2020 has been a difficult year for many people.
Just like the post-90s generation, we look forward to this futuristic year when we are children. In the past year, even the people and things that appear in the news cannot help but give people the illusion of unreality.
Poster for the movie "Die 2020"
And Pixar's new film "Soul" that landed on the big screen at the end of 2020, just looking at the plot summary, you can't help but have a feeling of "being in time".
But it is also "born" in a special period, most of the world's audience, in fact, do not have the opportunity to see this movie in the theater. "Psychic Journey" was originally scheduled to be released in North American theaters on November 20, 2020, but due to practical reasons, Disney directly canceled the North American theater screening and changed it to December 25, 2020 on Disney+.
Domestic audiences were lucky and difficult to see the film in theaters on Christmas Day.
The film currently has a Douban score of 9.1, and has been recommended by various film critics and big vs as the seed contestants of the 2021 Oscars. The main operator behind the film, Peter Doggett, is also Pixar's chief creative officer.
Six-time Oscar-nominated, he won two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature for "The Flying House" and "The Mind Agent". The representative work "Monster Power Company" is still the animated film White Moonlight in Bajie's heart.
Just by looking at the title and the synopsis, you may think that it has a strong smell of chicken soup. About the soul, about the ultimate goal of life? Is it really not the didactic material in primary and secondary school textbooks?
The cleverness of Pixar is that it can visualize the seemingly empty concepts in our imagery, and through animation as a medium, give imaginary fairy tales, innocent presentations, and at the same time full of deep meaning.
Just as "Dream Quest" creates a colorful and warm world of the undead, "Journey of the Soul" creates a world of souls in a lighter and more lively way.
The "bridge" to the world of the undead in "Dream Quest"
The protagonist, Joe, is a middle school music teacher who has been addicted to jazz since childhood, and his real dream is to perform on stage.
When he finally passed the interview one day, got the opportunity to perform with his idol Docia, and was about to inform the world of the good news, he accidentally fell into a well in the city.
When Joe wakes up, he finds himself out of his soul and is joining countless other souls from various countries, ages and genders, to a place known as the "other shore of life," or what people often call paradise.
Too late to think about whether he was dead or not, Joe was furious and eager to rush back to the performance.
Not wanting to go to heaven easily as a soul, he passed through an exit to another world, the opposite of the other side of life, which is called "the place where life comes from", which is regarded as the processing place of the soul before human birth.
There are countless little souls waiting to be born "at birth" who will receive the "spark" given by the soul master and become the passport to "reincarnate" the earth.
Here Joe is mistaken for a soul mentor, becoming the mentor of Soul 22, the least wanted of the Little Souls. Number 22 and Joe quickly reached an agreement: I'll help you find the spark, and you'll give me the reincarnation pass.
Unexpectedly, after a storm, Joe returned to Earth with No. 22 as he wished, but Joe's soul landed in the body of a cat, and the body was attached to No. 22's soul.
After finally experiencing the life of The Earth for a day in Joe's body, The 22nd harvested the spark and obtained the Earth Pass.
As it sounds, the story structure is actually very simple, but just like the real protagonist of "Dream Quest" is not MiG but Etoque, "Journey of the Mind" focuses on interpreting the meaning of the spark through the 22nd.
So back to the beginning of the story, what exactly counts as the "spark" of the soul?
This has to mention a self-doubt before director Doggett, who asked himself: Is animation really the whole pursuit of his life? "Have you ever wondered where my passion, dreams, and interests come from? What exactly shaped the real me? ”
Just like many children will ask their parents: Where did people come from? Why are some people born with a certain talent?
Doggett incorporated the results of self-doubt into the film, creating the "place of birth" to explain where it came from, and using the story of number 22 to answer what is the "spark" of the soul.
He is not joe's goal, not to be a pianist who likes to play the piano, but a beating, warm sense of life.
It can be the noise of pedestrians commuting to and from the subway, it can be the glare of sunlight through the shade, and it can be the coolness of the waves not crossing the ankles when you first see the sea.
It can be the taste of a fallen leaf, a button, a bite of pizza...
The reason why "spark" is not the meaning of life is because the meaning itself is meaningless.
Just like the fish in the water who want to find the sea but do not know that they are born in the sea, we forget to taste the "deliciousness" of life in the process of constantly getting, chasing, and constantly adding to ourselves.
Those may be the daily fights with the mother, the songs of the roadside piano sellers, or the tears that spill out of the corner of the corner of the eye because of the departure of friends.
Thank you for "Spiritual Journey" and let me know that having ordinary can be so happy.