Finally watched this movie! It premiered on the 25th and I did want to watch it then, but I missed it so I ended up watching it a week later with my family!
Such a beautiful film with a such a wonderful message! It was just splendid and I completely enjoyed it 😀 The story and the animation itself were so captivating that I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen! The acting in this film is superb, especially when the characters have a ‘Freaky Friday’ moment and switch bodies, you can still see the original character shine through underneath 😀 Since I’m currently on a Character Animation Course, this movie functioned as a great acting and performance reference!
A lovely interview I came across about the making of this film!
I love how the 3D animation was intermixed with a more abstract and graphical 2D style! Some of the characters were just flat lines, but I noticed that their personality was reflected so strongly in the way the line was structured! The way they move (especially with Terry the accountant) also depicted their character traits! It goes to show that as long as your characters have a strong personality and can exhibit this through their performance and acting, you don’t need to have a very thorough drawing. Although the two styles occur within the same scene, they don’t seem to overtake each other. They come together so beautifully, that it seems they are all part of one world!
The Jerry’s in the picture above function in the Great Before, where souls get their personalities given to them. The Jerry’s are like teachers assigning random souls to be aloof/excitable/lazy, etc before they are assigned mentors (selected souls of humans who have achieved something great in their life usually – like doctors, musicians, researchers, etc). The mentors help the souls find their ‘spark’ – the very thing that gives them purpose on this Earth! They can only enter the earth once they find their spark – in the film its called an Earth Pass (kind of like in the scouts/camps where people earn badges for what they have achieved).
Here is the main antagonist of the film called ‘Terry’; just a character made up of lines, but the way the lines moved and the facial expression shown, really built up the mood and the personality of the character! So Terry is an accountant in ‘The Great Beyond'(place where all the souls of the dead people go), who keeps track of every soul that has come into the Great Beyond.
What’s funny is that when I watched this film, I thought that this character was male, which after doing some research, I found that its a female! Voiced by a famous New Zealand actor, called Rachel House who has actually done voice overs for many Pixar films! Apparently I’m not the only one who mistook the character as male!
Terry has often been mistaken for a male by viewers due to her androgynous sounding voice and unisex name.
Terry|Disney Wiki|Fandom
This reminded me of what MaryClare got us to do in one of the life drawing sessions! She asked us to feel the emotion that the model was exhibiting and use it to make the appropriate marks in our drawing. So ideally we were feeling the mood of the pose and using the energy of the lines to convey it!
Taking a look at our protagonists: Joe Gardener and 22
Joe Gardener is bright, positive, patient and determined. He is extremely passionate about his music! Although his dream of making it big in the jazz industry hasn’t come through yet, he still doesn’t give up on his hopes and dreams! He teaches music to middle school kids, and the way he reacts to them playing speaks volumes about his personality. We also see his intense connection to music and this is depicted by the suspension of his soul in the Astral Plane.
Astral projection (or astral travel) is a term used in esotericism to describe an intentional out-of-body experience (OBE)[1][2] that assumes the existence of a soul called an “astral body” that is separate from the physical body and capable of travelling outside it throughout the universe.[3][4][5]
Wikipedia
22 is pretty much the opposite of Joe – she is like a teenager with the voice of a middle aged lady as she thinks people find it extremely annoying. She doesn’t want to go to Earth because she feels that its not worth living life as a human. She has a dull and sarcastic personality, but she is also determined in her own way. She has had many mentors trying to help her as illustrated in the film -but none can actually change her view on wanting to live on Earth.
Both these characters experience a stark change in their personality through the course of this film. They are a sort of cause and effect for each other – for instance 22 making Joe realise in finding her ‘spark’ that in chasing his big dream, he has missed out on the little moments of life that bring true happiness. In much the same way, when 22 finds her ‘spark’ and earns her pass, Joe in a burst of anger sets her off into a spiral of self doubt.
Overall this film is absolutely wonderful and tells a very emotional story that seems so relevant in the times that we are living in! With the ongoing pandemic and our limited connection with the world outside, this film conveys a beautiful message, I think we all need to remember – to take a moment out of our day to enjoy the little things in our life that bring us true happiness! And to also follow our heart and do what we love and be passionate about it 😀