Skip to main content
Home The New Paper
  • Home
  • News
    • Singapore
    • World
    • Business
    • Views
    • Backstage
    • Others
  • Sports
    • Football
    • Singapore Football
    • Team Singapore
    • School Sports
    • Athletics
    • Basketball
    • Cricket
    • Swimming
    • Tennis
    • Golf
    • Racing
    • Others
  • Entertainment
    • Movies
    • Music
    • TV
    • Star Style
    • School of Frock
  • Lifestyle
    • Makan
    • Hed Chef
    • Weets Eats
    • Health
    • Tech
    • Travel
    • Fashion
    • Shopping
    • Biker Boy
    • Celeb Chow
    • Others
  • Racing
  • Your Tip-Offs
  • Read E-Paper
  • Contests
  • Coupon
  • Team

Popular

  • COURT & CRIME
  • Food & Drink
Movies

Movie review: Soul

Movie review: Soul
Jamie Foxx voices middle-aged band teacher Joe Gardner (left) while Tina Fey voices 22, his mentee soul. PHOTO: THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY
Jeanmarie Tan
Entertainment Editor
Dec 22, 2020 06:00 am
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on WhatsApp
  • E-mail this article
  • 0 Engagements

It is almost a given that film critics are expected to rave every time a new Pixar film is released, to treat it like a winner right out of the gate.

The studio's 2020 animated offerings were non-franchise originals, kick-starting the year with the perfectly imperfect Onward and ending with Soul.

If your gauge of a good Pixar movie is how many soaked tissues you end up leaving behind, then Soul is not up there with gold standard tearjerkers such as Inside Out and Up, which were also written and directed by Pete Docter.

Jamie Foxx voices unfulfilled middle-aged band teacher Joe Gardner, whose life finally begins to take on some meaning when he gets his big break of performing jazz music onstage.

However, an untimely accident causes his soul to be separated from his body and begin to proceed to the Great Beyond, during which he races against time to find a way back to Earth.

And from there, Soul throws disparate components and wild turns, yet the result is too placid to pack an emotional gut punch.

Movie review: The White Tiger
Movies

Movie review: The White Tiger

Jan 27, 2021

Related Stories

Movie review: An American Pickle

Movie review: Songbird

Liam Neeson’s The Marksman ends Wonder Woman 1984 reign

And because much of the material veers into the metaphysical and existential, which certainly allows adults to muse over life's profundities, younger viewers may not have much to grasp on to and hold their attention over the 100-minute run time.

It is also one of the least funny and child-friendly Pixar flicks, as the closest to a child avatar that the little ones can relate to is 22 (Tina Fey), Joe's mentee soul with a sarcastic and dim view on the concept of life, or maybe a therapy cat that ends up being part of a body-swop side plot.

Again, hardly classic Pixar characters such as Riley from Inside Out, Russell from Up or even Miguel from Coco.

Opening here on Christmas Day, Soul aims to provide a feel-good balm on what it means to be alive and to cherish every moment.

And there is indeed a sublime beauty, thoughtfulness and tenderness to Joe's journey towards self-fulfilment and all that jazz.

We have a chicken soup in Soul that contains traditional ingredients to make it go down well but perhaps is not inspired enough to get you, like where Joe finds himself at one point, "in the zone".

Rating: PG

SCORE: 3/5

Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now

Movies

Jeanmarie Tan

Entertainment Editor
jeanm@sph.com.sg
Read articles by Jeanmarie Tan
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on WhatsApp
  • E-mail this article
  • Newslink -  Purchase this article for republication

Top Stories this Month

Let’s cancel Chinese New Year
Lifestyle

Let's cancel Chinese New Year

Jan 25, 2021
After one year of Covid in Singapore: Case 38
Singapore

A year on, recovered virus patient still can't taste or smell

Jan 22, 2021
Let’s cancel Chinese New Year
Lifestyle

Let's cancel Chinese New Year

Jan 25, 2021
Home
  • Contests
  • Coupon
  • Team
  • Home
  • News
    • Singapore
    • World
    • Business
    • Views
    • Backstage
    • Others
  • Sports
    • Football
    • Singapore Football
    • Team Singapore
    • School Sports
    • Athletics
    • Basketball
    • Cricket
    • Swimming
    • Tennis
    • Golf
    • Racing
    • Others
  • Entertainment
    • Movies
    • Music
    • TV
    • Star Style
    • School of Frock
  • Lifestyle
    • Makan
    • Hed Chef
    • Weets Eats
    • Health
    • Tech
    • Travel
    • Fashion
    • Shopping
    • Biker Boy
    • Celeb Chow
    • Others
  • Racing
  • Your Tip-Offs
  • Read E-Paper
  • Contact TNP
  • About SPH
  • Privacy Statement
  • Data Protection Policy
  • Member Terms & Conditions
  • Website Terms & Conditions
SPH Digital News Copyright © 2021 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. Co. Regn No. 198402868E