October 9th, 2020 
Jackson Murphy 
The past two Pixar animated films from director Pete Docter have earned him Oscars. His latest, Soul, will debut December 25th on Disney+, becoming the first Pixar entry to premiere on the Mouse House’s streaming service. Docter, co-director Kemp Powers and producer Dana Murray discuss the film’s production schedule, story inspirations and lead voice actor, Jamie Foxx. Plus, I try to get Docter to confirm another major cast member of the movie.
Jackson Murphy: We met at the Critics Choice Awards in January 2016 when Inside Out won Best Animated Feature. At that point, were you already in pre-production on this?
Pete Docter: I don’t even think the inkling of the concept was there yet. But I’d have to go back and look at my notes. I get a little neurotic when one film winds-up. I’m like, ‘Oh, I wanna make sure I have a job! I better put together some ideas for something new!’ But I was spitting out a lot of different concepts that didn’t go, and then came to this one. It was a little past that, I think.
JM: Interesting. You’ve been through the awards season a few times and then into the next movie. Is there usually a downtime, or are you immediately starting to come-up with other concepts?
PD: There’s really not much of a downtime. The films end-up being pretty intense. We’re in a weird time now. But typically, you finish the film and then you just kind of collapse in a puddle of sweat on the floor for about two months… and think about nothing other than breathing and eating. And then you kind of come back and slowly your creative juices are re-stored and you’re like, ‘Whoa. What’s next?’ This time, it’s obviously been very different. We finished the film… our last seven weeks were when the pandemic hit. So there’s been no break. Even if I wanted to take a break, it would kind of look like this. [Docter is sitting in his house.] Might as well just keep working.
JM: In April, the movie’s release date was shifted from Summer to Fall. Because that release date change had been announced, were you thinking, ‘You know, we have this extra time now. Maybe we can tweak and add some things.’ Or did you finish the movie as if it was still going to be released in June?
Dana Murray: We finished shot production May 2nd. We actually finished that on our original schedule. Those seven weeks we were able to take home and finish on time. We held on the post-production. I think we went up to Skywalker in May. It was too late to kind of open shots back up. We were gonna maybe do some more elaborate end credits. [But] there was no thought of opening things back up. I’m sure if Pete came to me with some major epiphany that was gonna be brilliant, maybe we would’ve discussed it. But that didn’t happen.
PD: Not a chance of that! (laughs)
Clockwise from upper left: Kemp Powers, Dana Murray, Jackson Murphy and Pete Docter
JM: Kemp, coming into the world of Pixar, which of the films in the catalogue influenced and inspired you the most and maybe inspired you to incorporate some things into Soul?
Kemp Powers: I have my favorite Pixar films, and those would be Monsters, Inc., Up, WALL-E, Ratatouille and Inside Out. The fact that Pete was responsible for three of my five favorite films made me pretty excited to have an opportunity to work with him. One of the things I’ve grown to really like about Pete is that when he creates his babies, he really sends them out in the world and doesn’t address them ever again. There’s no dirtier word in a story session than ‘something that he’s done before’ or explored before. I love trying to dance around all the things that Pete’s ever done… but still come-up with ideas that are interesting and ultimately emotional. That’s ultimately what it’s all about. We know story is king at Pixar, but emotion is also king with these films. It’s just as important what a scene makes you feel as what a scene makes you think.
JM: And do you remember the moment where you feel like Joe came together as a character?
KP: I don’t think it was one moment. There are a couple sequences in the film… one of them takes place in a barber shop. Another one involves Joe and his mother. They’re probably among the scenes we re-wrote the largest number of times. The process of getting those scenes right so they felt culturally specific and emotionally authentic – it was a process of all of us banging our heads against the wall over and over again. When those two particular sequences finally felt right was when I finally started breathing a sigh of relief about the Joe character. And honestly, the first scene in the movie, him teaching in that classroom, took so much tweaking. It gives me PTSD just thinking about all of that scene, but that’s the process, man.
PD: [Also] it was a Jamie Foxx bit of dialogue and the first time we saw the character move. We did some early tests, and that’s always a pivotal time when you first see him do the gestures and the expressions. The weird thing is: [Joe] doesn’t look at all like Jamie Foxx, but his voice sounds like it totally fits with Joe.
JM: And then we [soon] go to the slidewalk. It’s one of the most striking visuals I’ve seen in a Pixar movie in quite some time. When did that slidewalk hit you?
PD: We had come-up with the story idea along the way. And the visuals were developed by a bunch of different folks in the art department. They just tried a bunch of stuff. They had some more far-out stuff that was weirder than that. But I think there was something we wanted to tie into that when they have near-death experiences, they often report the “going into the light” idea. We cued to that concept and then tried to make it as bold and different and graphic.
JM: It is bold and something I will remember for a long time. Now, I’m going to take a guess here because, from what I know, you have not confirmed who voices Moonwind. But I’m going to guess and say it is Graham Norton. Am I correct?
PD: (pauses) Maybe…
JM: (laughs) I could tell right away. I watch The Graham Norton Show. I’m a big fan of his. I’m a big admirer of his. It really sounds like him. Is there anything more you can tell me based on that?
PD: Well, we’re trying to save that announcement for a big splash. But he… the character… I’ll just pivot. The character is a real fun one because he’s very unpredictable. He plays a pretty crucial role in Joe’s journey. And the actor, whoever that is, did it fantastically.
JM: Good. He sounds great. You’ve directed some of the most memorable Pixar sequences, whether it’s the door chase in Monsters, Inc., or the beginning of Up, or Bing-Bong’s goodbye in Inside Out, that we’re still talking about all these years later. Do you know in the back of your mind which scene, or maybe multiple scenes, in Soul that we’re still gonna be talking about 5, 10, 20 years from now?
PD: Wow. No, because I don’t really think of them… it’s impossible to plan them that way. Although I will say, a lot of times what happens is: you go, “Okay: kids scared through doors. There’s gotta be somewhere where they store all those. Man, I wanna go there! So I don’t know how. I don’t know why. But we’re gonna manufacture a reason to go there.” Same with Inside Out. As soon as we had the concept of abstract thought, I’m like, “I wanna go to abstract thought. I wanna go to this place that reduces reality down.” A lot of times, it’s kind of a challenge on the writer to figure out, ‘How do we string these ideas together so it doesn’t feel gratuitous? That it feels very bought-in and organic to the storytelling. But it still allows us the fun to go to these cool, visual places.
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