Soul, Pixar’s Disney/Pixar’s first animated feature with a Black lead, took home the Oscar for Best Animated Film Sunday night.
We want to highlight a detailed film review made by Aramide Tinubu, senior writer for industry trade Shadow and Act, who wrote in December, “Like previous films from the famed animated studio, Soul is nuanced and layered, but it’s not perfect. Yet, despite the serious themes, the richness of the narrative and the stunning jazz score make it more than worthwhile. More than anything, it’s a film that reminds us to chase our dreams, as Joe does, but to live life to its fullest potential in the midst of doing so. Soul is a reminder that life is about more than just existing.”
In an interview with Shadow and Act, cast member Angela Bassett said “I remember going to jazz clubs and seeing women who headed their own band … I remembered Betty Carter and how she headed that. It was a small quartet but the excellence that she demanded. She would stop during the middle of a set she would encourage the drummer or the pianist to rise, and rise and rise. It was a lesson in perfection and perseverance right there in front of you, and it was exciting. It was thrilling to see. So thinking back on the likes of her and Dorothy Donegan and Shirley Scott, those artists and the women taking the lead. You knew when they came up and through it wasn’t an easy place for a Black female jazz musician to inhabit.”
The Oscar-winning film also starred Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey alongside Questlove, Phylicia Rashad, and Daveed Diggs.
