Pixar’s second movie of 2020 (after ONWARD, which not enough people saw thanks to hitting the first weekend of Covid-19 taking hold of America) is SOUL, which features the voices of Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey. In the movie, Foxx plays Joe Gardner, a former musician who has lost his passion for music even though he now teaches it to middle-school students. He loves jazz, and just when he is given a job to will allow him to celebrate that, he falls into a sewer and finds himself in a place where he must define the true meaning of soul, assisted by an infant soul named 22. This comes from Pete Docter, who gave us INSIDE OUT, UP and MONSTERS INC., and co-director Kemp Powers. Other voices include Questlove, Phylicia Rashad, and Daveed Diggs. The musical score is also not something to take lightly, composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross! This looks to be a really personal story, and it should be interesting to see how audiences react to it this December – the original release date was meant to be in June 2020, and then November, but this is yet another film that was pushed back due to Coronavirus concerns, and ended up going directly to Disney+ on Christmas Day. Check out a new storyboard-to-screen “Side by Side” featurette below that shows how the story was visualized and what it ended up as.
Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx) is a middle-school band teacher who gets the chance of a lifetime to play at the best jazz club in town. But one small misstep takes him from the streets of New York City to The Great Before – a fantastical place where new souls get their personalities, quirks and interests before they go to Earth. Determined to return to his life, Joe teams up with a precocious soul, 22 (Tina Fey), who has never understood the appeal of the human experience. As Joe desperately tries to show 22 what’s great about living, he may just discover the answers to some of life’s most important questions.
Born and raised in Dallas, Mark has been a movie critic since 1994, with reviews featured in print, radio and National TV. In 2001 he started the Entertainment section of the Herorealm website, where he contributed film reviews and celebrity interviews until 2004. After three years of service there, he started Bigfanboy.com, which has become one of the Dallas film community's leading information websites. Bigfanboy hosts several movie screenings in the Texas area, and works closely with film and TV studios and promotional partners to host exciting events and contests. The site also features a variety of rare celebrity and filmmaker interviews, and Bigfanboy.com regularly covers the film festival circuit as well. In addition to Hollywood reporting, Mark has worked for many years as an advertising and sci-fi/comic book artist. Clients have included Lucasfilm Ltd., Topps Trading Cards, The Dallas Mavericks and The Dallas Stars. From 2002 until 2015 he managed the Dallas Comic Con, Sci-Fi Expo and Fan Days events in the DFW area. He currently catalogs rare comic books and movie memorabilia for Heritage Auctions, and runs the Dallas Comic Show conventions, but remains an avid moviegoer and cinema buff. 
