Soul Review: 7 Ups And 3 Downs

1. Down: Who's In Charge Of The Great Before/Beyond, Anyway?

Soul Pixar
Disney+

This will likely only bother you depending how much ambiguity you do or don't like in movies, but Soul is sometimes frustratingly vague when it comes to what the deal is with The Great Before and The Great Beyond. How they work is made clear, but the counsellors in charge... well, what are they?

Are they supposed to be angels or otherworldly beings who create humans for their own amusements? When you start thinking too much about that, it makes what plays out throughout the story a little harder to digest and accept. Yes, this is just an animated Pixar movie, but if they could ensure the concept of Inside Out made sense, it's a shame that's glossed over here for the most part.

It feels like explaining it would have been too much of an inconvenience, and distracted from the main story. In that respect, the decision is easy to understand, but something bearing a resemblance to some answers might have helped make Joe's story that little bit more impactful.

This isn't the end of the world - again, Soul is amazing - and no one is asking Pixar to explain the meaning of life. It would have been nice to learn more about WHY they took this approach, though.

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Josh Wilding hasn't written a bio just yet, but if they had... it would appear here.