Pixar changed one key Soul detail because kids were confused. Over the past several years, Pixar has become renowned for crafting incredibly detailed and rich worlds that serve as creative backdrops for their stories. Soul is no exception, as it splits time between New York City and the fictional soul world, where new souls undergo training before they live a life on Earth. Audiences have gotten a nice taste of what to expect from the soul world, which promises to be as visually-stunning and engaging as Pixar's best works.
Pulling off this kind of world-building can be tricky, especially since viewers need to be able to follow and understand new rules and terminology as they watch the film. Making this task even more complex for Pixar is the fact they make family films, and young children are a core part of their target audience. That means things are subject to change as films are developed, and kids even lend a hand sometimes.
Back in September, Screen Rant had the opportunity to attend a virtual Soul press day, where we sat in on a press conference with director Pete Docter, co-director and co-writer Kemp Powers, and producer Dana Murray. They discussed feedback they received during an early kids screening of Soul, which led to a major change. In the film, souls can't go to Earth until they receive their Spark, but at one point it was called something else:
Docter: We used to call it the Why.
Powers: Oh yeah.
Docter: Every soul is given a Why.
Powers: Yeah. [LAUGH] Why.
Docter: And I think that verbiage, that word, was confusing to people. So…
Powers: Yeah.
Docter: It was one of like six different words we tried.
It's easy to see why the filmmakers gravitated towards Why at first. In Soul, the Spark is essentially a person's passion, or what they feel is their calling in life. It's basically answering the question, "why do you want to go to Earth?" For instance, main character Joe Gardner's Spark is music, which is why he has aspirations of being a jazz performer. At the same time, that term isn't as direct as Spark, which is a word synonymous with stimulating interest and inspiration. Considering how important this concept was to Soul, it isn't surprising Docter and crew were receptive to feedback and took their time to find the right word. It would be interesting to know what some of the other rejected terms were, but Spark seems like it will be more than easy enough for everyone to grasp and fits Soul's story.
This is an interesting look behind the curtain of Pixar, illustrating they're always working hard to make their films better. It's smart that they ask audiences of all ages for feedback and listen to those reactions. Creatives obviously get very attached to their work, and they're with it for so long that everything makes sense to them. It never hurts to have fresh eyes look at it to provide their own perspective. After all, Soul is positioned as one of Disney's biggest 2020 releases (even after the move from theaters to Disney+) and the studio is hoping it's a big hit with audiences over the holidays. Soul has a great chance of achieving that goal with potentially confusing plot points amended to things are more clear.
