Pixar’s critically acclaimed 23rd film, “Soul,” surprised no one by winning two Oscars at the 93rd Academy Awards on Sunday night. The critical and audience favorite not only won the Animated Feature Oscar but took the Original Score category as well. That made it a memorable night for director Pete Docter who just also happens to be the Chief Creative Officer at Pixar.
This turned out to be Pixar’s 11th win in the Animated Feature category and Docter’s third individual win. Docter has now won this honor more than any other filmmaker in this award’s 21-year history.
“Soul” also won the equivalent honor at the Golden Globes, PGA Awards, and BAFTA Awards.
The film’s composers, Jon Batiste, Trent Reznor, and Atticus Ross, also won the Academy Award for Original Score. This was Batiste’s first Oscar and the second win for Reznor and Ross after “The Social Network” in 2011. The honor was also the second time a Pixar film triumphed in this category after Michael Giacchino won for “Up” in 2010.
Set in contemporary New York City, “Soul” follows Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx) a struggling jazz pianist who pays his bills as a middle school music teacher. When he falls into an open manhole by accident, he finds himself transported to the “Great Beyond” (ie Heaven. Unwilling to pass on, he ends up becoming trapped in the “Great Before” where he somehow finds himself training 22 (Tina Fey), a difficult soul who has no interest in heading to a body on earth. The duo eventually end up in different bodies back in the city forcing Joe to confront whether he’s willing to give up his dreams to help 22 find peace.
“Soul” was initially selected for the 2020 Cannes Film Festival which was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film debuted on Disney+ almost at the height of the second wave of COVID cases in the United States.