Animation

It is possibly one of the greatest and most impactful Disney films made to date. If you have not seen the film yet, be warned of the Spoiler Alerts that must be revealed for me to outline the five most important takeaways that will reframe the saying “it’s the little things” into what I would say is the simple way to live life to the fullest.

Soul tells the story of Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx), a middle school band teacher and aspiring jazz musician who, for one too many years, has been trying to have a career from his passion. By the hand of destiny, he books the gig of his dreams, and on the way to his first performance, he has an accident and ends up in a coma. You are probably wondering how this is even made for kids and families.

Yet, in exploring what happens when we die, we discover the magic, beauty, and grace of living. When Joe is sent to The Great Before, the place where young souls (actual souls) are being prepared for their trip to Earth, where they will be born as humans, he is given an assignment that, if he succeeds, will allow him to return to his body. His task is to guide SOUL number 22 (22), to find her unique “spark”, so that she may be sent to Earth.

22, has been afraid of life on Earth and refuses to leave this in-between world. Her theory is that most souls inhabiting their Earth start with enthusiasm and wonder, only to find their dreams crushed. Who would want to live there?

This unlikely friendship between a human whose life was cut short and a soul who does not want to become human serves as a conduit for five simple yet profound life lessons that many of us forgot, especially during 2020.

In a year as tumultuous as the last one, it’s easy to feel as if the world is weighing us down. It’s easy to feel like a lost soul going through the motions of everyday life, losing sight of the little things in front of us every minute of the day.

Let the five core themes of SOUL act as a flashlight to guide you.

1. FIND THE SPARK IN EVERYTHING. “I was born to do this” is what Joe keeps telling everyone when it comes to his playing music. Do we truly have one single purpose? I was born to do this. This is one of the most important lines we tell ourselves and the world when we want to accomplish our most coveted dream. It is the feeling of “being in the zone”, something we experience when doing what we believe we were born, our special talent, and it cannot be compared to anything else but pure ecstasy. Joe continued to pursue his dream because of his obsession with the belief that he was born to be a musician. However, in the Great Before, the “Spark” is that moment when souls have acquired their unique gifts and character traits and are ready to be sent to Earth to live. What we were born to do, all of us is to LIVE this great adventure of being human, with its joys and sorrows. It’s the journey, not the destination, that matters. It is hard for us to accept changes in the future that we might have hoped to go differently. But with time, we can try to accept where life takes us and maybe start to feel fulfilled regardless.

2. STOP GETTING LOST IN THE HUSTLE. Relentlessly pursuing a dream can be exhausting and stressful. Forcing things and stressing over finding our worth in the recognition of our talent can be extremely stressful. The daily pressure to survive, to make a name for ourselves, and to chase our goals, makes us forget the blessings we have, regardless of the wealth, fame, or success in the conventional sense. Life is made of small moments, such as the joy of eating pizza, a gust of wind caressing our faces, getting lost in the notes of a street musician, and so much more.

3. A WORD FROM YOUR MOUTH CAN CHANGE A PERSON FOREVER. We do not have to be teachers by profession to make an impact on others. We are all mentors. When Joe meets with one of his students, who has been bullied and feels worthless, he offers her a single compliment. And that’s where we see the power of words. A moment of kindness and understanding can change in an instant the life trajectory and destiny of another person. This is where the principle of “we are all one” is best demonstrated. This also applies to negative words as well, that can cut deeper than a knife.

4. ALL DREAMS ARE WORTHY. Joe is so busy pursuing his dream, obsessively talking about it to everyone he knows, that he forgets to listen. In one special moment, he is at the barber shop getting a haircut and hears, as if for the first time, about his barber’s passion for owning his store and serving his customers by shaving them. What seems like a meaningless task for one person can be another’s personal triumph and joy. In the film, they call it being in the “in-between”, that place where time and space are in suspension as we are fully absorbed by the pleasure of doing what we love the most.

5. ALL WE HAVE IS NOW. Life is amazing. And it can end in a moment. What will be remembered about when it’s all over? Soul is a love letter to the gift of being alive, to learn to appreciate the highs and the lows, and the people who cross our path. If we just step into our memories and look at all the special moments we had in our lives that we weren't present for because we were so stressed trying to do something different.

The purpose of life is to live it. We must not waste one single minute of it. I cried like a baby when I saw the film, as I faced how fragile all of us are in our mortality.

I am grateful for the souls who had the imagination and heart to create such a powerful yet simple story that can impact children and adults alike with a newfound appreciation of “the little things”.

Note: You can watch the film in its entirety on Disney+. (This is actually a chapter from my book "An Insider's Secret: Mastering the Hollywood Path")

For this week’s challenge, I wanted to share an animated short that inspires me every time I revisit it: Snow Bear by Aaron Blaise. It is a breathtaking reminder of how animation can hold emotional weight with such absolute purity.

What makes it so effective is its profound simplicity; there is zero dialogue. Instead, the narrative relies entirely on visual storytelling, nuanced character expression, and rich atmosphere to do the heavy lifting. The real magic is how deeply it lands with so few elements.

Animation grants us the unique freedom to build a world that feels simultaneously vast and deeply intimate, and Snow Bear is a masterclass in that balance. The environment actively participates in the character's emotional arc, and the pacing gives every frame room to breathe. It’s a stunning example of visual execution.

