Pixar's Soul was almost a very different film. In the early stages of development, co-director Pete Docter considered centering the film around an actor or a scientist. However, once he and his team came across the idea of a jazz musician, they knew they had to run with it -- and brought in co-writer/director Kemp Powers to help flesh out the studio's first Black lead.
"At the very beginning, it was a personal story of trying to, for myself, figure this out," Docter recalled. "What are we going through? What's the world about? What am I supposed to be doing with my life? So wanting to take people on this artist journey of finding a character that we could root for, that we find compelling and interesting."
"We played around for a little while with an actor or a scientist. But as soon as we found a jazz musician, that felt very selfless," he explained. "You don't go into jazz to get rich and famous, you know? You do it because you love it and you have a passion for it. It's fascinating to watch. When you see somebody play, they're just amazing. It's like a magic trick."
"So, as soon as we hit on that, one of our consultants called the jazz 'Black improvisational music,' and we realized, 'Oh, we have to make this character Black!' He has to be from that culture that brought us this great American art form," he continued. "So, of course, we needed a lot of help with that. So, [producer] Dana [Murray] put together multiple groups of consultants -- as well as, of course, we contacted Kemp Powers. We were lucky to have him along for the ride."
Soul follows Jamie Foxx's Joe Gardner, a down-on-his-luck jazz musician with aspirations of playing with the greats. However, on the day he gets the gig of a lifetime, he suffers an accident and finds himself in the afterlife. With his dream on the line, he fights tooth and nail to get back, with a little help from a soul who wants nothing to do with life on Earth.
Directed by Pete Docter and Kemp Powers, Soul stars Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Questlove, Phylicia Rashad, Daveed Diggs and Angela Bassett. The film will debut on Disney+ on Friday, Dec. 25.