48 Fun Facts About Soul (Pixar)

Who directed Pixar's Soul?

Pete Docter finished Soul while running the whole studio: he was promoted to Pixar's chief creative officer in 2018, partway through its production.

Who voices Joe Gardner in Soul?

Jamie Foxx was the obvious choice, the director said, for his humour and his music-school training; Foxx said he related to Joe because he too 'came out singing and telling jokes'.

Who voices the cynical soul 22 in Soul?

Tina Fey also helped write 22's lines. The director wanted the ancient soul to sound like a snarky teenager who thinks she knows it all already.

What instrument does Joe Gardner play in Soul?

Piano scenes are note-accurate: camera footage and MIDI data from real recording sessions showed the animators exactly which key went down for every note.

How does Joe Gardner end up separated from his body in Soul?

He falls down an open manhole seconds after dodging traffic and other hazards without noticing, still on the phone celebrating the best news of his life.

What is the name of the realm where new souls are prepared for Earth in Soul?

The Great Before is where new souls pick up their personalities and quirks. A counselor tells Joe it now goes by the You Seminar, and explains why in one word: 'Rebranding.'

In Soul, the otherworldly soul counselors all share which name?

Jerry is the name each offers after explaining that they are 'the coming together of all quantized fields of the universe', in a form Joe's 'feeble human brain' can grasp.

Which animal's body does Joe's soul occupy when he returns to Earth?

A therapy cat called Mr. Mittens was lying on Joe's hospital bed. In the rush back to Earth, 22 wakes up in Joe's body and Joe finds himself inside the cat.

What is the name of the soul counter who tracks Joe down in Soul?

Terry counts every soul bound for the Great Beyond, notices the tally is off and tracks Joe to New York. After the credits, Terry pops up again to tell viewers to go home.

Who voices Moonwind, the sign-twirling mystic in Soul?

Graham Norton's Moonwind spins advertising signs on a New York street corner while his soul captains a ship of fellow mystics who rescue lost souls.

Which jazz saxophonist's quartet does Joe audition for in Soul?

Dorothea Williams tests Joe by launching into a tune without a word. He loses himself in a solo, and she hires him with an order: 'Get a suit, Teach. A good suit.'

Which musician voices the drummer Curley in Soul?

Questlove's Curley is the former pupil whose phone call lands Joe his audition. The Roots drummer was also among the musicians the filmmakers consulted.

Who voices Joe's mother Libba in Soul?

Phylicia Rashad's Libba, a seamstress, wants Joe to take the steady teaching job. She comes round in the end and has her shop alter his late father's suit for the big night.

Who composed the ambient score for Soul's metaphysical scenes?

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, of Nine Inch Nails, were hired on the sound designer's advice: their ambient score sets the soul world apart from the acoustic jazz of New York.

Who wrote the original jazz music for Soul's New York scenes?

Jon Batiste also lent the film his hands: cameras filmed his recording sessions so that animators could copy his fingers note for note.

Soul opens with the Disney castle fanfare performed badly by whom?

A middle-school band, Joe's own class, murders 'When You Wish Upon a Star' over the studio logo, then the film cuts to Joe in the classroom trying to keep them on the beat.

Which short film accompanied Soul on its streaming release?

Burrow, about a rabbit who keeps digging into her neighbours' homes by mistake, was made to play before Soul in cinemas and went to streaming with it instead.

At which festival did Soul hold its premiere?

BFI London Film Festival gave Soul its first public screening in October 2020. Cannes had picked it for that year's selection, but by then the cinema release had been called off.

Soul reached US cinemas only in 2024, followed by Luca and which other Pixar film first sent straight to streaming?

Turning Red followed Soul into US cinemas in February 2024, with Luca in March. All three had gone straight to streaming during the pandemic.

Soul won two Oscars: Best Animated Feature and which other award?

Best Original Score was its second win, with a third nomination for Best Sound. Soul was eligible only because the Academy let films meant for cinemas qualify by streaming that year.

Soul was the first Pixar film to feature what?

A Black lead character was not the starting point: Joe became African American once the team made him a jazz musician. Pixar then formed a 'Cultural Trust' of Black employees to check the details.

Who became Pixar's first African-American co-director through his work on Soul?

Kemp Powers was hired as a writer for just 12 weeks; his contract was extended, and he contributed so much that he was promoted to co-director.

Soul's co-director wrote which play that became an Oscar-nominated 2020 film?

One Night in Miami imagines four Black icons sharing a hotel room in 1964. Regina King filmed it, and its writer was up for a screenplay Oscar at the ceremony where Soul won.

Soul's director says the film began with wondering why which family member seemed born with a personality?

His son was grown and getting married when the director thought back to the day he was born: he already seemed to be somebody, and Soul grew from asking where that comes from.

In Soul, 22 claims to have spent decades messing with which New York sports team?

The Knicks suffer on screen: from the astral plane, 22 pelts a player's soul as he goes up to dunk, and back on Earth he misses and the team loses again.

Which cinematographer of Arrival and Selma advised Pixar on lighting Soul's characters?

Bradford Young was brought in because Pixar wanted to capture how light plays on different skin tones, part of its effort to steer clear of animation's old caricatures.

Which of 22's former mentors claims compassion for every soul except 22?

Mother Teresa is one of a long line of great names 22 has worn out as mentors, and 22 is proud of it, crowing: 'I made her cry!'

Soul's brief astral-plane sequence took months to make, like which film moment its effects chief cited?

The shower scene in Psycho lasts under a minute but took seven days to film. Effects supervisor Bill Watral said both teams got there by finding new ways to use tools they already had.

Who originally recorded 'It's All Right', the song covered over Soul's end credits?

The Impressions had shrunk to a trio after two founding members left. The trio's next hit, written by lead singer Curtis Mayfield, became the biggest pop single of their career.

Moonwind admits in Soul that he was once a lost soul himself, hooked on which game?

Tetris, he says, in a single word. It bears out his own warning to Joe: when a joy turns into an obsession, it leaves a person cut off from life.

Which 2021 Pixar short shows 22 leading a rebellion before the events of Soul?

22 vs. Earth was made to explain why 22 resents the planet: it keeps taking her friends away. Its director said that in a film about her, this would be the midpoint and Soul the third act.

The lost soul that Moonwind's crew frees in Soul turns out to belong to a what?

Hedge fund manager, and 'another' one at that, Moonwind sighs. Back in his body, the trader sweeps the screens off his desk and runs out of the office shouting 'I'm alive!'

Which Toy Story 4 director wrote the 2021 Pixar short that spun off from Soul?

Josh Cooley wrote the script and Soul's film editor, Kevin Nolting, directed it, under instructions from the feature's director to make it more kid-friendly than his usual work.

Soul's highest-grossing international market was which country?

China took about $58 million, by far the film's biggest market, because Soul played in cinemas only in countries where Disney+ was not available.

Which film beat Soul's streaming minutes over Christmas 2020?

Wonder Woman 1984 arrived on HBO Max the same Christmas Day. Soul was first named the week's top title, because Nielsen did not yet measure HBO Max; its revised count put the superhero film ahead.

In Soul, why does 22 claim to use the voice of a middle-aged white lady?

It annoys people, she tells Joe, right after cycling through other voices to show she could sound like anyone she pleases, him included.

What does 22 ask Joe's barber Dez for once she settles into his chair?

A lollipop from the jar is her reward for learning that whoever sits in the chair is the boss. It ends up among the keepsakes that later stir Joe's memory.

Which Hamilton star voices Paul, Joe's neighborhood frenemy?

Daveed Diggs's Paul sneers in the barbershop that anyone could play in a band. 22, in Joe's body, says he is only covering the pain of his own failed dreams, and the whole shop laughs.

What object does Joe show 22 to bring her back from being a lost soul?

A maple seed had spun down into 22's hand outside the jazz club, the quiet moment that made her want to live. Joe finds it among the things she kept and puts it back in her palm.

What does each new soul need to complete before it can go to Earth?

A badge of personality traits becomes an Earth Pass once its last gap, the spark, is filled. Joe assumes the spark is a soul's purpose, and a counselor tells him he is wrong.

What is 'the Zone' in Soul?

A trance state entered through passion is where musicians go when they lose themselves in playing. The same plane holds the lost souls, whose joy has curdled into obsession.

Which instrument does Joe's gifted pupil Connie play in Soul?

Trombone is her instrument, and she turns up at Joe's door to quit it. Playing one last solo for 22, she gets lost in the music and decides to stick with it.

Which jazz legends were consulted by Pixar while making Soul?

Herbie Hancock and Terri Lyne Carrington were among the jazz names Pixar turned to for advice because, as its producer put it, the story had to be told authentically and truthfully.

What do Soul's otherworldly counselors use to hush a rowdy crowd of new souls?

A hand sign does it: like a kindergarten teacher, the counselor holds up two fingers and calls 'Quiet coyote!', and the new souls copy the gesture and settle down at once.

Which food gives 22 her first real taste of life on Earth in Joe's body?

Pizza wins her over. As an unborn soul she could neither smell nor taste, so her first New York slice comes as a shock, and she keeps the crust as a souvenir.

Which film had the director of Soul most recently helmed before it?

Inside Out gave him a method he used again here: turning abstract ideas into physical places and characters, this time for the world of souls not yet born.

Which author does 22 cite as an old mentor when telling Connie that school is a waste of time?

George Orwell, she says, compared state education to 'the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket'. She adds that the ruling class's curriculum stifles dissent, to Joe's dismay.

After the big gig, Joe's bandleader tells him a story about a young fish searching for what?

The ocean is what the young fish wants, and an older fish tells him he is already swimming in it. 'This is water,' the young one objects; it is her answer to Joe's letdown.