What becomes of a lifelong ambition when the person holding it is suddenly no longer in his own body? Soul, the 2020 animated feature directed by Pete Docter, builds a funny, music-filled fantasy adventure around that question.
What is Soul about?
Joe Gardner earns his living as a middle school teacher, but jazz is what he actually lives for. A gig at the Half Note Club goes well, and it looks as though the break he has waited for has finally come. Then an accident pulls his soul away from his body. Joe finds himself in the You Seminar, a place where souls take shape and pick up their passions before they are sent to newborn children on Earth. Getting home is not something he can manage alone, so he turns to the souls-in-training around him. The most important of them is 22, a soul who has lingered in the You Seminar for eons. Their uneasy partnership drives the story from there.
About the cast
The voice cast is led by Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey, joined by Ahmir-Khalib Thompson, Phylicia Rashād, Daveed Diggs, Richard Ayoade, Graham Norton and Rachel House. It is a line-up that mixes screen actors, comedians and broadcasters with a working musician, which suits a story where conversation and music carry equal weight. Pete Docter directs.
Context & significance
Soul is listed under six genres at once: adventure, animation, comedy, family, fantasy and music. That spread is a fair description of how it plays. The Earth-bound side of the story belongs to jazz clubs and classrooms, while the You Seminar opens the door to a more abstract, fantastical setting, and the film moves between the two with a comic touch. Running about 100 minutes, it is short enough for younger viewers yet built around a question that adults tend to feel more sharply: what a person is actually meant to do with a life. That double appeal helps explain its warm reception, and it remains a strongly reviewed American animation from its year. For families who speak Persian at home, the title carries both a Persian dub and Persian subtitles, so children and parents can follow it together in whichever form they prefer.
Watching Soul on Ktime
Soul is available to stream on K-Time once you log in to an account, while this page stays open for anyone to read. K-Time serves Persian-speaking viewers abroad with a Farsi interface, and this film can be played with its Persian dub or with Persian subtitles.