The first plot details and images for Pixar’s summer 2020 movie Soul have arrived. While Disney’s reputation as an entertainment juggernaut continues to grow at an incredible pace, their animation subsidiary, Pixar, remains one of their most successful and dependable creators of animated films.
Hot off the heels of this summer’s Toy Story 4, the famed studio is never content to rest on its past achievements. Instead, it continues barreling forward with all of the momenta of a runaway train. Having set itself apart from its competitors since launching its first film in 1995, Toy Story, Pixar is aiming for two releases in 2020. The first of those two, Onward, will star Chris Pratt, Octavia Spencer, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tom Holland in a story that follows two elf brothers who embark on a quest to see if magic still exists in the world. The film is slated for a March release, while Soul, Pixar’s other 2020 release, will arrive in theaters in June, just in time for the blockbuster season.
At the current D23 Expo, Pixar has taken the opportunity to reveal more about Soul, while passing some brand new images along via Walt Disney Studios’ Twitter account. The images in question highlight Soul’s main character, Joe Gardner (voiced by Jamie Foxx), the wise soul 22 (Tina Fey), and a piece of concept art. You can check it all out below:
Soul’s D23 panel has given us a better understanding of the film’s plot, and so far it sounds pretty introspective and more along the lines of 2015’s Oscar-winning Inside Out. According to the panel, Soul focuses on babies’ souls and the You seminar they all must attend before being sent off into the world to become the people they were always meant to be. The film’s main focus is Joe Gardner, who lives a rather predictable life on earth as a middle school band teacher. His true passion is playing the piano, and while he earns his living teaching piano to his students, what he truly believes he’s meant to be doing is playing music for a living. When Joe finally gets his first gig, he accidentally falls through an open manhole and ends up confused and alone in a black hole as a soul. As he soon discovers, however, he’s not alone. A soul called 22 (Fey) has been at the You seminar for hundreds of years and together, 22 and Joe go on an adventure back to the real world that teaches Joe what it truly means to have a soul.
The new film is directed by Pete Docter, who also directed Inside Out, meaning that Soul could be even more along the lines of that film than expected. But of course, from the sounds of it, Soul is entirely its own story, though it does appear to combine some elements of the classic seasonal favorite It’s A Wonderful Life with the rather cosmic elements of Inside Out. At any rate, Pixar has never been one to disappoint with their releases. All of this is further reason to believe that come next summer, Soul could very well be the big hit of the season that everyone talks about.
Source: Walt Disney Pictures
