Soul, the disneyfication
- Thread starter sufi
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sufi
lala
The burning question: How is this different from Kubrickology?
sufi
lala
it's kubrickology for kids
Corpsey
bandz ahoy
I found Soul quite profound, although its message seemed a little confused. Didn't really occur to me re: Disney appropriating black culture and 'soul' itself. Soul is probably the most un-Disney-like Pixar film since Inside Out.
The thing that really resonated with me, almost as if the film had been made for me was the revelation (SPOILER ALERT?) that having a single 'purpose' in life, or feeling like you need that, can blind you to the meaning of life that comes from just living.
This is because I've been bedevilled with this idea that I should have a purpose, that I should be doing something creative, that my life will amount to nothing if I don't ever find this. I was thinking about this all through the festive holiday so watching Soul on the 25th was uncannily resonant and made me feel quite liberated.
The thing that really resonated with me, almost as if the film had been made for me was the revelation (SPOILER ALERT?) that having a single 'purpose' in life, or feeling like you need that, can blind you to the meaning of life that comes from just living.
This is because I've been bedevilled with this idea that I should have a purpose, that I should be doing something creative, that my life will amount to nothing if I don't ever find this. I was thinking about this all through the festive holiday so watching Soul on the 25th was uncannily resonant and made me feel quite liberated.
Corpsey
bandz ahoy
Another miracle it worked was that it actually gave me what felt like an understanding of what jazz is, something that I could have garnered from reading any number of articles, watching performances on youtube etc. but which you'd not expect to be given by a notionally mainstream cartoon comedy.
Something along those lines comes up in the DeLillo novella I'm reading atm,
“The true life is not reducible to words spoken or written, not by anyone, ever. The true life takes place when we're alone, thinking, feeling, lost in memory, dreamily self-aware, the submicroscopic moments. He said this more than once, Elster did, in more than one way. His life happened, he said, when he sat staring at a blank wall, thinking about dinner.
An eight-hundred page biography is nothing more than dead conjecture, he said. I almost believed him when he said such things. He said we do this all the time, all of us, we become ourselves beneath the running thoughts and dim images, wondering idly when we'll die. This is how we live and think whether we know it or not. These are the unsorted thoughts we have looking out the train window, small dull smears of meditative panic.”
Corpsey
bandz ahoy
I've rewatched it already. I didn't like it so much the second time as I'd already had the epiphany but the most powerful parts worked as well the second time around.
It's got a lot of flaws as a movie (over-complicated/systematized, stuff on earth is better than the stuff in the 'great before', bodyswap comedy element is a bit hackneyed although intrinsic to the epiphany). It's not Pixar's best by any means. But it's definitely thought provoking.
It's not really a film for kids at all. I imagine that's why there's a certain degree of wackiness to it, to keep kids interested.
It's got a lot of flaws as a movie (over-complicated/systematized, stuff on earth is better than the stuff in the 'great before', bodyswap comedy element is a bit hackneyed although intrinsic to the epiphany). It's not Pixar's best by any means. But it's definitely thought provoking.
It's not really a film for kids at all. I imagine that's why there's a certain degree of wackiness to it, to keep kids interested.
Corpsey
bandz ahoy
There's controversy around race and this movie. Two reasons I've read about:
1. The main protagonist is black but early in the movie he comes back to earth into the body of a cat, while the black body is inhabited by the voice and character of Tina Fey. So that's seen as problematic straight away.
2. The message of the movie can be read as 'don't try and achieve great things, just be happy to be alive' - which, in the context of a black protagonist, could obviously be seen as problematic.
OTOH, there's a lot of black characters in the movie, i think there's only one white human character in the whole thing (could be wrong). I believe it's co-authored by a black writer (Kemp Powers). It celebrates Jazz music and black culture. And the climactic message can be read not as 'don't try and achieve great things' but 'achieve great things, but recognise that life itself doesn't depend on greatness to be worthwhile'.
1. The main protagonist is black but early in the movie he comes back to earth into the body of a cat, while the black body is inhabited by the voice and character of Tina Fey. So that's seen as problematic straight away.
2. The message of the movie can be read as 'don't try and achieve great things, just be happy to be alive' - which, in the context of a black protagonist, could obviously be seen as problematic.
OTOH, there's a lot of black characters in the movie, i think there's only one white human character in the whole thing (could be wrong). I believe it's co-authored by a black writer (Kemp Powers). It celebrates Jazz music and black culture. And the climactic message can be read not as 'don't try and achieve great things' but 'achieve great things, but recognise that life itself doesn't depend on greatness to be worthwhile'.
sufi
lala
I might well, i have actually access to a disney+ account shared by a kind friend
sufi
lala
... and kids
woops
is not like other people
i think trent reznor's soundtrack is actually very good and refreshingly free from f***ing you like an animal, etc
luka
Well-known member
What did you make of the film?