Pete Docter has had a hand in the game in a long line of beloved children's films such as Monsters inc.
and Up.
He started working for the animation studio Pixar in 1990 when he was 21 years old.
If he looks vaguely familiar, it may be because he was working with a mirror on his desk when he was involved in creating the Toy story character Buzz Lightyear.
In 2015, he directed the film Inside Out about what moves in a girl's head.
In her head office, five different characters work who personify her feelings (joy, melancholy, disgust, anger and fear).
They create and categorize memories and are forced out on adventures in the psyche.
"Now then?"
The film was a success.
Both critics and audiences took it to heart, but Pete Docter felt an emptiness afterwards.
- After working with animated film all my life, I had to make the Inside out.
It was a success, but then I felt: Now what?
I guess I'm redoing it?
It got to a point where I did not know what the best way to live was.
It was the igniting spark, he says.
Starts with death
The film that came out of the feeling of meaninglessness became The Soul.
The plot may seem a bit odd for a children's film: A middle-aged single music teacher has dreamed all his life of becoming a successful jazz musician.
Just when it finally seems to come loose and he is allowed to play with his big idol, he falls into an open street well and dies.
He then ends up in a metaphysical place where still unborn souls are endowed with personalities and peculiarities.
Hear Pete Docter tell more and see pieces from the film in the clip. The Soul premieres at Disney + December 25.