Saw Soul. It was fine. Not bad, not great.
I kind of would have liked to see them try doing a movie about basically the same thing but without the afterlife gimmick thrown in. Just a guy striving for his dreams, getting a haircut and new suit, achieving his dreams, then realizing that's not what he wanted and rediscovering life. You can even still throw in a kid sidekick if you really need to, though Up did that.
I know, lots of indy films and romantic comedies that are sort of that, and all the Will Smith films that aren't sci-fi, but its rare that you see animation tackle it. Ratatouille overall did the pursing dreams things better, and Up did the enjoy your life lesson better. So… do something different?
Basically I'd like to see Pixar try to do a Ghibli movie. Their version of Kiki or Whisper of the Heart or Poppy Hill or The Wind Rises. I feel like Pixar is probably the only ammerican animated studio that could try and get away with such a thing.
I mean obviously I'd like to see their take on Mononoke or Nausicaa, but they already did Brave and that... did not live up to that.
@Daz:
Watched Soul. It was good- Pixar has always had a very strong baseline of quality- but I wasn't blown away. On the visual side some of the after/beforelife visuals were striking, as well as the counselors, but the designs of the souls themselves were a bit too simplistic for me. The realism of the real world left me cold at the start (I like my animation poppin' and imaginative), but grew on me in the second half as I felt it supported the point they were going for.
I wasn't too hot on the characters; I get that Joe is supposed to be average and 22 is supposed to be "Meh", but they didn't feel as memorable as past Pixar leads. Again though, their characterizations are in service of the larger points of the films second half, which was by far my favorite. Its a slower, gentler, less manic Pixar, and I gradually gre to vibe with it.
(Thematic Spoilers from here)
My biggest deal with the films overal thematic point is that in terms of Pete Docter directed movies about bitter men feeling that they've wasted their lives because they haven't achieved their dreams, well, I saw Up. I love Up, and for me its ultimate resolution to its central conflict - the scrapbook scene- is as much as an emotional whopper as the Married Life scene. And so with Soul, I was wondering if they would go for a spin on "its not the destination, its the journey" again, and yeah thats pretty much it, just highlighted over the entire movie rather than summed up before the end. And its a good resolution too, and Soul handles it well, its just a little flattening to have this deja vu.
Hammering home the idea that you don't need a specific singular passion was great and removed the ickiest part of the Beforelife system for me, even if it is an iteration of the above.
Straight agree on all of this.