Here’s the short if you want to watch it; it’s only a few minutes long, but it stays with you:

https://youtu.be/xOXolSQcEb4?si=ExAvC2KrEgAtPJNr

We're wrapping up Episode 1 of our 3-part animation breakdown series at Creative Station, where we compare the animatic to the final animation and share the creative decisions, production challenges, and lessons we learned along the way.

I'll be sharing a few of these breakdowns here with the Stage 32 community. If you'd like to follow the full series and future animation insights, follow Creative Station on Instagram or LinkedIn.

What's one animation lesson that's changed the way you approach your work?

When this series first hit the airwaves in 1997, I checked it out due to sheer curiosity. I liked the cast -- Jerry Doyle from Babylon 5, Malcolm McDowell, Michael Dorn, and you can't go wrong with James Avery, among others. I absolutely fell in love with its humor and pop culture references.

If given the chance, I would totally love to revive this series. Maybe develop it into one that utilizes the same technology as Planet of the Apes.

Has anyone else seen this show? Or am I the only one?

Do yourself a favor, and check out CAPTAIN SIMIAN AND THE SPACE MONKEYS (streaming on Tubi): https://tubitv.com/series/300001563/captain-simian-the-space-monkeys

Back in the 90's in the midst of wacky animation and the rise of superhero cartoons, Exosquad blew me away. Exosquad was set in the future about a war between humans and a race created for labor purposes who rose up. The show only lasted two seasons on Fox (in the US) but tackled some of the realities of war, the effects on families, slavery, racism, and so much more that was not common in essentially a kids show or live action television at the time. The show's ability to blend entertainment and provide action and maturity was, to me, ahead of its time. The animation was pretty decent and the world (or solar system) in which the series lived was pretty cool. I had the fortune of finding the series bible online at one point and it was pretty cool to explore how they developed their characters. It is one of those shows that pops up on occasion but for the most part has been forgotten in the world of streaming. If you come across it, give it a watch.

I am a writer who is intrigued by the Animated medium. My son and daughter love animation. I started paying more attention to it last year. I have watched a few Animated films (e.g., My Hero Academia, Avatar, etc.) and love the color and realism. I am especially loving My Hero Academia. I love the spiritual messages, the storyline, the color schemes, and the comic book-style film. I've had people ask me if one of my scripts was an Animated film. I know at least one of them is..maybe 2.

Thanks for reading!

Timika

Hi all,

PLANET SHE was written as a live-action feature, and that's still how I envision it being made. However, I've been wondering whether a simple animation or motion-comic style presentation of a few key scenes could serve as an effective pitching tool by helping convey the mood, atmosphere, and cinematic feel of the story.

What I'm sharing here is a work-in-progress version of the opening sequence of such video. It's still under construction, but it should give you a good sense of the direction I'm exploring. It uses still images with audio to communicate the feeling of the opening rather than to serve as a polished proof of concept.

The production quality is modest because all of the images and other materials were sourced from free online resources. The goal wasn't to create a finished product, but simply to communicate the tone and visual style of the opening in a way that's difficult to achieve through the written page alone.

https://www.stage32.com/media/4107741577567284532

Do you think including something like this as part of a screenplay pitch package could strengthen a pitch, or could it actually hurt my chances by making the project seem less professional?

If the feedback is positive, I'd consider developing it further and expanding it to cover the first two or three minutes of the screenplay.

Hi Everyone – a friendly reminder about Pixar’s animated film UP (2009). Years later after its release, it still stands out and works as a film that explores the full life-course of an older person, and makes him the heroic lead.

It’s the story of an elderly widow, Carl, who travels to South America to fulfill a promise to his late wife, Ellie. Except he travels from his house, which he converts into his aircraft by tying multiple helium balloons to it that carry Carl and a young boy named Russell.

The shape language in UP’s stylized character design is modeled after geometric shapes that reflect the characters personalities – e.g., Carl’s body is tiny and his head is designed as a large square, conveying his rigid, box-like, and closed-off nature.

UP’s opening montage is particularly impactful because without dialogue it successfully conveys the couple’s life story and establishes the emotional baseline. Throughout the film, the story effectively combines emotional universal themes, (love, loss, grief, aging, and human connection), with adventure and humor.

So, here’s a friendly reminder to check out UP, if not the entire film, then it’s opening sequence which is widely regarded as a masterpiece of visual storytelling. Film Trailer: https://www.google.com/search?q=trailer+to+UP+animated+film&oq=trailer+t...

I'm deeply moved and inspired by Encanto. It's a movie that I didn't see right away, and I never had the pleasure of watching it on the big screen, but I really wish I had prioritized it. When I finally saw it for the first time, I was completely blown away by the relatable and deep emotional themes, the characters, the music, and the animation. I cry almost every time I watch it.

What gets me most is how the film uses every element of the medium (the color, the movement, the music, the visual metaphors) to tell such a specific story about generational trauma, family expectations, and the pressure to be "the strong one." It's the kind of story that could have been made in live-action, but I don't think it would have hit as deeply. The animation itself is what makes it soar.

My Encanto anthem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQwVKr8rCYw&list=RDtQwVKr8rCYw&start_rad...

It's so hard to pick one... I love BTAS (Batman: The Animated Series), 90's Simpsons & Futurama, Family Guy, South Park, Looney Tunes, Home Movies, ATHF (Aqua Team Hunger Force)... The list goes on! But, if I can only pick one, I'd choose the short-lived series "The Critic" starring Jon Lovitz. I found it had its own unique brand of humor, and as a film nerd, I really appreciate the film references!