Soul

As a human, searching for purpose or a reason to get out of bed every day, is a natural tendency. In the fast paced life of a city it can be easy to see one’s purpose reflected in occupation or in a life long goal. Disney’s Soul aims to analyze this aspect of humanity and depicts an alternative to goal oriented purpose. This film follows Joe Gardener as he attempts to become a professional jazz musician in New York City. Throughout his journey Joe aids a soul named 22 in finding a “spark”, which in some way informs the decisions souls will make on earth. In one scene towards the end of the film, Joe has had his “big break”. However, he feels dissatisfied and in the midst of these feelings he lays items from earlier in the movie in front of him. As he examines the items that could be seen as trash: pizza crust, a lollipop, one helicopter seed, and half a bagel, moments from his life come to him.

He is shown at a barbershop, riding a bike, and even being bathed as a child. As he recalls these seemingly trivial moments of his life, thoughtful music plays. The moments appear in stark beauty and are accompanied by Joe’s stirring piano playing. Joe’s eyes fill with tears as he marvels at the beauty of these simple moments . He then remembers a conversation in which he dismisses the idea of sparks being something simple such as walking saying, “That’s just regular old living”, “..not a purpose”. Up until this point, Joe has thought that a spark is someone’s purpose. However, after this memory he realizes that a spark is meant to start the fire that creates passion for life, rather than limit existence to one topic. He sees that living presently in each moment is more important than reaching goals. The gravity of this idea is illustrated by the vibrant, cool colors that surround Joe as he gets lost in the moment. This scene shows that experience, and consequently identity, can be shaped and rediscovered in every trivial task or moment spent simply existing. In this way, identity fluctuates and does not rely on one topic. The epiphany that this intensely emotional scene hinges on is that identity is found every day in “regular old living”.