Soul - 3 nominations

 

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) Trent Reznor  Atticus Ross  Jon Batiste

Best Animated Feature Film Pete Docter  Dana Murray

Best Sound Ren Klyce  Coya Elliott  David Parker

Soul is the story of Joe Gardner, a music teacher and aspiring jazz musician who, on his way back from securing a dream gig, falls into a hole and lands his spirit into the pipeline to the afterlife.  Refusing to follow this path, he ends up mistaken for a mentor to an unborn soul named "22" and his job is to prepare her to be born.  The two pop back to earth where the little soul enters Joe's body while finds his way into a cat.  Together, they look to find her spark, her purpose, and along the way, he begins to recalibrate what it means to have a sense of purpose and what the joy of living is really all about.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film and it is another animated film that doesn't require a child for an adult to enjoy it.   Followers of this blog will remember that the Sound category (formerly categories) often honor sci fi, war, and musical films, so this nomination shouldn't be a surprise.

Along with all of the accolades of the film, there has been some criticism too.  That criticism centers around having a lead black character who maintains his agency throughout the film, rather than depositing (the voice of) a white woman into his skin controlling his movements and decisions, while neutering his voice by literally depositing him into an adorable animal.  While this kind of criticism will anger some readers, my view is this - I don't claim to have a full understanding of the history of portrayals of people of color in film.  But this criticism is enough for me to "spark" my own curiosity about it.  On first glance, I didn't even consider that there was another way to look at this film, after all, the lead character is a smart, talented, black man.  But instead of hearing this criticism and just dismissing it out of hand as "woke culture," my goal is to hear it, take it in, and see what I can do to learn more.  For me, if a movie can inspire us to look at our lens and wonder if it is truly complete, then that movie has done its job.  One could argue that this is this movie's true purpose.

Watch the trailer here.