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welcome to Movie DNA, a chronicle that recognizes the direct and indirect cinematographic roots of new and classic films. Learn a bit of cinema history, become a more complete viewer, and enjoy like-minded works from the past. This entry recommends watching movies after seeing the Pixar Soul animated feature.
My little girl always asks where she was before she was born. This is a question she can find an answer to in Pixarof Soul, which depicts a realm called the Great Before where our minds develop before the start of our physical life. Of course, other recent animated features – namely The boss baby and Storks – showed her a fantasy where well-formed babies come from, but Soul offers a more mature existential look at the before and after life for audiences of all ages, as the directors imagine Pete Docter and Kemp powers and their crew.
As original as Soul is, however, the film definitely borrows from cinematic ideas from the past. And like any Pixar movie since the studio’s first feature film, Soul pays homage to its predecessors as well as other classic films that are not necessarily direct influences. Below is a list of some of the titles that definitely informed the creation of Soul or simply reminded me, to one of its viewers, of a similar work from the past. As usual, other films are also mentioned as additional viewing suggestions. And this list also contains a bonus recommendation for a relevant TV series. Add them all to your watchlist.
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
Just like I recommend Soul in my list of movies to watch after Wonder Woman 1984, I return the favor here. Both films were released on Christmas and similarly involve spiritual possession. This year has seen a remarkable trend in body swap and soul transfer storylines, including horror comedy Weird, the science fiction film Possessor, and an episode of Lovecraft Country. But both Soul and Wonder Woman 1984 specifically follow the genre where the spirit of a deceased character is deposited into a body that is not their own, be it a cat or some random stylish 80s dude. I know not everyone likes the Wonder Woman sequel, but at least I don’t recommend the movie where Kevin Spacey’s mind is trapped in a cat’s body.
Inside Out (2015) and Coco (2017)
Soul is Pixar’s ninth feature in six years and only the fourth non-sequel. Apart from The good dinosaur, these original characteristics seem to indicate that the studio is on an existential kick. This era begins with Upside down, which was also headed by Soul co-director (and now studio manager) Pete Docter. As Soul, it is a story of two realms, the human physical world and the metaphysical psychological realm of emotions of a young girl, which is full of abstraction. Two years later, Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina’s coco took us from the real-world streets of Mexico to the Land of the Dead, a very different take on the afterlife than seen in Soul. Combine the two and you get the concept behind the new movie. I did not include this year Forward, which also deals with the resurrection of a deceased person, as it doesn’t match up as well with the other three.
Ray (2002)
If you want a movie about or involving jazz musicians, I could recommend a few to you: Spike Lee’s Mo ‘Better Blues, Basil Dearden’s All night long, which adapts Othello in the world of jazz, Bertrand Tavernier ‘Round Midnight, a few biopics here and there, like Bird, and maybe also documentaries. But that’s just a list of great jazz movies. The 2010 Oscar nominated animated feature Chico and Rita follows at least one struggling jazz pianist, but it’s still hard to relate this movie to Soul. On the other hand, Ray is probably too easy a recommendation. The biopic of pianist and singer / songwriter Ray Charles stars Jamie foxx in an Oscar-winning performance, and so it’s too perfect to pass up considering Foxx also voices the lead character of the jazz pianist in Soul.
Defend Your Life (1991)
Albert Brooks stars in his own movie about a guy, well, defending his life after he dies in a car crash and arrives in some sort of purgatory realm. The idea is that your judgment is taken to a literal court where everyone has to argue that their time on Earth is well enough spent to ascend to heaven. Or they reincarnated to try again all life. In an interview with Docter and Powers and producer Dana Murray for Collider, Drew Taylor discusses Defend your life, to which Docter replies:
“It really is a great example of humor in death, and Albert Brooks is fantastic. I also think they did a good job in this cinema… There were a lot of exhibits and it’s always entertaining, and they go to the Past Life pavilion, where they look at examples from his life to make a point. And so, it gave us hope in our film that we could do a similar thing where a lot of things that could be didactic could also be presented with lightness and a sense of fun.
Check out the rest of the interview for a more in-depth discussion of influences, including those of Frank Capra. It’s a wonderful life and adaptations by Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol, who both love Soul and Defend your life involve views of flashbacks from a person’s life (“These two are those weird pairs, opposing movie pairs,” Docter says; “I forgot how dark it was,” Powers adds of the favorite. Capra vacation). Docter also mentions the 1978 film Heaven can wait, which I will come back to in a moment.
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