Everything that’s happened in the last year hasn’t allowed for many movies to be released, and movies that were planned to be released were postponed.  But luckily, a few were able to make it to the big screen (if you count your TV), including Disney Pixar’s Soul, starring Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Angela Bassett, Daveed Diggs, and many others.

Animation – The animation for this movie was outstanding. The amount of effort Pixar puts into their animated films is incredible and downright impressive.  Some parts of the movie were designed to look similar to the real world, and the other parts (where the characters were in a different reality) were portrayed as an abstract animation.  In the realistic parts, the character designs are realistic, but not too realistic to the point where it’d be creepy. 

The character movements are very lifelike for an animated movie. In scenes where characters played instruments, the animators spent a lot of time making sure that each note was correctly played exactly the same way a real musician would play it.  For the abstract parts of the movie, it felt like watching a moving piece of art with Jamie Foxx’s voice.  Overall, the animation was outstanding.  10/10

Voice Acting – The voice acting in the movie was very well done, which is not surprising considering the cast list.  Both Foxx and Tina Fey did a great job of expressing their characters’ emotions and personalities with their voice over work, as did the rest of the cast.  8/10

Entertainment Value – As far as entertainment value goes, the writers and directors did well with keeping the viewer constantly entertained and engaged.  I never felt bored throughout the movie, as the many surprises, twists, and turns kept me fully involved in the film.  The writers also did an excellent job of adding all kinds of humor to the movie, including the sarcasm in Tina Fey’s character 22 (who says a hilarious joke about a certain basketball team).  The pacing of the movie was pretty good, except near the beginning, where the quick series of events made it feel too rushed.  But throughout the rest of the movie, the pacing was steady and solid.  8/10

Music – The music in Soul was definitely the best part of the movie.  Firstly, the soundtrack was great.  The background music was always played at the right time, which ensured that the music would go along with the emotion of the scenes (like in action scenes, the music was upbeat and fast to add drama and intensity).  Additionally, the Joe’s music was incredible. It gave me soul (haha, get it?) Even for a musically gifted character, it was phenomenal.  As a fan of both piano and jazz music, I have to say that the song “Born to Play” which he played in the opening scene was just beautiful.  10/10

Plot – The plot of the film was very well written with no holes.  The story line and dialogue between characters flowed very well throughout the movie.  It was great to see the many obstacles that Jamie Foxx’s character Joe Gardner had to face and overcome, and how those obstacles helped his learning, growth and development. The events of the film changed his outlook on life in a very positive way, and in the end, his personality changed, allowing him to see the world from a different perspective.  8/10

Main Message – The main message I took from the movie is that we should enjoy our lives to the fullest.  Stop and smell the roses every once in a while.  Enjoy the little things that life has to offer.  Though we may sometimes feel like we don’t have a purpose in life, or that our days feel like a rerun of yesterday, we should try our best to make ourselves happy, and make the world a better place.  9/10

From the music to the animation, to the message, Soul was an amazing movie. I give it an overall 8.5/10, and I recommend that you watch it as soon as you can.  Currently, you can only watch Soul on Disney+, but later it will be available on DVD and Blu Ray.