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Pixar’s Wandering Soul Is a Movie in Search of Its Own Meaning

With its new movie, the studio expands its palette but doesn’t quite paint its masterpiece..

It’s not much of a spoiler to say that Joe Gardner, the hero of the clever but squishy new Pixar feature Soul , dies just 10 minutes into the movie—straight through a New York City manhole, bam, there he goes. After all, the movie’s marketing makes it clear that this film, the most metaphysical yet from the most transcendent (and transcendental) of American animation studios, is about the journey of this frustrated jazz pianist’s soul beyond the veil. Of course Joe had to go.

This isn’t even Pixar’s first dalliance with the afterlife. Just a few years ago, in Coco , the studio vibrantly imagined a Mexican Land of the Dead, a grand city bustling with cheery skeletons. The place Joe (voiced by Jamie Foxx) arrives after his little accident is much more austere: a simple ramp in the midst of nothingness, as elegantly designed and context-free as an Apple product page, upon which blobby blue souls ascend to the Great Beyond. But Joe, who just preceding his accident had secured the gig he’s been waiting for all his life, is not having it. He escapes his fate, leaping off the ramp and landing in the Great Before. There, blank souls line up like the pegs in the Game of Life, attending “You Seminars” where mentors help them find their “spark”—the thing that animates them, fuels their excitement, and makes them want to live—before they are sent to Earth to be born.

In the Great Before, the administrators are kind interdimensional constructs who look like cubist paintings and speak in the calming, hard-to-peg accents of Richard Ayoade, Wes Studi, and Alice Braga. (“Call me Jerry,” they all say.) Meanwhile, on the ramp to the afterlife, another cubist bureaucrat, a hard-driven number cruncher (“Terry,” voiced by the Maori actor Rachel House) has noticed that a soul is missing and sets out to find it. The notion that life begins in a sterile seminar room and ends with your extinguishment being tallied on a giant abacus is an awfully dispiriting way to think about the soul’s great journey, but that’s befitting this movie’s philosophy-by-committee approach, a kind of watered-down New Ageism that’s basically inoffensive but also uninspired. Similarly, the movie’s conclusions about the value of living life to its fullest, appreciating the journey, etc., are so universally targeted as to be blandly familiar.

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It’s in the movie’s most personal and specific storytelling beats—its interaction with Black culture—that Soul delivers more potent storytelling. Directed by Pixar veteran Pete Docter ( Up , Inside Out ) and co-directed by studio newcomer Kemp Powers, Soul is the first Pixar feature with a Black protagonist. Joe’s difficult relationship with his mother and her high expectations is touching and, when it’s resolved, inspiring; the movie’s treatment of jazz as both a dynamic art form and a Black cultural touchstone is affectionate and energetic; a scene inside a Black barbershop transcends the cinematic familiarity of the setting to provide a loving look at a cultural institution that also pushes the plot forward.

Now, that’s all easy for me to say; I’m a white critic. My appreciation of that barbershop scene, for example, is complicated not only by my whiteness but by the character who joins Joe there: Soul No. 22, Joe’s mentee, a longtime holdout from the You Seminars who’s resisted becoming a living person forever. Soul 22 is voiced by Tina Fey, who’s very funny as a character who has never found her spark—who has predetermined that nothing on Earth could possibly be cool enough to justify getting off her ass and leaving her cushy pre-life in Limbo. (In a solid recurring bit, we meet all the previous mentors whose counsel she’s shrugged off, including Gandhi, Lincoln, and Mother Teresa.) It’s when Joe and 22 end up together in New York, of course, and 22 gets to eat pizza and hear music and hang out in that barbershop, that this wayward spirit begins to be energized by all that humanity might have to offer her. Which is all very heartwarming, sure, but Soul reads a little differently if you think of it as the movie where Tina Fey learns the meaning of life from a, let’s just say, magical Black man who had to die for the privilege. Anyway, I can’t wait to read the critiques by writers more qualified than I!

Soul feels, in the end, like a worthwhile Pixar experiment. Like Coco , it’s respectful of the culture in which it’s set without plundering it and lays the groundwork for future Pixar movies that can expand the company’s palette of heroes further. It’s packed with great jokes—a throwaway from 22 about why the Knicks suck doubled me over—and great music, from the jazz sequences (in which the animated characters’ fingers on piano keys and drumsticks match, incredibly, Jon Batiste’s compositions) to the Eno-esque Music for Afterlives that plays when Joe’s a soul, written by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. (A Pixar movie scored by Reznor and Ross! Speaking of broadened palettes!)

Pixar’s best movies have always benefited from left-field emotional twists that help the films explore their themes from unexpected angles. Wall-E is a comedy about a lonely robot, until the robot falls in love. Inside Out is about a child’s joy, until we understand that what the child needs is to be sad for a change. For all its busy plot machinery, Soul never truly surprises us emotionally: Its pair of lost souls find each other and find reasons to live, hitting their marks along the way. Like every Pixar movie, it’s entertaining, sharp, and visually inventive. But it lacks the thunderbolts of creativity that make the company’s best philosophical inquiries so electrifying. It never quite finds its spark.

[Short Film Review] WANDERING SOUL

• December 12, 2019
• Tori Danielle

When I think of the Vietnam War, that’s a horror story just by itself as there were so many lives lost. When the opportunity came up to a review WANDERING SOUL , a supernatural horror short based on true events from the Vietnam War, I couldn’t pass it up.

Written and directed by Josh Tanner , WANDERING SOUL centers around a ghost story set during the Vietnam War. It is inspired by eerily bizarre but TRUE events. According to the synopsis, it is told from a unique perspective of the ‘enemy’ Viet Cong soldiers in the claustrophobic tunnels of Cu Chi.

This is a terrifying and depressing tale of death, loss, superstition, and pure horror. When I think about war, I think about big military weapons and bombs. Death and destruction. Up until now, I’ve never thought about the use of psychological weapons, which if you think about it is probably one of the most powerful weapons of all. During war you’re already vulnerable. You’re away from home, away from your family, hungry, cold, hot, and never know when you may die or which friend you’ll have to bury next. So mental status is already weary. Using any form of psychological mind tricks is both brilliant and dirty. I was completely shocked at the tools used for this psychological torture and how useful they turned out to be.

WANDERING SOUL takes place mostly in tunnels of Cu Chi. It made me claustrophobic just watching it. As the story continues, the sense of dread, fear, and hopelessness grows and becomes overpowering. Something isn’t right and it’s clear they need to get out.

I think my favorite part is at the end, seeing everything play out. Even when one of the Vietnam soldiers sees that he’s been “tricked”, he still thinks they’re messing with fire. He pleads for them to stop. It’s both heartbreaking and terrifying.

WANDERING SOUL is not your typical horror movie but is very much the definition of true horror in all aspects. I can see why it had a very successful festival run and took home awards. If you something to keep you up at night, this short will do the job!

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Wandering Soul

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Wandering Soul (2016)

Genre: horror, duration: 13 minuten, country: australia, directed by: josh tanner, stars: otto bots and cuong nguyen, imdb score: 6,9  (417), releasedate: 1 october 2016.

This movie is not available on US streaming services.

This movie is not available on UK streaming services.

Wandering Soul plot

A soldier is in the Vietnam War. He is in a tunnel complex called Cu Chi. In it he sees the ghosts of fallen comrades.

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A Vietnamese soldier is haunted by the ghost of a fallen comrade. | Wandering Soul

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'Soul' Is A Jazzy, Joyful Celebration Of Life

Linda Holmes

Stephen Thompson

Aisha Harris

Glen Weldon

Pixar's Soul is the story of a jazz musician who falls down a manhole and winds up learning a lot about the afterlife, the not-quite afterlife and what it means to be human. Pixar hide caption

Pixar's Soul is the story of a jazz musician who falls down a manhole and winds up learning a lot about the afterlife, the not-quite afterlife and what it means to be human.

In Disney and Pixar's Soul , a jazz musician voiced by Jamie Foxx falls down a manhole and finds himself teetering between life and the afterlife. He winds up on a New York adventure with a wandering soul, voiced by Tina Fey, who needs help getting ready to be reborn on Earth.

The audio was produced by Will Jarvis and edited by Jessica Reedy.

Wandering Soul

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Ruth Kadiri

Annes Anakwe

Chidi Anyanwu Chidox

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The Wandering Soul Murders

Widowed Joanne Kilbourn is an ex-police officer turned criminology professor. Her husband Ian was the Ontario provincial Attorney General when he was murdered, the murder never solved. Her c... Read all Widowed Joanne Kilbourn is an ex-police officer turned criminology professor. Her husband Ian was the Ontario provincial Attorney General when he was murdered, the murder never solved. Her current home life is on the most part a happy one, except that her eldest son Peter has had... Read all Widowed Joanne Kilbourn is an ex-police officer turned criminology professor. Her husband Ian was the Ontario provincial Attorney General when he was murdered, the murder never solved. Her current home life is on the most part a happy one, except that her eldest son Peter has had an on-again, off-again relationship with a young woman named Christy Sinclair, the relati... Read all

• Brad Turner
• R.B. Carney
• Wendy Crewson
• Victor Garber
• Robin Dunne
• 3 User reviews
• 1 Critic review
• 1 nomination

• Joanne Kilbourn

• Inspector Philip Millard

• Eric Matthews

• Helmut Keating

• Jill Dempsey

• Linda Burke
• Christy Sinclair
• Kim Barilko

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• Connections Followed by A Colder Kind of Death (2001)
• Soundtracks Simple Things Written by Derek Swain, John Gulley Performed by Derek Swain

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• disdressed12
• Feb 10, 2007
• January 2, 2001 (Canada)
• Almas sin descanso
• Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• CTV Television Network
• Shaftesbury Films
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Looking to feast your eyes on ' The Wandering Soul Murders ' in the comfort of your own home? Searching for a streaming service to buy, rent, download, or view the Brad Turner-directed movie via subscription can be a challenge, so we here at Moviefone want to do right by you. We've listed a number of streaming and cable services - including rental, purchase, and subscription choices - along with the availability of 'The Wandering Soul Murders' on each platform when they are available. Now, before we get into the nitty-gritty of how you can watch 'The Wandering Soul Murders' right now, here are some particulars about the Shaftesbury Films Carlton America CTV tv movie flick. Released , 'The Wandering Soul Murders' stars Wendy Crewson , Victor Garber , Robin Dunne , Patrick McKenna The movie has a runtime of about 1 hr 30 min, and received a user score of 57 (out of 100) on TMDb, which compiled reviews from 6 well-known users. Interested in knowing what the movie's about? Here's the plot: "Haunted by the murder of her politician husband 6 years ago former police detective Joanne Kilbourn Wendy Crewson keeps looking for clues with the help of her old partner Victor Garber When a prime suspect is caught it looks as if the killer may finally be brought to justice but in a shocking turn of events the suspect is gunned down as hes brought to the police station Is there more to her husbands death than Joanne realized" .

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Produced by, the wandering soul murders (2000), directed by brad turner.

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Synopsis by Hal Erickson

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