[ad_1]
Of: TT
Published:
Photo: Disney
Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx) and Dorothea Williams (Angela Bassett) in a scene from “The Soul.” Press the image.
The pandemic ended the world premiere of “The Soul” in Cannes this spring. But now the animated film opens on Disney plus.
– For a while we were concerned about whether anyone would ever get a chance to see it. It’s been ready for seven months, says director Pete Docter when TT talks to him from San Francisco.
Docter, who won Oscars for both “Up” and “Inside Out,” says he’s happy it’s finally showing, but admits he was obviously disappointed that it wasn’t screened at the Cannes Film Festival.
– It would have been great. It’s always exciting to show movies there, it’s an audience that’s so passionate about the medium. At the same time, he is nervous. If they don’t like something, they say so.
Existential questions
In “The Soul” we meet jazz musician Joe Gardner, who on the way to an audition falls into a hole in the sidewalk and dies. Now he’s really going to heaven, but he refuses to accept it. He befriends the little soul “22”, and together they experience many adventures in which Joe desperately tries to return to earthly life in New York. The movie asks existential questions about life and death: is it really for kids?
– Absolutely. The goal for us at Pixar is that the movies we make are always for everyone. Sure, there are questions like “why am I really here?”, But there’s also a lot of humor, antics, and crazy jokes. Kids who have seen it are fascinated and think it’s fun, says Docter.
Newborn personality
The idea was born when Pete Docter went through a milder midlife crisis.
– I had worked with animated films all my life and I wondered if animation is the answer to everything. I thought about it more and more, I looked at my children who were going to start university and I remembered how they already had a kind of developed personality when they were born. I wanted to explore it, do we already have a sense of meaning as newborns?
He hopes and believes that the film industry will survive the pandemic, that audiences will return to pilgrimage to cinemas when they are allowed to open.
The next Pixar movie, “Luca,” was made during the pandemic, says Docter.
– All the animators have worked from home and what they have done looks fantastic. We can work like this, even if we don’t like it.
Published:
