Soul: A Black Script Editor's Perspective
Вставка
- Опубліковано 17 жов 2024
- Come check out the writing behind Pixar's latest movie: Soul!
Link for the Website and BOOK HERE: www.savagebook...
LINK TO THE SECOND CHANNEL: • A Professional Editor ...
SUPPORT THE CHANNEL ON PATREON: / savagebooks
Music:
Soft Feeling- Cheel
Hulu ukulele- Chris Haugen
Sneaky Bass Latina- Jimmy Fontanez
Bengo Latino- Jimmy Fontanez
Spring Field- Godmode
Trap Sax
Two moons- Bobby Richards
Never Coming Back- Violet Evergarden OST - Фільми й анімація
So on a scale of 1 to Hulk, how angry is Karsten Runquist going to be that I poached his thumbnail style?
Pog
Somewhere between Bruce Banner and how I felt when I realized kids playing with toys make millions of dollars on UA-cam.
Absolutely Hulk
Soul vs inside out, which is better Savage Books or anyone else?
@@cougargray4031 They make...how much..?
Celebrating cultural doesn’t have to be an overt narrative strictly about that culture, but it can be a normal story featuring that culture. I like this shift in story telling from Pixar.
Yeah like shit I celebrate culture everyday
@@Limbaugh_ same here lmao just because I’m black doesn’t mean my life is on some Coco shit
That's what I want to do! We've RARELY had a decent show with mexican elements, the only one I can think of is viva pinata.
@@bobbyshewan4229 I'm mexican and same lol
Duuude I truly hope this same direction happens with Encanto since it's the first time I see my Colombian culture in this new light. Since many of the Hamilton cast was included in Soul I have high hopes that Miranda is gonna do a great job. I also hope the same for Luca!
As a black man, I yelled at my tv, pointing at the barber, “YO LOOK AT MY MAN’S FADE”
Hey man I really appreciate your Channel, if you want to know about african heritage you can read "Changó the Biggest Badass" by Manuel Zapata Olivella. He was a black colombian ethnologist who spent his entire life investigating about black mythology in America (even USA regardless he was colombian) and based on that he create an entire cosmogony to pull out a fictional epic (greekwise sort) base on historical facts.
@@juanmercado7706 I'm going to check this out. Heard of him but neve saw this kind of description.
Im sorry, what?
When the cat messed up his hair you wouldve thought I was shot the way I screamed
you were not alone brother
As a white man, I would say one thing that stood out about this movie and Into the Spider-verse, is that while they do not revolve around the blackness of either protagonist, it's unmistakably set in the black community. And that is something that's very rare in mainstream movies. The story doesn't depend on their skin color, and at the same time there is no attempt to whitewash their experience of life, so to speak. It feels very natural all the while being progressive, in my opinion.
Very well put my friend.
You said this perfectly. 💗
Masterfully put
So true. So often when black people are represented in media, it's in a largely white community. If it's in a black community then the whole movie is about their race. And those stories do need to be told, for sure. But it's so refreshing to have a story told about a black guy, in a black community, without that being the topic of the film.
It was extremely refreshing to see black American culture be given the same treatment as white American culture. It wasn't about race, it was just a person living their life and learning.
Yeah I prefer that for stories about people of color
I think both are important stories to be told
@@MMfish_
How many more slavery stories do we need that’s why a lot of people liked black Panther
Wait I didn't know Mexican culture black culture! Cool
Both stories need to be told. But it's also important to tell African stories which doesn't involve slavery. Africa is rich with Soo many stories and to not tell it, authentically, is contributing the struggle African Americans face everyday. The disconnect from our African ancestors.
I liked the fact there was no real antagonists, not even Terry. Just human beings trying to figure out what "Life" means.
Life itself was the antagonist, and later, the protagonist. Because just like in the real world, life has its ups and downs, and whether that's good or bad all depends on how you look at it.
Seems like something Pixar is trying to do more of, like in “Inside Out”
If you look at it one way, Terry is just the same as death in Final Destination.
Life is the antagonist! Exactly! 💯
Yeh. Like "Cars movie"
That inspired my car to be better when she watched it
So you might say, it's a black story that isn't about being black.
Same with Princess and the Frog (which he totally forgot about for some reason)
@@terrellgivens lol the girl didn't even do anything she was too late in the end
@@terrellgivens and joe turns into a cat and a spirit, what gives?
@Nick Miller Actually no it wasn't. It had some elements, but largely it was unbiased.
@Nick Miller Look at the movie more objectively than with this preconceived notion that it is just a movie about black people for the sake of it. Truthfully, this could have been done in any color of skin with each of their more unique cultures, but it'll still largely give the same meaning. Actually, I quite like black culture and find it heavily underutilized BECAUSE of how a lot of movie companies forcce black people into roles they look awkward as hell in, or are there for obviously just diversity checkmarking.
Much like Black Panther, this goes more into their culture, which is honestly rarely seen. But instead of African, it's more of your inner city culture. And it deals a lot with jazz. I love jazz.
Moana is a Polynesian culture but most people don’t know that. Most things of the movie are made of combined cultures or of different cultures in polynesia
thank god someone finally pointed this out
Thank you! My stepmum and sister are Tongan and were pretty annoyed by how they just lumped all the cultures together
They're about to do it all over again with "Raya and the Last Dragon."
From what I've seen/heard it's set to be a mishmash of Filipino and other Southeast Asian cultures.
Yeah. I'm Chamorro and every time he spoke about Hawaii I was like "Wrong side of the ocean bud"
The thing is that Maori, Samoans, Tongans and probably all of the pasific islands (I don't know all of the names off the top of my head) have their own version of the legend's of Maui.
Soul is kind of like BoJack Horseman in that the lesson is life isn't about finding some happy ending because even if you do you're still just going to go on living.
True. The visuals on Soul gives me vibes of The showstopper or Downer ending
Actually just finished my second watch through of the series, and you're right. It's almost a movie telling you "hey...maybe DO stop dancing (for others), and enjoy your life
ngl soul did it better imo
@@BBWahoo I mean, obvi, guy didn’t have depression and stuff bringing him down unlike bojack. Ofc it’d be “better”
@@papasscooperiaworker3649
I should've added more nuance, I meant the whole realizing that specific message of not looking for a "big" thing. I like bojack a ton but man, soul isn't like bojack, one is about your dreams and aspirations, and the other is having traumas in the entertainment industries, it's hard to compare them.
But if we have to, Soul just had a bigger impact in a shorter amount of time, it was just sort of layered so much and so subtly that those segments of the dude thinking his entire life over was meant to be a sort of window for the viewer to do it with their own memories.
I think it's kinda of engaging in a level I never thought possible! The guys at pixar seems to start understanding how to make the viewer reflect. Then again maybe I'm looking too much into it idk
I think the reason Coco focused on his heritage was because family was the theme of the film. And I think the reason Moana did is because she's royalty, and her responsibilities hinge on who her parents are.
Joe Gardner is just a normal guy like us.
Underrated commentary
That’s a good point
Me before watching Soul: “I’m gonna be fine, the movie seems fun”
Me after watching Soul: *bawling my eyes out* “What have I been doing with my liiiiife?”
Living it. That’s all we need to do. Live [+]
being a lost soul-
I think the movie is explicitly about "whatever you have been doing, as long as it's given you moments of happiness, is good."
Just enjoy the ride.
This was also me during this video xD ended up crying with some of his amazing last words
@@lemmetakeurvideo same 😭
You don't need a plot/story related reason to make a character gay, black, hispanic, etc. Because there's no reason any of those people are in real life. They just are. Sure, there are sometimes new experiences if you are those things, especially depending on the time period and location, but otherwise, everyone is like everyone else, for the most part.
We all have dreams.
True, but if you take a character and change nothing but the color of their skin, are you making a creative decision or just pandering?
DC hit both ends of the spectrum at one point or another. One the one hand, Green Lantern (John Stewart) from Justice League, wholly his own person with a history and mindset that define him despite sharing a title with white characters. His appeal relies solely on his character and personality, not his race or his legal name. He's not just a palette swap. I know this because before I saw him on Justice League, I wouldn't know a Green Lantern from a green tea bag. He is the reason I'm a fan of the Green Lantern mythos.
On the other hand, Black Canary from Birds of Prey 2020. Nothing more than a job change and a palette swap by hack writers who didn't have the stones to bank on their own black character, and so swiped a white character and made her black. Her appeal relies partially on the association people have with another character with the same name. How many people you think became fans of Black Canary, the original one, through her? How many do you think were enticed to learn more?
@@1krani John Stewart is probably my favorite Green Lantern, mostly for, as you said, his personality and background. I love his architecture background and how that STEM background exhibits itself in his use of the ring. Brilliant character honestly, and brilliant implementation of the creative power of the ring and how that can reflect the thought processes of individual members of the Green Lantern Corp.
@Ikrani That's like comparing apples to oranges, or complaining that not every character is the Miles Morales to a Peter Parker. Not every superhero/antihero/villain,etc. Has a canonical black person filling that role in the comics as well. And when they do, usually it's not because they needed them to be black for some important story beat. Miles Morales is special because his story is about how anyone can be Spiderman- but he didn't have to be black for that. He could've just as easily been gay, or had a weird looking skin condition, and it wouldn't have changed him (or his message) much at all as long as he still grew up around the same cultural influences.
If you only want new stuff, that's fine. People are encouraged to create new stuff. But take Marvel- Stan Lee is dead and he's not making your new shit. Now, we're lucky enough to have variation there, like Miles Morales, because he was a cool guy that held the belief that nobody should be ostracized for being different (that's why he wrote X-men). But what if he hadn't been? He didn't have to use elements of inclusion in his stories. He just as easily could've dropped a ton of white characters into a black and white evil battle, or the morale area of an economic crisis, and ran with it. And the thing is, plenty of authors did with a host of all white characters that had to be white for no particular reason.
Lots of characters don't have a racial identity. Batman is an iconic DC hero, and Batman's identity also hinges solely on him being rich and attractive. There's no reason he needs to be white, and changing it wouldn't change his character at all. To say so would be to imply that a black person couldn't hold the characteristics of being rich or attractive. You could make him Asian and it'd probably fit a little better with some of his backstories concerning martial arts, in fact, since most monasteries that train the kind of monks pictured only accept people who can speak the native language fluently and who are native themselves.
And all this is to assume that you're consuming a piece of media in which a characters background (racial and otherwise) matters to the story. Birds of Prey was a movie about Quinn running around blowing shit up because she was being hunted by a crime boss after a breakup. The movie wasn't about Black Canary, and the movie wasn't about her backstory. The movie wasn't even about the main characters backstory. It was just an action flick. So to complain that a character who's impact does not change based on their race in a film simply because you didn't recognize her is kinda weird. Her not being well written is a problem you can argue, but her not being well written solely because she looks different is not something you have any standing room to maneuver.
Making a white character that doesn't need to be white into any other race isn't an affront. Especially when so many of the comics that actually make it to popular media through movies is- or at least has been- are white centric. It's just a change of scenery that does nothing to the plot, and doesn't need to. Skin is not scars- it doesn't need a storied history as to why it is the way it is. It's just there.
Now, do I think that there can be pandering to an audience based on race? Absolutely. Characters can take on any number of traits, and they should because you're going to see people with those traits- like darker skin- around you. People just exist. But if you're going out of your way to make a character black and then clumsily make sure to tell everyone "black people are good" in your story, or by yourself as a director or something, as if that is an intelligent conversation you're failing at just for the brownie points, then that's pandering. The random existence of black people in your media, just like in your life, is not.
@@1krani "True, but if you take a character and change nothing but the color of their skin, are you making a creative decision or just pandering?
"
Counter question: why is it "changing it" when a character is anything but a straight white man/woman (not meaning this in a strawmanning way, it's just what most movie protags are)?
I think we've gotten so used to the idea of a default/template protagonist or character that we view these things as changes from the "normal" when there really wasn't a "normal" in real life in the first place - it's just that this industry (and many others) had one. It never reflected reality, or normalcy, it's just something we kind of accepted. Whether it's done disingenuously or in bad faith, as pandering or other, I think comes down largely to marketing and public messaging around the work of art - though even with that you have to keep in mind that the creatives working a project are different from the execs and marketing people calling the shots in everything around its publication. Basically it's complicated, but I don't think we should see a character being anything other than what we learned to expect as "normal" to inherently be (or have to be) anything more.
@@JennyDarukat
I can't speak for everyone, but I'd think most people's idea of "normal" is whatever they see in the mirror every morning. Unless they have some strikingly unique visual feature, like a third nostril or something, they're probably going to view anything that diverges from themselves as a divergence from "normal".
I freaking bawled at the scene where Joe reflects on his life, that hit me *hard.*
Me before watching this movie: My life has no purpose :'(
Me after watching his movie: My life has no purpose :D
Same. Last 20 mins made me an absolute wreck, and I adore this movie for that.
How subtle was the fact that all of 22's mentors being celebrated exceptional icons in their fields, was precisely what intimidated 22 from trying to live a life?! And for her spark to be life itself was just beautiful xx
Same
same
I swear, I started to see my own life for a minute at the same time Joe was :)
This ain't the ocean, this is just water.
I'm lookin' for the OCEAN.
This is the ocean. [+]
Just because you're in the ocean doesn't mean you know how to swim. You can be grateful for some of the moments you've had but it takes a lot of work to truly embrace life. To be present.
ua-cam.com/video/GYSy1zOs8qQ/v-deo.html found it for you
David Foster Wallace did a great speech called This Is Water focused on that idea back in the 90s you should check it out on UA-cam it’s life changing
@@grayonthewater Thanks, bro!
My parents knew Lando as “The black Star Wars character”
My younger sister knows him as “The mustached Star Wars character”
beautiful aww, love this
I ALWAYS knew him as "Lando Calrissian".
I know him as the black guy with a moustache so yeah.
love that.
I know him as "the man who is also a system"
.
.
.
but actually, well said
This movie is so relevant nowadays where hustle culture is so prevalent and everyone in social media and the internet is telling you to be successful or famous to be happy and to be worth anything but Soul just subverted all of that. Most of us are so enslaved with being the best or being relevant or obsessing over our passions and our futures that in the process we forget to actually live and experience the present and the journey that is living . The message of this movie is so valuable to this current generation.
Agreeeeed💓💓
im not crying you're crying
I've been living this burden less life all along.
Obsessively striving for success and validation from your surroundings is just bullshit
The thing I really liked about Soul was that he got what he wanted, reveled in it, then realized that he never considered that once he got there, he'd be doing that same thing every night forever. His success felt like a wall. Its precisely why I frequently hear people say to keep work and pleasure separate. Because once you make your passion your job, it becomes work and loses its luster.
Yeah, that's more or less what my sister said. She's a great cook and baker (though with baking, she prefers to use mixes rather than make stuff from scratch) and always has Food Network on. She's much better than I am about cooking on the fly, with no recipe. I asked her once why she didn't make the culinary arts her career, and she said, "But then it would be work, and I wouldn't enjoy it as much."
Must people don't perform every night so that is wrong
but any other job i take up i will hate whole heartedly and will struggle to find time to pursue my passions :(
Painfully true my guy.
I hear the opposite. Turn your passion into work and you don't feel like you're working for the rest of your life. I have a friend that loves to do a make-over for others. I pushed her to get herself a license and make a living. Her ans. was the same as yours. Isn't it the same? By not exploring the possibilities aren't you not living? Anyway, like what this creator said, "Life is what *you* make of it".
I'm halfway convinced that Soul isn't really a children's movie.
It's Inside Out but for adults.
More of a family friendly movie that deals with mature themes, but kids can still enjoy. It doesn’t try to dumb down anything, they just don’t try to be “edgy” or “adult” by bogging down everything with cuss words, or have characters be a bunch of loners who lost all faith in humanity, the movie is so accessible to such a wide audience because like all Pixar films, (Ok.. most) it simply goes for being sincere and try to tell an honest story that doesn’t dumb down everything (Trolls 1 & 2) or try to be overly ‘adult’ and edgy, (DC’s Expanded Universe) it just tells a story.
I'm all the way convinced that movies that shy away from natural aspects of humanity are for the trash, not for children.
That’s what Pixar does. Ratatouille wasn’t a children’s movie either.
Yeah there is a pretty large amount of Pixar movies that aren’t really for kids. The best examples are all of Brad Bird’s Pixar movies.
Your ending monologue about life worth being worth living over violet evergarden music 🥺
I was not ready for that.
The "life is worth living" hits me hard anywhere I find it. Not the violet evergardennn
That shit made me cry
I was wondering why that music was so familiar!
Amazing series
“I heard this story about a fish. He swims up to this older fish and says ‘I’m trying to find this thing they call the ocean.’ ‘The ocean?’ Says the older fish. ‘That’s what you’re in right now.’ ‘This?’ Says the older fish. ‘This is water. What I want is the ocean.”
That line is what made me love this movie more than any other Pixar movie. It was such an eye opening moment. Being in college looking to make it big, wanting to start a family. Always with these goals that are out of reach. You think when you don’t get there right away that you’re failing, that it’s pointless. Why do I have to be in school for 4 more years after I walked across the stage last time and felt proud? Why doesn’t the story just stop at that happiest moment, preserving that feeling of accomplishment forever, like a fairy tail. “And then he graduated. The end.” “And then he got married. The end” “And then he had a kid. The end.” “And then he was rich. The end”
It’s because life was never about the checklist of things that will be written in your obituary. That’s not living, that’s accomplishing. Life is when you wake up groggy and make your cup of coffee, but on the way you saw a couple birds chirping at each other in a tree. It’s getting home from work and eating a good meal. Hell, it’s getting dumped by your significant other or cheated on. It’s your tire being popped. It’s eating a piece of toast over a newspaper.
There is no grand answer to “what is life” that makes it all click into place. Every day is a chance to experience the beauty of everything around us. All the pain, all the pleasure, the boredom, the love, the anger, the fear. It’s living. We should be proud of our accomplishments, but just because they’re the part that shows up in the spark notes when a kid needs to write a book report at the end of the summer...doesn’t mean that the whole book isn’t worth reading. And that’s what Soul is about. That’s why it’s my favorite Pixar movie. It says “yeah, reach for your dreams. You can reach them. You can be great...but that isn’t the only thing that makes life worth living.” I’ll tell you, I think everyone needs the message that Soul delivers, regardless of 2020 being shitty.
Life is simply meant...to be lived.
Oh hey I guess I'm crying now
But for real this is an incredible take, and you're an amazing writer. You summarized everything so perfectly. It hit every spot just right.
@@amyfitzgerald2131 I appreciate your kind words
Beautifully written
Well said! To borrow the terminology from the film: it's not the jazz that makes a life, it's the jazzing.
What more I love from that scene is it's authentic and feels realistic. so it's much more impactful.
I was so glad about the twist they pulled on what gives souls their spark. It’s not purpose. People don’t need to find a “purpose” to be happy. That’s just putting a burden on yourself to meet expectations, that you _have_ to have something you’re passionate about. In high school I never particularly had anything I wanted to do or study, and I envied those who easily wanted to be doctors or whatever else. But our lives shouldn’t look towards a singular moment or achievement to make us happy. You need to find what makes you happy in the everyday. Especially because that singular moment, might never come. And if it does come, what about the morning after? What then? You have to have the small things that keep you going in between the big ones. You need to stop and smell the roses.
Absolutely. The distinction between your passion and your purpose, and the way many people don't even notice there is one, was a great story beat. This idea that we're all running through life thinking, "Oh, I love animals! I'm going to be a vet and save puppies' lives!" only to realize that you'd rather just adopt some puppies and go to the zoo a lot, while making money doing something else, because your passion for animals doesn't dictate what your purpose should be.
I may not have loved _Soul,_ but your sentiment about his blackness not being at the forefront of the story echos Nigerian writer *Chimmamanda Ngozi Adiche* 's TED Talk _The Danger of the Single Story._ Have you ever watched it? If not, I highly recommend it. It basically argues for the importance of diversity within diversity. Yes, representation matters but diversity within representation is just as necessary. Stories reflecting different aspects of blackness are important: _gay, straight, trans, young, old, male, female, Northerner, Southerner, East coaster, West coaster, rich, poor, rural, urban, mother, father, divorced, married, single, African, French, Australian, etc...._
It's good to have stories where a character's blackness is very relevant to the story, but it's just as important to have stories where the character's blackness is irrelevant, or just touched on. I remember arguing with a friend who complained that gay people are over represented in the media and that he was sick of it. To him, if you're watching a detective thriller, and the story establishes that the detective is gay by showing a same sex significant other when he leaves his house, if his gayness is not relevant to the story, then the writer shouldn't have made his partner gay. My friend doesn't get that stories with gay characters don't need to be about their gayness, just like stories with black characters don't need to be about their blackness.
You misunderstood his point. Something doesn't have to be the main focus of the narrative to be relevant to story. Regardless of what it is, it has to be tied to the rest of the movie. If it's just a random scene that never shows up later and never proves itself important, then it's a wasted scene. If it happens to include a controversial topic, then it's a provocation to make noise around the movie.
For example, one of the complaints about golden circle was they showed a girl from the previous movie just to kill her right after and it had literally no impact on the movie. Then why include her at all?
@@kaksspl I am confused by your reply. I think what I said goes in tandem with what SB was saying about _Soul._
I completely agree with what you just said. I absolutely hated _The Golden Circle,_ one of the reason being the one you just cited. However. the way you laid out your general argument makes me worry that you disagree with the specific eg I gave, ie the hypothetical detective in thriller, being gay. Therefore I want to clarify what I meant and hope you agree.
In this hypothetical story, you show the detective saying goodby to his boyfriend or husband at the beginning. Narratively it serves to establish that the main character has someone he cares about. It just so happens that the main character's significant other is a same sex partner, that aspect that's have to be relevant to the main story. Just like if it was an opposite sex partner, that factor doesn't have to pertain to the main plot either. It can but it doesn't have to.
My friend was arguing that if the detective is gay, then it has to pertain to the plot or you shouldn't make the character gay. My point is, no it doesn't have to. It can. But it doesn't have to. and the story can still be good. We need those kinds of stories too.
I agree with both of you I think? Showing a detectives significant other of either gender would be really useless if they were never shown again. It would read kind of amateur because the author is just thrusting details at you as he leaves the house without them being relevant. But if he so much a thinks about them later, like “I have to get home for my husband” or a character asks about them in conversation, it feels natural to the story and like an important part of his character without making his being gay the crux of the story, just his having a significant other, who is casually gay
@@Mic-Mak If the partner appears later in the story then sure. Doing it casually is probably even better than enforcing gayness into every aspect of the story. HOWEVER the fact that they have someone to care about without that relationship being important later on is still useless. Maybe the bad guy tries to get to the protagonist through his partner? Seven did it masterfully. Maybe detective has trouble to find compromise between his job and relationship causing both to crumble, a bit like Spiderman 2. Or maybe his job forces him to leave home for a long time so he stops caring about the work as much as returning home like in Interstellar? Idk, I haven't seen the movie so I'm just saying that there has to be a connection of the relationship to the plot that'll wrap the story. And again, Seven is a great example here. If it wasn't for the ending, half of the movie would be irrelevant and nothing but a distraction.
@@kaksspl I think you and Ben are focusing on the wrong thing. You are focusing on the fact that the main character has a significant other, which is not the issue I was arguing about with my friend.
My friend had an issue with establishing that the main character is gay by showing their significant other to be a same sex partner. To him if his gayness was not relevant to the plot, it had no business being there, and it would have been better to make him straight. That's what I disagree with.
You & Ben say that if the story is going to establish at the beginning that the main character has a significant other, gay or straight, then we need to see that significant other again in the story. I agree with that 100%. But that's not the issue I was raising.
This was a refreshing take on finding “your purpose” or “what you were born to be”
I remember being in college and taking courses that tried to help me find my “purpose” or “calling” none of it worked. I actually felt like 22, frustrated that I couldn’t find that spark. But that wasn’t the point of it. Living life is just living it.
Thanks for doing a video on this. I hope people find this encouraging
Yeaaah I've done the same thing in college it didn't work either. Things I thought would make me happy to study ...didn't after all.
Well said 👏🏽
I always felt that way too. Nicely said.
I’m a high school junior, and it’s isolating to still not know what you want to do with your life when all your peers seem to already do (even when you know deep down that not everyone is like that)
@@stardown6271 some advice from a “college grad” Your are on the right path. Life isn’t about a journey for some purpose. Life is an exploration of what it means to be human. A series of poems about life. So, tell everyone you meet, “my future is to discover who I am” that question is so much deeper than a job. I wish you luck your journey
Just as a note, Moana is about Polynesian culture, not Hawaiian. Different set of Islands, notably different culture and history.
I apologise for showing my ignorance here but; I thought that Hawaii was a Polynesian culture? (A bit like all thumbs are fingers but not all fingers are thumbs)
@@halu959986 You are correct Gwenyth is not
@@halu959986 Hawaiian is Polynesian culture, but Polynesian culture isn't just Hawaiian culture. You're excluding many other people's with the same history by calling it Hawaiian especially since the mythology Moana is based off of sis shared by all Polynesian people.
Hawaii also has culture that isn't shared with the rest of the Polynesian people's. New Zealand has wars that have effected the culture of the maori people and Hawaiians had their queen deposed leading to the song Aloha Oe, a farewell to the vestiges of their culture that is now commercialised.
@@chrisbrandstedter4598 Different historys yes, and mildly different cultures. Hawaii has developed a food culture from the poverty it's people has had to suffer and Hawaiian shirts are the result of cultural mingling between Hawaiian natives and Japanese people, They were originally short sleeves haori or kimono.
Phrasing it as Hawaiian culture was a bit exclusionary, that's probably the point of making the correction.
@@Seecada yeah thumbs(hawaiian culture) are fingers(polynesian) but not all fingers are thumbs. I'm aware im using a *very* reductive example, and its nowhere near as simple as that. But I wasn't aware I was excluding other peoples, on the contrary I was simply trying to understand. If I caused offence that wasn't my intent. As I said in my original comment; I'm extremely ignorant about this since it isn't talked about in the UK at all, and trying to discover the information yourself leads to many pitfalls of misinformation.
“Many of you may be looking back at your year of solitude and lockdown during this pandemic, and thinking you’ve achieved nothing, and amounted to nothing. You didn’t finish the next great American novel, get the job, or get shredded. Just like Joe, so many of us define our lives in relation to some far-off goal; our passion becomes our prison, and we view each day not achieving it as an inditement on ourselves. But life itself is an achievement.”
I teared up listening to that message. Thank you.
I was really really happy that the movie didn't show Joe having to deal with racism, anti-blackness, etc. and just got to be a regular person going through human problems we all have to navigate. It's so refreshing to have black characters/leads where their race doesn't have to play such a focal point in the story
I'm glad to hear a movie puts a protagonist as someone who is black instead of making it all about race and struggle or the issue of being different in some aspect that generates hate.
That was the goal from the beginning in civil right movements and other fights against discrimination: "I'm not a monster, I'm not a weirdo, I'm a human being. Just like you, even though you may see me as something different, I'm a person like you."
People in their cognitive lazyness and some cultural roots tend to generate predjuices around other just for superficial matters, but if we focus in things we got in common, we can find that we are not so different as we think, and we can stop this violence to one another
Agreed, from a white perspective I was often put off black protagonist fiction growing up because it seemed to focus so much on how this person was different to me and and my surroundings. Of course there is the other extreme where you just write a white character, colour him in and say "diversity"! I think Soul has a good balance. Jazz is a black art form, but one that is loved all around the world, and even if you don't like jazz most people can translate to music they do love.
I mean it helps if you know what that violence you're doing to each othet actually is though. Pretty hard to stop doing something you're oblivious to.
The fact that Soul is not a celebration of a particular culture, but rather an exploration of deeper things in life that we all share regardless of our race is one of the key aspects that make it so good.
it's a celebration of Black culture as well. And there is nothing wrong with that.
@@witchplease9695
How ? The story wouldn’t necessarily change if the character was white , Latino , Asian
@@jovanym2931 Jazz, and its history in black culture.
@@chidumebi1641
Yeah but it isn’t exclusive to black people the story would remain the same if it was about a white jazz player . Example Ryan glossing character in la la land
@@jovanym2931 i mean some of joes experiences would make less sense if he was white but whatever makes u happy
I did need that reminder that life is worth living because of the journey, not the destination. I'm trying to handle some of my own mental health stuff while also supporting a friend who is going through a dark time... Thank you for this reminder.
Get well soon. :)
@@1IGG Thank you. It's weird that people don't say that about mental health as often as physical health... but it was oddly comforting. More so than a lot of other stuff I've heard
Life before death, strength before weakness, journey before destination. Stay well
Keep going, you are amazing and wonderful and perfect and human. It does get better. As Dory says, "Just keep swimming."
i believe in you! you got this! i hope your journey is amazing :)
It’s so sad when there’s white stars in a movie, it’s just a movie. When the main characters are black, it’s a black movie.
Yeah right? Just let it be a movie. I get that representation was lacking, but if you start 'claiming' movies like it is a competition you just create an Us vs. Them.
>.> ... and apparently by birth in Europe I would be 'them'?
Thats not actually true. In fact thats NEVER been the case.
@@redx589 racist still say those things to this day, as ridiculous as it sounds
@@stopreplyingtomycomments7954 If they exist then they're an incredibly small minority. lol.
@@redx589 yep, i had Accidentally found a racist reddit community a while ago, I forgot it's name and stuff, but it was hecking racist lmao
Me before watching soul: “Ok, let’s hope this isn’t awful”
Me after watching soul: “Why are my eyes leaking”
I feel you on that sort of awe of people who are connected to their culture and ancestors. I'm Native American but my tribe has been all but destroyed. All we have left is word of mouth and it's hard to keep up. We're overshadowed by a lot of larger tribes around us. I'm very glad to see a lot of diverse representation in media, especially stuff for kids. It warms my heart. I don't want other cultures to fall the way mine is doing right now before my eyes.
What is happening to your tribe is nothing new...... There were hundreds of tribes under the aztec empire but there is no record of most..... There were many ethnic people where italy and spain are today. Are you familiar with the Etruscans? Or the visigoths? Oscans? castellani? Iberos? Just in these two mediterranean country's dozens of these ethnic cultures dont exist or barely any culture artifacts and records exist.... most of these nations genome show small traces of these groups of people.....
@@MiguelGarcia-vj7oo My mans is your point that they shouldn’t be upset about the destruction of their culture because it’s happened in Europe or
@@MiguelGarcia-vj7oo any time POC talk about their struggles, racists always have to come and talk about how “white people experience it too”.
I'm black and from austria. My parents and my sister are white, my biological father was unfindable after my birth and I never questioned it because well I had a dad, a mom, a loving family. But over the years I started to wonder about my black heritage. And it makes me sad that I don't have connections to my heritage. The first part kinda got to me
Do you know what country is he from?
23&Me and even Ancestry could help you with that journey of self discovery when it comes to your culture c:
I'm west African myself. Would be happy to on the cultural side. Thanx to technology you can learn more about African culture now
There's even the DNA test AfricanAncestry which is expensive but might give you the answers you seek
I know how that feels. My mom was adopted by a white family back in the 60s, and my dad's family is white, but as we've grown up me and her both have had a lot of "So what are you?" Comments. "Are you Native American?" "You look like you speak Spanish." "You reminded me of someone I knew back in Lebonon." Etc. And it's so weird that culturally I'm still white because that's all I know but I was never *accepted* as white so with the surge of people trying to reclaim or celebrate cultural identity it sort of led me to feeling a bit lost... Makes you wonder what it would be like to find "your people". And if I'm lost due to a missing link, I wonder how my mom always felt.
