Soul's creative team - Pete Docter, Kemp Powers, and Dana Murray - chat about how they incorporated jazz and NYC into Pixar's upcoming film.
Pixar's Soul is set to begin streaming exclusively on Disney+ December 25, and it marks a very important first for the animation company. Joe Gardner (played by Joe Gardner) will be their first Black protagonist, making it all the more necessary for the creators to ensure that his story was authentic and unique to who he is.
In Soul, Joe is an aspiring jazz musician who has dedicated his life to teaching music until the day a former student lands him an audition to play professionally. Unfortunately, a twist of fate lands him in the ethereal realm of the Great Before instead, where he must use his educational skills to mentor wayward soul 22 (Tina Fey) in the process of finding her spark to she can head to Earth.
Pete Docter and Kemp Powers, who wrote and directed the film, joined producer Dana Murray to speak to Screen Rant about its significance. They shared how they sought to create an authentic yet animated New York City for their protagonist, as well as how they took the jazz music at its heart from script to screen.
Kemp, I know you've spoken about the specificity of telling diverse stories, and also of connecting with Joe on a personal level. How did your team work to make sure that he was as unique as he is?
Kemp Powers: Well, I started off by just putting so many of my personal experiences into writing the character, but then I think everyone really did. I mean, the specificity is not just to Joe's characterization, but to Joe's entire world and all the characters around him. You could say that his mother, Libba, is a lot of our mothers; the characters in the barber shop are all characters that I'm accustomed to encountering when I get my haircut, and a lot of people are accustomed those characters as well.
It's just making sure that Joe exists in a world that's recognizable to someone from that world, which I am. New York is a great city, but it's also a city that's more of a salad bowl than a melting pot. Whatever you are, there are times when you pass through spaces where it's lots of people like you, and then there's other times where there's people of all different ethnicities. We just work overtime to show all of those things, so it feels like Joe has a real life.
Joe is a teacher, and it was important to us that Joe not be a bad teacher. It's not hard to have a story about a guy who dreams of being a musician, if he's not good at his day job. It's more challenging when he's actually good at his day job. We're walking a little bit more of a nuanced, murky tightrope that I think reflects real life more so than we're usually allowed to do - particularly in an animated film for family.
Dana, I thought that there were so many themes that I really connected with personally, and that I feel speak to younger generations. What was it that you connected to most?
Dana Murray: Yeah, I feel like there are so many themes in there, it depends on the day and how I'm feeling. I feel like one of the things that I get super emotional about is how 22 is just so critical of herself. I don't want to do any spoilers here, but basically, to not be so critical of yourself: love yourself, you have value.
Pete, can you talk a little bit about bringing the jazz from the script to the screen, and how did and Kemp bring the music to life?
Pete Docter: Yeah, jazz has been connected to animation as far back as there was sound. Some of the very first pieces of animation, like Cab Calloway and, of course, more recently Vince Crawley with the Peanuts and so on. It felt like a natural fit.
When we found Jon Batiste, he not only is amazing performer but has an encyclopedic knowledge of all styles and musicians. He worked very closely with us to try, as he said, to make this user-friendly jazz. So that people who aren't jazz fans will still appreciate and be moved by the music. I think he succeeded brilliantly.
Then, of course, we also mirror that with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who are doing basically the score of the film that we equate more with the ethereal world, the non-human world. And they're so different. The musicians all approach their work so differently, but it fits so well somehow. I think they're really well-matched, and the whole thing comes together in a really unexpectedly beautiful way.
