Pixar's Soul review: "Will leave you blubbing over the tinsel come Christmas"

GamesRadar Editor's Choice
A still from Pixar's Soul
(Image: © Pixar/Disney)

GamesRadar+ Verdict

Moving ever-onward from the sequels years, Pixar gets right back in the zone with Soul. Deep, witty, and fast on its jazz-loving feet, it doesn’t miss a beat.

Why you can trust GamesRadar+ Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.

Out of tune and off-key, middle-school students struggle to perform Mercer Ellington’s jazz standard "Things Ain’t What They Used To Be" as Pixar’s 23rd film opens. Things sure ain’t for film releases, as Soul will now arrive down Disney+’s chimney, bypassing cinemas.

You can rely on this, though: co-directed by Pete Docter (Up, Inside Out) and playwright/screenwriter Kemp Powers, Soul affirms Pixar’s ability to tackle life’s biggies with exquisite layers of depth, wit, and world-building detail, even as it upholds the studio’s reinvigorated mission to evolve at every turn.

The first shift here is Pixar’s emphasis on a Black lead wrestling with adult compromises. Joe (voiced warmly by Jamie Foxx) is a New York teacher who dreams of being a jazz muso, only for an accident to dump him on the cosmic travelator to The Great Beyond.

Desperate to live again, Joe reaches The Great Before, where unformed souls discover their pre-birth personalities – except for ‘meh’-faced soul number 22 (a nicely sardonic Tina Fey), who can’t find a purpose she likes. The man who wants to live and the soul who doesn’t soon unite, sparking off a comic-existential quest that’s not for the spoiling.

Though echoes of Wreck-It Ralph and Inside Out emerge, Soul works jazzy twists into its familiar odd-couple set-up. An epiphanic fish-out-of-water romp develops, complete with body-swap larks, profound barbershop visits, busker encounters and other revelatory episodes besides, all subtly woven into deceptively philosophical themes about life and how to live it.

Meanwhile, Pixar’s synaesthetic lustre and brisk invention add enrapturing backbeats. Bustling with vigour, Jon Batiste’s jazz score blends beautifully with the photorealist New York City scenes. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ limpid synth pulses reflect the abstract celestial realms, with their Ghibli-esque souls and kindly, almost avant-garde-ian ‘Counsellors’.

Quick-fire comic counterpoints lighten the existential and metaphysical loads, including wicked sight gags involving Cubist soul-counter Terry (Rachel House) and a midsection that finds new things to do with comedy cats.

As for emotions, steel 'em. If the free-jazz plotting can seem more invested in the micro-details than the macro-story, there are reasons why. Soul begins by asking questions about finding your life purpose, recalling Mike Wazowski’s desire to scare or Remy’s culinary nose. But another perspective emerges, one likely to leave you blubbing over the tinsel come Christmas. For the Bing Bong-grade finale, Soul hits delicate emotional keys with a seeming ease that only true virtuosos can muster. Peak Pixar, it’ll feed your soul.

Freelance writer

Kevin Harley is a freelance journalist with bylines at Total Film, Radio Times, The List, and others, specializing in film and music coverage. He can most commonly be found writing movie reviews and previews at GamesRadar+. 

Latest in Movies
Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor in Superman
Superman star to lead upcoming thriller movie from Deadpool 2 and Bullet Train director
Wanda in Doctor Strange
Scarlet Witch star Elizabeth Olsen is one of the first Marvel actors to say she's not in the next pair of Avengers movies
Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania
Paul Rudd is still thinking about that one Thanos and Ant-Man fan theory: "I often wonder, though, could he really have stopped Thanos in that way?"
Street Fighter
Almost a year after losing Talk to Me directors, Sony's Street Fighter movie has been pulled from the studio's release schedule
Jack Reynor in Midsommar
Midsommar star cast in new Mummy movie, but still no word from the original stars
She-Hulk on Disney Plus
Tatiana Maslany canceled a Comic Con appearance due to "filming commitments", and it could mean She-Hulk is in the next Avengers movie
Latest in Reviews
Zombicide box featuring stylized art of survivors fighting zombies
Zombicide 2nd Edition review: "Like a zombie flick brought to tabletop"
Razer Handheld Dock with Steam Deck sitting on cradle, pink and yellow RGB lighting on, and Alienware monitor in background with Tomb Raider Trilogy gameplay on screen.
Razer Handheld Dock review: “Your Steam Deck will ride shiny and Chroma"
Photographs of the Agricola board game in play
Agricola review: "Accurate representation of the highly competitive and often unstable world of agriculture"
Photos taken by writer Rosalie Newcombe of the Shure MV7i microphone, within a pink and white themed room.
Shure MV7i review - convenience and excellence rolled into one superb sounding package
Key art for Atomfall showing a character in the English countryside looking at a nuclear plant some distance away
Atomfall review: "This isn't British Fallout – it's something much better than that"
Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro 75% gaming keyboard with purple RGB lighting on a desk setup
Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro 75% review: "a niche luxury"