Pixar's upcoming animated feature Soul reveals a cast that includes Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Questlove and more. In 1995, Pixar had its first hit with Toy Story, which at the time was a revolutionary step forward for computer animated film. Since then, Pixar has continued pushing the envelope of technology and storytelling, becoming a world-renowned brand name after a string of hits including this year's Toy Story 4, which became the fourth-most-successful movie in the studio's history with just over $1 billion grossed at the global box office.
Coming off another smash hit in Toy Story 4, Pixar will next release Onward, a fantasy movie about elves and pixies living in the real world featuring the vocal talents of Chris Pratt and Tom Holland. Also on the 2020 slate for Pixar is Soul, a somewhat mysterious project from Inside Out director Pete Docter that promises to take audiences "on a journey from the streets of New York City to the cosmic realms to discover the answers to life’s most important questions" according to a recently revealed synopsis. After the huge success of Inside Out, which took in $857 million worldwide, folks are very intrigued to see what Docter next has in store, but thus far details about Soul have been mostly kept under wraps.
Now, amid the onslaught of information coming out of Disney's D23 Expo, there is finally some news about Pixar's Soul. As reported by EW, the movie's cast has been revealed and there are some big names lending their voices to the film. Topping that list is Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx as Joe, a middle school band teacher with ambitions of being a jazz artist who dies and finds himself in an otherworldly workshop where souls are given personality traits before getting bodies. Joining Foxx is Tina Fey as a character named 22 who is described as "a new soul with a loathing for earth."
Also joining the cast of Soul is Roots drummer Questlove, who appropriately plays Curly, the drummer in Joe's band. Hamilton's Daveed Diggs has also been cast as Joe's nemesis Paul, together with Phylicia Rashad as Joe's mother. It was also revealed that Oscar-winning The Social Network composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross will work on the film's score together with Late Show With Stephen Colbert bandleader Jon Batiste.
Clearly, jazz music will play a central role in Soul, though the inclusion of Reznor and Ross hints that the musical score may have some very non-jazz elements to it as well. After bringing some heavy metaphysics to the realm of animated film with Inside Out, it sounds like director Docter is ready to once again get deep with Soul, and he definitely has a talented cast helping him out.
Pixar's Soul is set for release on June 19, 2020.
Source: EW
