This December 25 it premiered on Disney + Soul, the latest Disney and Pixar film. The film tells the story of Joe Gardner (voiced by Jamie Foxx), a school music teacher who gets the chance of a lifetime: playing at the best jazz club in town. But a little misstep takes him from the streets of New York City to The Great Before, a fantastic place where new souls get their personalities, character and interests before going to Earth. Determined to get back into his life, Joe teams up with an advanced soul, 22 (voiced by Tina Fey), who never understood the appeal of the human experience. As Joe desperately tries to show 22 the wonderful things in life, he may discover the answers to some of the most fundamental questions.
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Of course, music is key in the film, Pixar’s first with an African-American protagonist. On the one hand, there is musician Jon Batiste, who composed all of the jazz pieces in the film. Renowned jazz player Herbie Hancock, singer Daveed Diggs, and Questlove (The Roots) also participated as music consultants.
Although Joe’s voice is Jamie Foxx’s, his fingers were animated in imitation of Batiste. “My way of playing is an exact replica. If you watch the movie and then you see me play, it’s very crazy. I was on the verge of tears because you see your essence and you think “wow, Pixar’s first black protagonist and we are putting jazz to the world in a massive way,” Baptiste told NPR. Baptiste comes from a family of established New Orleans jazz players and is the leader of the band of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Pixar is known for its attention to detail and Soul, of course, it is no exception. For this reason, for the making of the film, the filmmakers visited various jazz clubs and spoke with the musicians. The music was captured in several sessions, painstakingly recorded with dozens of cameras everywhere.
In addition to jazz, there is another universe within the film, in which Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross participated, who won an Oscar for Best Soundtrack for their work on The Social Network. “Our first step is to listen and really try to understand the intention of the filmmakers: what they see, or what they imagine,” Reznor told Heroic Hollywood. “We had to think about how these otherworldly places were going to sound, what instruments would there be, what role music was going to have and how these spaces were going to feel.”
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