Just a small correction Moana is based off of Polynesian culture. Obviously Hawaiian culture is a part of that but to just narrow it down to Hawaiian culture kinda narrows the scope of what they were trying to accomplish with Moana.
Polynesian! That bothered me too.
But good video. 👍🏻
@@irandrew Yeah, I was scared of being that annoying girl to point it out too but that REALLY bothered me as well.
I don't see how it's narrows the scope. He did nothing but praise Hawaiian culture, which you just said was part of it. Obviously there are different groups and cultures within this umbrella term, but he can't go into specifics every time. There are way too many.
You accomplished nothing by pointing out this 'small correction' if he technically got nothing wrong in the first place.
@@Mitcham28 It's on the level of saying Coco is about Puerto Ricans when it's not. You ever see that Will Smith meme? "He kinda confused but he got the spirit!"
@@TajFaerie you're right, but here it's obviously not an incorrect notion. Sure, he could have said polynesian instead and been more technically accurate, but it's not like Moana is only for polynesian interpretation. It mostly is, but not completely. So him saying Hawaiian is correct, it's just not the whole picture.
If the video was going more in depth about it then yes he'd have to be more specific, but since this is more of an overview, it's better to use Hawaiian because it's a more recognizable term for most people, and if it's technically not incorrect, what's the harm?
Again, I get the correction, but it's a mistake that doesn't really affect the way the movie is viewed either way. Polynesian culture is still a part of Hawaiian culture and the other way around in the same way there are different european cultures but are still collectively called europeans.
Umbrella terms are important to use for more concise conveying of information.
as a jazz musician, I went into "Soul" kinda hoping for some stereotypical jazz stuff, but the end result was much more satisfying.
great video
People, at least 1/3 of the top comments are people telling him that Moana is based on Polynesian culture, I think he got the message.
As a Mexican American there's a lot of stereotypes in Coco that are inherent in every animation that represents the latino culture (It might have more to do with the limited creators getting to do big hispanic themed animations) as a whole. I had to push past some of those to actually enjoy the movie but I cried at the end. It helps that my 90 year old grandma is also called Mamo Coco :D.
Great video btw
As a Mexican-American/Xicano/Latino/Hispanic, I personally felt like they did a great job. It’s also hard for me to see the stereotypes in Coco because most if not all are true for me. The only stereotype that wasn’t true for me, was how they celebrate Día de Los Muertos.
Growing up, Día de los Muertos, was a time to spend time with family members and reminisce on loved ones who passed away. Plus, we would go to the graveyard and leave treats for our loved ones. We never painted our faces, nor did we decorate everywhere.
What stereotypes did you see that you had to overlook to enjoy the film?
Also, last note, my abuelita was MamaLisa. She passed the year the film came out. My family all watched the film together. We cried so much. It was beautiful. [+]
Curious to see what you mean. As someone who lives in Mexico, I loved seeing so many details that showed how much input from mexicans they had.
Here in México most of the people loved the movie, by a wide margin,, by a landslide I would say, everybody loved to see our culture portrayed in a movie, every little detail, like the family union, traditions, and even the dreaded chancla, I'm not really sure what are the "stereotypes" you mention, but we really don't mind of that stuff at all, most of the people I know were perplexed to hear that "mexicans" in USA were offended by the likes of Speedy González and the mexican Mario in Mario odyssey. What's with americans and the need to feel offended?
@@jorgearellano1029 It’s probably because unlike in Mexico where it would be strange to be judged and discriminated for being Mexican, in America, those references can very much lead to new racist material.
@@Udontkno7 that's a really interesting point.... I do think that the Mexican American experience is completely different from any other mexican due to how much latinos are scrutinised in the US as a Mexican who also grew up abroad I've never had an experience of explict discrimination
It's about a dude who's a person who just so happens to be black
Thats the vibe I got. The race is almost irrelevant, seeing as how he's a spirit the majority of the time. Movies driven by character instead of characteristics will always be better.
@@abetterhandle definitely and it's cool that it just so happened that he was black you know, like I didn't feel pandered to and felt everyone can gain a lesson from this not just someone from a specific race
@@frostcloud18 I was just thinking about this. Centering the plot around race is a touchy subject, it can make people that are different just feel like characters or plot points, but it's also important to get representation.
I think soul is definitely going to be a milestone in bridging the gap between the two. The way black culture is so fluidly incorporated, without it being the focus, is so new to me I had to do a double take.
Black people aren't black by accident. I hate the "just so happens" statement because it diminishes the important of that aspect. Black people are a whole people in and of themselves and don't need another group to tell their stories but because of the twisted history black people have with the rest of the world it's more complicated when their story is told. So to pitch a story with a character "who just so happens to be black" means you're missing a lot of the background info about why such a story needs to be told.
@@alexricky87
Yeah definitely, I don't think he was trying to imply that though, at least not that far, my interpretation is that he was just points out how organic it all feels instead of yelling "LOOK LOOK AT HIM! LOOK AT THE BLACK GUY! HE'S SO BLACK OH MY GODDDD", it's more show than tell, we KNOW it's important already, it's doing it in the best way possible, and is a stepping stone for even more stories like it that you will like, I think
I love how you talked about Soul's way of showing that life isn't perfect. Even though Joe earned his place within Dorothea's band, it didn't completely satisfy him. It's great to show us that there's never truly the happily ever after.
Last year's Frozen 2 discussed it too. How, despite the characters's happy ending in the first film, there was something that took it away from them or that someone wasn't quite happy with it. Elsa didn't feel quite happy with her current "comfortable reality" and searched for a more fitting place for herself. Meanwhile, Anna, who (in a typical Disney princess fashion) did enjoy her "comfortable reality", tried to hang onto that reality for as much as she could, but reality gave her the wake-up-slap she needed to realize that life isn't full of sugar and rainbows. When Elsa died, she lost her happy reality and needed to accept that life ain't perfect forever. She had to move on past the pain by accepting that reality isn't perfect forever. She realized that happily ever after doesn't truly exist. There are happy ending, but they are not forever after.
We need more movies that tell us that not everything is perfect forever and there's always a story to tell beyond the happy ending you achived for yourself.
