Pixar’s Soul: Living Now and Letting Go | by Jacob Tambunting
Pixar has always been good at two things: making people think and making people cry. The movie Soul is no exception to accomplishing both standards really well. Some people believed that the animation juggernaut took a massive risk in tackling one of life’s most fundamental questions: what does it mean to be alive? However, the movie chooses not to give us a definitive answer but chooses to comfort us in the process of figuring it out.
Through the eyes of Joe Gardner, a music teacher looking to make it big, and his encounter with 22, a soul who doesn’t want to be born, we experience their journey of finding and fulfilling purpose; however, what they end up finding is much more valuable. The things they find and learn are universal lessons we can all benefit from understanding. Here are three of my most key takeaways from the Pixar neo-classic Soul.
The small things matter
In the pursuit of finding 22’s “spark” - the key to their passage to Earth, Gardner and hundreds of mentors before him have failed in introducing 22 to something that creates their spark. For context, Sparks at the start of the film is led to be believed as someone’s life purpose. Before one is born, mentors expose new souls to “The Hall of Everything” - a hall that contains everything on Earth. Later in the film, it is revealed that sparks aren’t necessarily people’s purpose but rather implied to be things that spark people’s zest for life.
The key moment where it is implied that 22 found their spark was when they were looking at the sunshine and watching seeds fall down. Over thousands of years of being exposed to everything by some of the most influential people to have ever lived, the thing that gives 22 their spark wasn’t any big purpose. It wasn’t a purpose that gave 22 their spark but rather the most simple thing that a lot of people would miss.
A key lesson we can take away from this is that sometimes all we need to keep going is to smell the roses once in a while. Sometimes, we may be so caught up in the pursuit of such lofty goals that we forget to look at the small things which make life worth it.
Goals do not define one’s life
For most of the movie, Joe Gardner believes that his life will be complete when he finally achieves his most important life goal of becoming a professional musician. By the end of the second act of the movie, he achieves his goal. He gets to perform on stage with one of his musical idols. Where the movie veers is in what happens after. After he achieves the goal, Joe does not feel the way he thought he would feel. That expectation of complete satisfaction was one that he didn’t reach.
In life, we tend to set goals representing the expectations we have for ourselves. At times, we tend to build these goals as the keys to happiness. We associate the idea of fulfillment with success. Although achieving one’s goals isn’t necessarily a bad thing, the expectation we create of meaningful fulfillment being attached to these goals is not sustainable over a long period of time.
The moments we achieve our goals are simply a small portion of the long journey of life. Goals are not the destination but rather the compass. They guide us to actualize in our professional and personal lives but the ability to find meaning in the journey is the destination itself. The ability to appreciate the journey is something we should internalize as people looking for a sense of fulfillment.
Life changes and life is enough
One of the major motifs of this movie is the art of jazz. The improvisational music style is the type of music Joe is gravitated towards. Late in the movie, the character 22 describes the art of living as “jazzing”. This implies that the movie embraces the improvisational nature of life itself. The idea that we can’t always predict and control what happens in our life is a prevalent message in the movie.
The crucial point in which people need to lean on this reality is when life becomes hard. When the world feels like it’s too much, there could be solace found in realizing that it is alright to just be. That choosing to continue despite the turmoil, although not perfect, is enough. When the character 22 becomes a lost soul, what brought her back was when Joe reached out to her explaining that, although she didn’t know what her spark “was'', she already had her spark. This was because a spark isn’t any one thing but rather the choice to keep giving life a chance.
To me, this is the most important message of the Pixar classic. That life can’t be pinned down to one thing but rather should be pinned down on the choice to continue to live one’s life in all of its craziness and unpredictability. Even if it’s difficult and even if it's not perfect, the effort is enough. The effort is in itself beautiful.