Pixar Reveals a Beautiful New Trailer For “Soul”
In case you missed this over the weekend, here’s a dose of something dreamy to start your week. Pixar released a new teaser trailer for Soul on Saturday, narrated by Jamie Foxx, who lends his voice to the lead character Joe. Joe is a jazz musician, a true lover of music, who carries this love into his teaching band at a middle school. This new look at co-writer and director Pete Docter’s latest was revealed at the Essence Festival of Culture over the weekend and focuses on Joe’s community.
We learned during the first trailer the basic outline of Docter’s story. While Joe teaches kids, what he really dreams of is becoming a proper jazz musician. Then one day he gets his big break—he’s asked to play at a swanky jazz club after an audition, and he leaves the place on cloud nine. Unfortunately, soon he’s in the metaphysical clouds after he takes one wrong step and finds himself in the vast, fluffy precincts of the afterlife. It appears his dreams of becoming a jazz musician are put on hold; possibly for eternity.
This new look takes a closer look at Joe’s life before he takes that fateful step. We learn a bit about his relationship with his music-loving father, for example. What’s new about Soul is that the focus here is on Joe, his family, and the Black community he’s a part of, that nurtures and inspires him.
Joining Jamie Foxx are Quest Love, Daveed Diggs, Phylicia Rashad, Angela Bassett, Tina Fey, and Richard Ayoade. Soul was originally slated for a June 19 release, but the pandemic made that impossible. Now, Soul is set to sing into theaters on November 20.
Like all Pixar films, there is considerable talent amassed here. Docter has brought us Monsters, Inc., Up and Inside Out, three of the most searching films in the company’s history. Soul has an original score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and new jazz music by the multitalented Jon Batiste.
Check out the dreamy new spot here:
Here is the official synopsis and details from Pixar:
Directed by two-time Academy Award®-winner Pete Docter, co-directed by Kemp Powers and produced by Academy Award®-nominee Dana Murray, Disney and Pixar’s “Soul” opens in theaters on June 19, 2020. According to Docter, the idea for the story is 23 years in the making. “It started with my son—he’s 23 now—but the instant he was born, he already had a personality,” says Docter. “Where did that come from? I thought your personality developed through your interaction with the world. And yet, it was pretty clear that we’re all born with a very unique, specific sense of who we are.”
“Soul” introduces Joe Gardner, a middle-school band teacher whose true passion is playing jazz. “I think Joe is having that crisis that all artists have,” says Powers. “He’s increasingly feeling like his lifelong dream of being a jazz musician is not going to pan out and he’s asking himself ‘Why am I here? What am I meant to be doing?’ Joe personifies those questions.”
In the film, just when Joe thinks his dream might be in reach, a single unexpected step sends him to a fantastical place where he’s is forced to think again about what it truly means to have soul. That’s where he meets and ultimately teams up with 22, a soul who doesn’t think life on Earth is all it’s cracked up to be. Jamie Foxx lends his voice to Joe, while Tina Fey voices 22. “The comedy comes naturally,” says Murray. “But the subtle emotion that reveals the truth to the characters is really something special.”
Featured image: In Disney and Pixar’s “Soul,” a middle-school band teacher named Joe Gardner gets the chance of a lifetime to play the piano in a jazz quartet headed by the great Dorothea Williams. Featuring Jamie Foxx as the voice of Joe Gardner, and Angela Bassett as the voice of Dorothea, “Soul” opens in U.S. theaters on June 19, 2020.. © 2020 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.
