New Image From Pixar’s SOUL Features Jaimie Foxx's Character; Additional Details on the Story Revealed

Pixar has shared a first look at their upcoming animated film Soul. The character you see above is named Joe Gardner, and he is voiced by Jamie Foxx. 

Gardner is a middle school teacher and jazz musician living in New York City. He’s someone “who’s lived his whole life like he was meant to do this one thing [music] to the exclusion of pretty much every other thing.” When talking about the film in an interview with EW, writer and co-director Kemp Powers explained that the film is an artist’s journey:

“For anyone who has a profession in the creative arts, it’s an almost religious obsessiveness you have to have to have success and a career in the arts. At any point, no matter how happy you are doing what you do, it feels like that obsessiveness is detrimental to the rest of your life.”

That’s where the story starts, but it ends up going in a very different and interesting direction. You see, Joe accidentally dies “after getting his dreamed-about job of a lifetime. His soul then ends up at You Seminar, a celestial space where souls are made and given personalities before sent off to human bodies.”

Producer Dana Murray explains that Soul is “taking you to a world where no one’s ever been — well, for a long time.” Powers adds:

“We went in a completely different direction than any of the other films that Pete’s done. It’s hard to contain our enthusiasm over how much people are going to be surprised by what they see.”

While Joe is as this You Seminar, he meets 22, a soul who loathes humans and avoids earth. According to co-director Pete Docter, 22 – who is played by Tina Fey – is like a teenager with an attitude. Joe and 22 eventually team up and try to get his soul back to his body on Earth, which involves a journey through cosmic realms.

Docter explains that while developing the film they talked to several individuals representing religious and cultural traditions. They asked them what they think the soul is:

“All of them said ‘vaporous’ and ‘ethereal’ and ‘non-physical.’ We were like, ‘Great! How do we do this?’ We’re used to toys, cars, things that are much more substantial and easily referenced. This was a huge challenge, but I gotta say, I think the team really put some cool stuff together that’s really indicative of those words but also relatable.”

Powers goes on to explains that this “soul world” they’ve created explains aspects of why our real life is the way that it is, “everything from why a person has a certain personality to the ongoing futility of the New York Knicks.” As for why the chose music to be a central part of the story, Doctor says:

“The Pixar minds wanted a profession the audience could ‘root for.’ They thought about science and chemistry, but nothing felt so naturally pure as a musician’s life. Yet, on one level, [it’s] somewhat selfish. Any artist will have to admit that by doing all this work — practicing alone for hours on end to achieve some semblance of perfection — it’s a little bit of a selfish endeavor. Once we landed on music, it really set the trajectory for the rest of the film.”

The director continues saying that Soul is “an exploration of, where should your focus be? What are the things that, at the end of the day, are really going to be the important things that you look back on and go, ‘I spent a worthy amount of my limited time on Earth worrying or focused on that’?”

This is basically the first real Pixar movie that was made for adults. It’s set to be released in theaters on June 19, 2020 and also stars Blindspotting‘s Daveed Diggs, The Cosby Show‘s Phylicia Rashad, and The Roots drummer Questlove.

Are you looking forward to this new Pixar movie?