged for Just Mercy, Fey for Wine Country, Braga for Elysium, Rashad for Creed, Bassett for Black Panther, Diggs for Blindspotting, Squibb for Blow the Man Down, Docter for Inside Out, and Reznor and Ross for Mank.

Norton is the host of an English talk show and Questlove the music director for The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Powers wrote One Night in Miami, which we will see very soon. Jones has worked on a few other projects, mostly Pixar, and Batiste, as I mentioned, is music director for a third talk show, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics agree with us and everyone we know, averaging a soulful 95%, and its audiences are close behind at 88.