I quite like the transition we are seeing in tv from black characters whos whole personality is that they are black to just ordinary people who just happen to be black. As a white dude who has never experienced racism towards myself Im not even gonna try to pretend that I get it, but I believe that this is a step in the right direction
I don't want to sound preachy but coco reflects Mexican culture. As a Latino outside of that, it feels kind of odd when someone says burritos are part of my culture when it is from a country 1000 miles away
I think that's the issue with wide or narrow cultural representation. New Zealand and Hawaii are both Polynesian as Moana is. Frozen could be European but it's location is unrelatable for me as a British colonial with some understanding of the UK. I am all for your pickyness but it's a hard thing to specify when you aren't familiar with that culture.
@@j.kaimori3848 To be fair, Frozen isn't just "generic European", it's meant to be Scandanavian. Specifically Norway.
I get what you mean, people sometimes use ‘Asian food’ as a blanket term for things like Noodles and Sushi but I’m Asian too and those dishes aren’t in my cuisine and don’t resemble anything else I eat. It doesn’t bother me, it’s just funny.
@@mclovinjr9086 it doesn't bother me, just makes me see the others as kind of ignorant
I thought burritos were from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.
great vid but just correction, moana is based off of polynesian culture :)
Great vid
Well, Hawaii is part of Polynesia (hello, they have an island called Maui). But it was really really weird for him to keep saying "Hawaiian" culture, since Polynesia is a huge area that even includes the islands of New Zealand, and the film takes a lot of influence from Maori culture.
@@jamieohjamie thanks for the correction! Yea I just found it weird as well
@@jamieohjamie I'd think the argument is for generalizing purposes, if you ask an American (from USA) they are more likely to announce it as some form of Hawaiian culture. Granted Hawaiian is apart of Polynesian and Polynesian is a vast cultural spectrum, it still is the forethought for most people living in the USA. Really, you won't think about all the pacific island nations and or even people who represent this group because of how small they are. Even Guam, one of the US major territories in the Pacific. Are still lesser known than other culture groups that make up Polynesian.
@@kedrikeddlemon113 Well, in a video about racial representation, it's important to understand the representation properly. I'm not sure what point you're trying to make, but generalizing an entire area as just "Hawaii" feels a bit off.
@@jamieohjamie Agreed, I was just stating that is the perception for most people. Even as someone who is mixed Asian, its overtly generalized for people who are Asian even though it extends from Japan to Iraq depending on how you view it. Not saying its right, but I know overall what the guy is saying and that it wasn't to jarring personally.
I fucking cried at the end and im okay with that.
im Mexican.. coco meant a lot for me ..cause it felt it was finally taking the potential of something i love and show it to everyone... but then i found out Disney try to trade mark Day of the dead..
now coco just feel like a bitter reminder that large corporation cant be trusted and if you aint careful you can end up selling your soul to the devil in the machine.
The trademark attempt was 4 years before Coco came out, and as a direct result of the backlash they ended up hiring some cultural consultants (which is a big reason Coco does such a good job of representing the culture).
@@peterc.hayward8067 so what .. am I supposed to forget the fact that they tried at all ? Pretend that they didn't understood the implication of what the try to do in first place? .. companies are only as good as society force them to be..they have a tendency to not have solid morals or have a long term memory ... So please don't make excuses for the company..
defend the individuals ..the people with faces .. but not the brand .. not buissnes itself .. because a buissnes it's not a person.. .. and you can't treated it with the same standards as if it was one ..
You’re welcome to hate the business as much as you like. It’s just a weird reason to be turned off Coco. It’s like if you really liked a restaurant and how good its cake was, and then you found out eight years earlier they fired their cake chef...and then hired him back, gave him a raise, and discovered that’s why the cake is so good.
Like, hate the restaurant all you like, but don’t claim that particular act ruined the cake for you. They corrected a mistake, and that directly resulted in the thing that you loved before you learned about the mistake.
Dude are you serious?. I didn't choose to hate the movie.. I literally Can't enjoy the movie any more .. It makes me feel guilty to do so.. dirty even and its not a feeling I wanted from a movie that made me cry cause it remind me of my own grandma .
If that is not the case for you ..good for you.. fuck I'm happy for you
But don't go telling me how I should feel about something I don't have control over ..that is bulshit.. that just makes me feels more frustrated that I can't enjoy the movie any more .. if i could separate the work from the company that was involved i would done it already...but I can't... And I'm not going to pretend freaking disney didnt almost stold a part of my culture .. because if they had trade makes day of the dead .. they would have successfully taken over the only freaking celebrateion of my culture that I feel proud of..
@@PK-MegaLolCaT I don't think either of you has to be wrong here, and I don't really see this as something that an argument needs to exist over.
You have every right to feel blocked somehow in your ability to embrace Disney and their films, and the other poster also has a reasonable conclusion about why they're ok with it.
In stating why each one has their personal feelings about this matter, the other individual's may have heard criticism for their own position. I will admit, in one of the posts it does come across as being critical... But I think initially they were trying to help you see their point of view so that you wouldn't feel stuck. I also think you communicated very clearly that you wish you didn't feel stuck too, but the resolution was not going to be as easy for you to come to. Both perspectives can exist at the same time- there is no absolute truth here, and it doesn't need to be taken as someone trying to prove the other wrong. People have their own reasons for feeling the way they do.
(Using the cake example, even if the firing happened in the past, maybe the person saw the negative impact of chef losing his job before he was hired back. Maybe this chef was a loved one who lost their home and possessions and had to move into the person's basement with all their family, and they can recall hearing the family cry at night not understanding why they were treated so poorly by the bakery. Maybe that continually carried on until right before the rehiring. That might be much harder to move on from, even if others could. A different experience leads to a different relationship with the issue, and some people may need more to get over things.)
Maybe one day Disney will be able to do more to show you that they've tried to grow from their ills.
I too have a really hard time enjoying Disney, because of how terrible their record has been in the past. That being said, if they are truly trying to correct who they are in the world- I'm happy for that. I hope it's genuine, and I hope we continue to see that happen, because I'm really happy for a wider variety of little kids (any viewer really) to see themselves on the screen. If Disney's doing it to make money I understand that- but hopefully they're also doing it because they've learned how important it is, and they want to be better than they used to be.
I feel like this movie was made for Disney kids that grew up.
Toy Story 3 came out in 2010, which so the graduating class of a lot of kids that grew up on Toy Story 1+2. 3 felt like such a love letter to them. I remember wondering what that film would be for me when I reached that turning point in my life. Inside Out felt written for me, but not in a way that looked to the future like TS3. Soul feels like it’s the one for us- for us who have grown up in a juxtaposition between Disney fairytales of hope and a dystopian reality. The disenchanted with talks of college and career, but who feel alive eating local pizza and watching the ‘whirlibird’ seeds falling from the treetops.
