Soul is a pretty marvelous film from those fine folks at Pixar. I’d say this is their best movie in recent years and inadvertently the best Christmas movie released this (miserable) year. Not actually a Christmas movie but released on Christmas and with all the heart and message that a Christmas movie needs. And without the unearned schmaltz.

Soul is about a part-time music teacher who gets the opportunity to go full-time… but also an offer to join a jazz quartet led by his idol. He then dies stupidly and winds up in an abstracted afterlife that he wants to escape from so he get back to doing what he was meant to do: Jazz(ing). He is joined by an unborn spirit who has no interest in the life that he so desperately wants to get back to. He’s played by Jamie Foxx, the spirit is played by Tina Fey.

I kind of loved this film. It’s very weird, odd, and funny… perhaps a little all over sometimes and that drags my score down a notch… but I almost feel guilty saying that because those nuts at Pixar were just going for it. Imaginative, abstract, abandon. And it honestly worked to tell its story and to resolve its themes. And I bet your eyes get a little moist during some of the film’s more emotionally complex scenes. This movie doesn’t go for the easy emotional heartstring pulling… I appreciate that so very much.

And, hey, the movie is absolutely beautiful. It’s depiction of the afterlife isn’t super original but it is very pretty and the creative abstraction is sometimes marvelous. Especially the depiction of the celestial beings… made up primarily of simple lines, almost like vibrating chords of a piano, you might say.

But the film’s depiction of New York is breathtaking. The amount of detail and grit and grime and color and people is just brilliant. I say it every time, even for the lesser Pixar films, so it shouldn’t be a surprise to say this is a studio working at the top of the craft. Defining the craft, you might say.

The film’s musical score and, indeed, its love for music in general and jazz in particular is also a star. I adore how this film depicts a person’s love for anything they do with dedication and love. But its love for jazz and the piano is so strong, it made me wish I’d learned to play… and wondered how much space a small piano would take.

I really kind of loved this film. I think maybe one less body swap or change of circumstances would have streamlined and notched it just a hair up a grade for me… but, like I said, then the movie wouldn’t be the wild wonder it is. So I forgive it that and will say that everyone should check it out.

Score: 90