Disney - Pixar, the creators of the Toy Story and Cars series , whose productions have won a total of 23 Oscars, present their new masterpiece. Honored with two awards from the American Film Academy, Co w soul gra is a touching, but also humorous story about life, death, passion and music. The DVD will be released on July 14th.
Joe Gardner is a gifted pianist who lives by studying at a music school. However, his greatest passion is jazz and his greatest dream is to perform his music live in front of the audience. Unfortunately, he has so far failed to achieve this. Working at school pays the bills, but everyone knows it doesn’t make Joe happy.
One day, Joe learns that jazz legend Dorothea Williams is looking for a pianist for his band. The musician rushes madly to an audition that… wins. Later that same evening, he is to play a concert in a jazz club, and his life will change. Unfortunately, before that happens, his life … will end.
Distracted Joe falls into the sewer drain and is killed on the spot, his soul goes to the afterlife. However, the hero is not going to give up. He has waited so many years for his great chance and is not going to let death deprive him of him. When he realizes there is a way to break out of the afterlife and return to Earth, he will do anything to make it happen. Even at the expense of others.
What’s in the Soul is the latest work from Pixar studio created by Pete Docter, director and screenwriter of the Oscar-winning hits In My Head Out and Up . This is the first film in the history of the studio with an African-American as the main character and voiced by the Oscar-winning Jamie Foxx. Next to him, the dubbing cast includes nine Emmy Award winners Tina Fey, Alice Braga Richard Ayoade, five Emmy Award nominees Phylicia Rashad, Oscar nominee Angela Bassett and Wes Studi.
In the Polish language version, the main characters were voiced by: Tomasz Kot (Joe Gardner), Joanna Koroniewska (Dusza 22), Paweł Domagała (Tańczyświat Wiatrgowazd), Anna Ułas (Gienia), Kinga Ilgner (Heniu A), Krzysztof Dracz (Heniu B), Olga Sawicka (Libba Gardner), Igor Kwiatkowski (Dez), Robert Amirian (Kędzior), Danuta Błażejczyk (Dorothea Williams), Anna Korcz (Melba), Miriam Aleksandrowicz (Lulu), Jacek Fedorowicz (Heniu C), Ewa Konstancja Bułhak (Mrs. Doktor), Jakub Szydłowski (Makler), Dariusz Odija (Ray Gardner) and Wojciech Mann (Jung’s Soul), Piotr “Kędzior” Kędzierski (Soul of Muhammad Ali), Marek Niedźwiecki (shop owner) and Krzysztof “Jankes” Jankowski (customer at a hairdresser ).
– We wanted to tell the audience a personal story about life. About what it is about. What are we trying to do with it – explains the genesis of “What’s in the soul” co-director of Kemp Powers. – We wanted to take viewers on a journey through history and emotions that are universal for everyone – adds Powers.
The originator of the plot of the film Co w duszy gra is Pete Docter, director and screenwriter, who has already made Oscar-winning productions in the Pixar studio, In My Head Out and Up .
– It all started with a question that one day popped into my head. All my life I have been taught to follow what interests me, my passions, the things I love. This path was to be a source of happiness and fulfillment. In fact, it happened in my case. This does not mean, however, that it is an easy path. And it does not mean that it is always successful , explains Pete Docter. – This film is a kind of investigation to explain what life is really about. What’s important about it. And how we should live – adds the director and screenwriter.
– The story of Joe, his dreams to become a jazz musician and the fight to realize these desires is a metaphor for the fact that life, no matter how much we plan it, is to a large extent improvisation. Facing unforeseen challenges, sometimes we win and sometimes we lose, and sometimes we manage to turn them into something beautiful , says Kemp Powers.
The idea for the script What in the soul game was born in 2016, but work on the actual text did not start until two years later. During this time, Pete Docter and co-writer Mike Jones only came up with the character of the main character. In the first version, Joe Gardner was a scientist, but was eventually turned into a musician. Jazz appeared in his life, and he himself became an African-American. Docter and Jones were quickly joined by Kemp Powers, who was initially hired for just 12 weeks to help the authors create the main character. His commitment and input proved so valuable that the contract was first extended and then offered to Kemp as co-director of the film.
– To be honest, many times while working on this film, I asked myself if we were even capable of making it. Are we able to tell a story that viewers will believe in and that will arouse their emotions? Today I know that we have succeeded, but the road to this success was second and complicated – explains Kemp Powers.
The creators were very concerned that Joe’s story as well as the characters of the film What in the Soul were as credible as possible. To achieve this, Pixar created a special “cell” made up of only black employees, in which popular musicians such as Herbie Hancock, Terri Lyne Carrington, Quincy Jones and Jon Batiste were also involved. Their job was to support screenwriters and help them best and most accurately portray African-American culture on the big screen.
The musicians also supported the animators. Many of them performed in the Pixar studio so that the creators of the animation could see exactly how the different instruments are played, and then how to best reproduce it in the film. What’s more, Pete Docter assigned work to the animators in such a way that there were always people playing the presented instruments in the teams responsible for preparing the musical fragments of What’s in the Soul .
The writers also had a big problem with the ending of the movie. At this stage of work, several dozen different finals of Joe Gardner’s adventures were created, and at least a few were filmed. The decision to choose the correct finale was one of the last decisions made during the production of the film.
The cinema premiere of What in the soul was originally scheduled for June 19, 2020. The coronavirus pandemic caused the premiere to be delayed first on November 20, 2020, to finally be widely distributed on the Disney + streaming platform, where the Pixar studio debuted on December 25, 2020.
The research company Nielsen has calculated that during the first weekend after the premiere of What’s in the Soul on Disney +, American users spent as much as 1.66 billion minutes watching it.
Polish viewers had to wait a bit longer for the premiere of What’s in the Soul . The movie premiered in theaters on March 5, 2021, but unfortunately due to the re-closure of cultural centers (related to the coronavirus pandemic), its conquest of the big screens did not take long. But he surprised everyone with an amazing result – when the film was released on DVD, over 220,000 Polish viewers met and fell in love with another excellent story from Disney – Pixar.
The film was enthusiastically received by viewers and critics.
There are many, sometimes very long, lectures on life and how to find yourself in it. However, Co in the game’s soul presents it in the best and simplest way. If you want to live your life well, see, listen, learn and appreciate – wrote David Fear in Rolling Stone magazine after the premiere . ” What’s Going On is definitely one of Pixar’s best films in recent years,” Leah Greenblatt echoed on Entertainment Weekly .
The high reviews were confirmed by the awards which “Co w duszy gra” won over a hundred. The most important of them are, of course, two Oscars for the best music (Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste) and the award for the best animated film. But Pete Docter and Kemp Powers’ work also won two BAFTA Awards (Best Animated Film, Best Music), seven Annie Awards (called Animated Oscars), two Golden Globes (also Best Animated Film and Best Music) and dozens of awards. by various kinds of film critics associations.
Additional materials in the DVD edition:
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