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Arthur & Merlin: Knights of Camelot (2020)

4.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

Movie

Follows King Arthur and his people race home to prevent Mordred from taking over Camelot.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - Season 5

8.6 (12 Ratings) Rate It

TV Season Watch

The fifth season of the television sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine premiered September 26, 2017 on Fox. It...

Long Time Dead (2002)

4.0 (5 Ratings) Rate It

Movie

A young Londoner and his friends use a Ouija board to hold a seance, triggering a chain of...

This Is Not Happening - Season 1

(0 Ratings) Rate It

TV Season

Eddie and the Cruisers (1983)

9.0 (6 Ratings) Rate It

Movie

A television newswoman picks up the story of a 1960s rock band whose long-lost leader - Eddie Wilson...

Lenard (726 KP) rated Soul (2020) in Movies

Dec 26, 2020

Soul (2020)

2020 | Adventure, Animation, Comedy

7.7

(37 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

There is a saying that even though you can't achieve greatness you can still inspire someone else to be great. Joe Gardner is a sometime jazz pianist who works as a part time middle school band teacher. On the day the principal hires him as a full-time teacher with all the benefits, Joe is invited to join a jazz quartet for their nightly club gigs. In his dazed excitement, he falls down an open manhole (the city will face a major lawsuit for that). His soul is transported onto the conveyor belt for the Great Beyond, but Joe escapes into the Great Before. There, in order to stall his forever death, he becomes a mentor to a "new" soul so that the nonbinary entity named 22 finds a spark to live. 22 has been mentored by all the greats from Archimedes to Copernicus to Mother Teresa never finding a reason to exist. That is, until a trip to the land of the lost souls ends with both Joe's soul and 22 inside corporeal beings. Joe teaches 22 that life has value whether it is a pursuit of music, a dream deferred like a raisin in the sun, or observing a leaf falling from a tree. In fact, Joe has influenced the lives of many of his students, like Curley, a jazz drummer in the Dorothea William Quartet, or current student Sonia, a master trombonist, who he privately teaches outside of school. While some people can see his dreams may not be his meal ticket, Joe will always be a mentor to other struggling musicians who may one day be successful.
On the technical aspects of the film, there is a lot to praise. While a Michael Giacchino score may have worked, the score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross counterposes the jazz score throughout. Music soothes all souls. The animation is masterful as usual. The "Terry" sequence and some of the character designs in the afterlife will influence future animators much like Joe's students.