Watch sneak teaser and virtual conversation with filmmakers Pete Docter, Kemp Powers, Dana Murray, anthropologist Dr. Johnnetta Cole and renowned jazz pianist Jon Batiste, produced as part of the Essence Festival of Culture panel, ‘Finding Soul.’
Disney and Pixar have just dropped a special sneak teaser trailer and virtual discussion panel from the filmmakers of their upcoming animated feature, Soul. Director Pete Docter, co-director and screenwriter Kemp Powers, and producer Dana Murray, partnered with American anthropologist/educator Dr. Johnnetta Cole and globally-renowned jazz pianist Jon Batiste, to provide audiences an exclusive sneak peek of the film as a part of the Essence Festival of Culture during a virtual panel titled “Finding Soul.” The sneak peek features the song “Parting Ways,” written, produced and performed by Cody ChesnuTT. Both Dr. Cole and Batiste, who lent his expertise to the film’s jazz arrangements and compositions, serve as cultural consultants on the film.
Watch Disney and Pixar's Soul panel from Essence Festival, featuring a conversation with the team behind the film.
Soul tells the story of Joe Gardner (voiced by Jamie Foxx), a middle-school band teacher who gets the chance of a lifetime to play at the best jazz club in town. But one small misstep takes him from the streets of New York City to The Great Before – a fantastical place where new souls get their personalities, quirks and interests before they go to Earth. Determined to return to his life, Joe teams up with a precocious soul, 22 (voiced by Tina Fey), who has never understood the appeal of the human experience. As Joe desperately tries to show 22 what’s great about living, he may just discover the answers to some of life’s most important questions.
Soul opens in U.S. theaters on November 20, 2020.
Source: Disney
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.