display
It is a tradition that Disney brings a classic family film to the cinemas at Christmas time.
Last year, for example, viewers could look forward to the second part of “The Ice Queen”.
In 2020, the Pixar film “Soul” was supposed to receive this honor.
But because of the corona pandemic, it only runs on Disney's streaming portal instead of in the cinema.
The adventure film is about the African American Joe Gardner from New York, who loves jazz music more than anything.
But instead of being a glamorous musician on stage every evening, he works as a teacher at a high school.
Not a bad life, actually, but boring too.
That should change suddenly when he receives a call from his former student Curley, who is now a successful drummer, and asks him to step in as the pianist for the famous singer Dorothea Williams.
He gets the job.
But then that: Joe falls through an open manhole cover and finds himself in another dimension: His soul has been separated from his body, he drives with a conveyor belt towards a bright light.
But Joe doesn't want to die and jumps down - and ends up exactly where everything begins and ends, where souls develop their passions before they come to earth or go into the hereafter: in the "Beyond".
There he meets the rebellious soul 22 with a gloomy view of life.
She has not yet inhabited a body and has stubbornly refused to go to earth for years.
Joe sees her as his only chance to get back there - and so begins an emotional journey for the two of them.
But how is such a Pixar film actually made?
Source: Disney / Soul
display
“Soul” is a special strip for the Pixar studios.
Not only because it was supposed to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival, which was canceled due to the corona pandemic.
But also because it is the first animated film by the Californians that has a black main character.
Director Pete Docter, who also directed the Oscar-winning “Everything is upside down”, screenwriter Kemp Powers and producer Dana Murray, who was on board for the classic “Finding Nemo” in 2003, have us a few days before the film opens gave an insight into her work for “Soul” via the zoom switch - and also chatted from the sewing box.
The makers work on a 100-minute film for several years - from the first idea to the finished version.
In the case of "Soul" this schedule got a bit mixed up, as Dana Murray tells in an interview with WELT:
We've had about four years to work on it, usually around five.
Yeah, I know that sounds damn long.
But for us as makers, it's really a tight schedule.
Dana Murray, Producer "Soul"
display
Also because there is much more to such an animated film than just stringing together moving images.
“The biggest challenge is always the story itself,” says Murray.
The story of “Soul”, for example, is very complex and contains many concepts.
In addition, some animations are not as easy in the end as one imagines, for example with the consultants in "On the side":
We thought that would be super easy to do - they just consist of simple lines!
But it was much more difficult than I thought.
It is precisely with such challenges that you grow as an animator.
Dana Murray, Producer "Soul"
Every character at Pixar is different
This is where you will find third-party content
In order to interact with or display content from third parties, we need your consent.
Activate external content
I consent to content from third parties being displayed to me.
This allows personal data to be transmitted to third party providers.
This may require the storage of cookies on your device.
More information can be found here.
If you look at the list of films that Pete Docter has made for Pixar so far, you can hardly stop being amazed: "Above", "Toy Story", "WALL-E", "Monster AG" - for all these blockbuster hits he wrote the screenplay and developed the iconic characters with it.
It always starts in your head - we work very conceptually there.
Pete Docter, Screenwriter "Soul"
When he and his colleagues came up with the idea of a world in which our personality emerges before we are born, the first thing he asked himself:
How long do these souls hang around for?
What if you don't feel like the earth at all?
- and then he went deeper and deeper.
display
“Characters are funny,” he says succinctly and adds, “Some are based on people you know or have read about, some come from very mysterious places.
Mike, for example, from 'Monster AG' - no idea where he came from.
I just got the idea.
He was there immediately. "
It was different with Joe from "Soul".
The animators had to develop it gradually in order to learn more about him as a character.
“In addition, we may shape the main features of the characters, but they only really come to life with their voice actors.
They are what we think are great in the end, ”Murray continues.
The music is crucial to a Pixar movie
Source: Disney / Pixar
Kemp Powers, who also co-wrote the script for “Soul”, can tell you a thing or two about it.
Music - in this case jazz - is always the perfect metaphor for what you want to express with the film.
Jazz stands for improvisation.
Kemp Powers, screenwriter
That also applies to our lives.
We have the control to make something with what is given to us, so Powers.
That's exactly what Joe discovered in the film.
“For 'soul', for example, I can't imagine that any other genre would have taken up this aspect so well,” says the native New Yorker.
When he first saw the animation of Joe on the piano along with the music, he was totally fascinated.
“You have this abstract idea on the storyboard and imagine what it will look like in the end, that it will be something beautiful.
But when you really see it, there is something almost magical about it, ”says the filmmaker.
The music pulls the audience in its wake, and children in particular think that's great.
When Pixar showed the film to a test audience for the first time, the young viewers were primarily captivated by the musical scenes.
The Pixar Secret: Make the Abstract Visible!
Here you will find content from Instagram
In order to interact with or display content from Instagram and other social networks, we need your consent.
Activate social networks
I consent to content from social networks being displayed to me.
This allows personal data to be transmitted to third party providers.
This may require the storage of cookies on your device.
More information can be found here.
For Pixar animator Docter, it's clear: we all like to think about ourselves.
This is exactly what he tries to capture with his films: “With 'Soul' as well as with 'Everything is upside down' we try to understand a little more who we are.
How we feel inside ourselves, but also how we fit into this strange thing that we call life. ”He also draws from his own wealth of experience:“ I can now say, for example, that my children, as they were very young, already had certain traits.
That’s amazing.
That then inspired me to 'Soul' - that 'Beyond' and all that stuff. "
These are universal topics to which everyone relates.
In addition, it is also a greater challenge to play with such abstract themes in an animated film.
We have so many options!
We can bring almost anything to the screen that we can imagine.
Pete Docter, Animator at Pixar
There are many talented people working at Pixar who have made exactly that their task: To make the abstract visible, says Docter.
Animated films are not automatically for children
Source: Disney / Soul
display
Probably the biggest secret of Pixar's success is that the filmmakers not only create their films for children, but also think of a universal audience.
“Children may not understand the odd word joke or two.
But if you make it visible, you have it, ”says Docter.
For him, the entire animation industry has long made the mistake of thinking that animated cartoons are only for children.
“But there is no reason for that.
In art you don't say, 'Oh, this is only for children' when you look at an oil painting.
This is an artificial barrier that the makers have created themselves.
Incidentally, his favorite scene from his latest work is the one in which the main character Joe refuses to go into the afterlife and then falls through several dimensions until he arrives at "Beyond".
“Not because of the animation, but rather because of his boldness, that he simply defies his fate.
I like the idea of the audience sitting in front of it and thinking: What is they doing there? "
You can now stream the new prank from Pixar Animation Studios "Soul" on Disney +.