Soul, the disneyfication

[william kent]

There's the Ayn Rand angle re: Brad Bird's Pixar films too. Some believe The Incredibles and Ratatouille are vehicles for Objectivism.

 

[william kent]

Mickey Mouse is a villain in South Park. He lives in the Disney castle and commands the imperial forces from Star Wars.

 

[sufi]

No, but we look forward to hearing you do so. I've never seen a Pixar film.

The burning question: How is this different from Kubrickology?

 

[sufi]

The burning question: How is this different from Kubrickology?

it's kubrickology for kids

 

[Corpsey]

I found Soul quite profound, although its message seemed a little confused. Didn't really occur to me re: Disney appropriating black culture and 'soul' itself. Soul is probably the most un-Disney-like Pixar film since Inside Out.

The thing that really resonated with me, almost as if the film had been made for me was the revelation (SPOILER ALERT?) that having a single 'purpose' in life, or feeling like you need that, can blind you to the meaning of life that comes from just living.

This is because I've been bedevilled with this idea that I should have a purpose, that I should be doing something creative, that my life will amount to nothing if I don't ever find this. I was thinking about this all through the festive holiday so watching Soul on the 25th was uncannily resonant and made me feel quite liberated.

 

[Corpsey]

Another miracle it worked was that it actually gave me what felt like an understanding of what jazz is, something that I could have garnered from reading any number of articles, watching performances on youtube etc. but which you'd not expect to be given by a notionally mainstream cartoon comedy.

 

[william kent]

The thing that really resonated with me, almost as if the film had been made for me was the revelation (SPOILER ALERT?) that having a single 'purpose' in life, or feeling like you need that, can blind you to the meaning of life that comes from just living.

Something along those lines comes up in the DeLillo novella I'm reading atm,

“The true life is not reducible to words spoken or written, not by anyone, ever. The true life takes place when we're alone, thinking, feeling, lost in memory, dreamily self-aware, the submicroscopic moments. He said this more than once, Elster did, in more than one way. His life happened, he said, when he sat staring at a blank wall, thinking about dinner.

An eight-hundred page biography is nothing more than dead conjecture, he said. I almost believed him when he said such things. He said we do this all the time, all of us, we become ourselves beneath the running thoughts and dim images, wondering idly when we'll die. This is how we live and think whether we know it or not. These are the unsorted thoughts we have looking out the train window, small dull smears of meditative panic.”

 

[william kent]

Would you watch it again?

 

[Corpsey]

I've rewatched it already. I didn't like it so much the second time as I'd already had the epiphany but the most powerful parts worked as well the second time around.

It's got a lot of flaws as a movie (over-complicated/systematized, stuff on earth is better than the stuff in the 'great before', bodyswap comedy element is a bit hackneyed although intrinsic to the epiphany). It's not Pixar's best by any means. But it's definitely thought provoking.

It's not really a film for kids at all. I imagine that's why there's a certain degree of wackiness to it, to keep kids interested.

 

[sufi]

wow, the race element occurred to me but i forgot about t once i started ranting here,
have they colonised soul then?

 

[luka]

Will you watch it Sufi do you think?

 

[Corpsey]

There's controversy around race and this movie. Two reasons I've read about:

1. The main protagonist is black but early in the movie he comes back to earth into the body of a cat, while the black body is inhabited by the voice and character of Tina Fey. So that's seen as problematic straight away.
2. The message of the movie can be read as 'don't try and achieve great things, just be happy to be alive' - which, in the context of a black protagonist, could obviously be seen as problematic.

OTOH, there's a lot of black characters in the movie, i think there's only one white human character in the whole thing (could be wrong). I believe it's co-authored by a black writer (Kemp Powers). It celebrates Jazz music and black culture. And the climactic message can be read not as 'don't try and achieve great things' but 'achieve great things, but recognise that life itself doesn't depend on greatness to be worthwhile'.

 

[luka]

'Controversy' always comes in inverted commas nowadays. No one really cares it's just a performance for social media.

 

[sufi]

My take is very superficial but as soon as i saw the title i thought that's stolen and commodified some element of blackness

 

[sufi]

Will you watch it Sufi do you think?

I might well, i have actually access to a disney+ account shared by a kind friend

 

[sufi]

I might well, i have actually access to a disney+ account shared by a kind friend

... and kids

 

[woops]

Hilarious that Nine Inch Nails have done the soundtrack.

i think trent reznor's soundtrack is actually very good and refreshingly free from f***ing you like an animal, etc

 

[luka]

i think trent reznor's soundtrack is actually very good and refreshingly free from f***ing you like an animal, etc

What did you make of the film?

 

[woops]

haven't seen it

 

[woops]

i should have said trent reznor's soundtrack WORK - he did the social network, the girl with the dragon tattoo, etc