I just finished Violet Evergarden recently, now anytime I watch one of your videos and that emotional music starts up I start crying by association. You diabolical bastard. XD
That one clip of the Good Dinosaur juxtaposed with all the other gorgeous Pixar stuff really brings to mind the question... "How on earth did The Good Dinosaur happen??"
I don't mind it lol
When people who can tell good stories cared more about developing good special new special effects. Thats basically what happened with Jon Favreau and Lion King. This guy has made amazing movies: IronMan, Chef, Mandalorian; but when you hear him talk about Lion King, all he was excited for was the tech.
I still haven’t seen good dinosaur, what’s so bad abt it?
@@rotisseriepossum boring forgettable story. Was the first time Pixar had ever made anything that could really be called "not great" besides like, the cars sequels, and on top of that it had the batshit drug scene u saw a short clip of in this video
@@rotisseriepossum nothing, in my opinion, it just didnt hit the same heights as pixars previous ones, which is hard on a good day
As an islander, the start of this video about culture really kind of made me laugh. I can tell it was with good intent, just make sure hawaiian is really hawaiian. I feel when people talk about island cultures they either forget islands exist to begin with or completely confuse them.
Fully agree, I'm sick of stereotypically gay characters appearing in shows and games just to tick a box. Can't we have an lgtbq character for once that is "just a character" that just also happens to be lgtbq? We shouldn't be defining our characters by our sexualities...
I love this aspect about Sylvania in dragon quest 11. He's clearly super gay-coded but he's also a badass, entertainer, helpful to people for no other reason than he wants to be helpful, and there is no plot related reason for him to be gay-coded.
Major spoilers for his character: The closest the plot comes to his gay-coded are that he has issues with his father. The obvious thing the audience expects is that sylvando is on the effeminate side in his mannerisms and his father disapproves. Nope, it's that sylvando dropped out of knight training and his father never brings up anything gay-coded in his issues. An lgbt character with issues with their conservative parent whose issues are fundamentally unrelated to their lgbt aspects? That is surprisingly rare and refreshing. Also, a gay-coded character who can be on the effeminate side, yet is never implied to be any less badass than any of the other characters, and may even be among the more badass among the main cast? Awesome.
Wasn’t there that cyclops in Onward?
@@galaxystudios370 I’d like a character with more than 2 lines
I feel like Garnet in Steven Universe was a good example of this.
the old guard on netflix does this quite well with the relationship of joe and nicky!
I was surprised he didn’t mention Disney’s Princess and the Frog in this video. I would have liked to hear his views.
Joe’s fixation felt relatable. His sense of desperation. The justifications he made to get what he wanted. How he saw no happiness outside of that one opportunity, and that one path, until it turned out it was all the same ocean.
Pixar is my favorite production company because of the way they treat people in their movies. They seem to love people.
I have seen so many channels talking about Soul, and the people in the comments having deep discussions about their thoughts on the movie and what they took away from it, and honestly I haven't seen this level on engagement with a Disney/Pixar movie in a long time. And I think that by itself really says something.
Well one of the most broken things with the Star Wars sequels is precisely how the treat Finn for his pigment, quite the opposite to what you state. Reducing one of our main characters to comic relief for TWO movies straight is pretty much a black stereotype in movies. We never get to see him developing ANY arc at all, just has one of the coolest set ups to be wasted and put in the background to throw some ridiculous jokes and little more. They did John Boyega so dirty and the man himself has talked about it.
They did the same thing to Kelly Marie Tran’s character. Goddamn sequels
Disney still has a LONG way to go. Not to mention them being deceitful about including LGBTQ characters in some of their movies
@@EvanJTao
Not good.
Finn was my favorite Star Wars character, then they totally pushed him aside in the Last Jedi. I didn't watch the one after that. I'm not black. I just really liked how he had no special skills or power but could make a great impact by who he chooses to support and protect. I thought his character was such a powerful representation of average people. Sad that they didn't see his incredible potential.
Poe , Finn , and rose are treated like sidekicks
Nothing made me happier then seeing all our wee māori and pasifika kids seeing themselves on the screen when moana was in theatres
Wish they didn't make Maui out to be a joke though that's pretty par for the course for disney
@@CM-um8ef Māui was a trickster, at least in Māori mythology, he was the runt and someone who played tricks and was generally extra AF, i think Moana did an okay job, he isnt MY Maui, but he hits the main beats
Soul is the only Pixar movie that ever broke me.
I'm a white guy from Scotland, so I don't have much in common with Joe. But as a musician who got close but never quite made it, his personal story arc had me absolutely bawling my eyes out.
You have much more in common with him due to your similar life experiences than sharing the same skin colour could ever give you.
When you connected the "Hero's Journey" structure to modern day misconceptions on how happiness is achieved, I instantly subscribed. That's _such_ a good point and a connection I never made.
Thank you. I was one of the people who needed to hear your message today.
This was such a thoughtful response to this film, and the buildup from talking about the cultural expectations to the emotional reality really hit me different.
No one dies in soul, like big movie dies yet the message and imagery had me crying multiple times.
Technically thousands of people die in soul
No joke. "Soul" has the biggest off-screen bodycount out of every Pixar movie since "The Incredibles."
@@a-s-greig technically most pixar movies have roughly the same amount of off screen deaths except for maybe wall-e (since the population is less) and cars (car life spans might be different) and some other movies
Terry said 1.57 deaths a minute actually
The cat died!
As an adult that grew up with an incredibly limited set of experiences with black people in my own life, I'm so happy to see films like Soul and Spiderverse giving kids an opportunity to grow up better than I was in such an important way.
I'm Black and I can trace my lineage to my great-great-grandparents my great-great grandfather fought in the Civil War. And I also recently found out that a lot of my DNA traits come from the West African country of Senegal. But I also have DNA traits from Chad, Mali, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Togo,Benin, Congo, and Seminole Indian.
People on twitter been complaining that the movie wasn’t black enough or that it misrepresents african americans smh
Twitter complains about everything lol .if a movie has a poc cast they say it's filled with stereotypes. If a movie has a white cast they call it racist ( even if the movie takes place somewhere in old Europe lmao) Twitter ain't happy with anything
Let me guess, they didn't like that Joe spent most of the movie as a soft shaped soul and a cat?
It’s mostly white people complaining about the movie on behalf of black people while black people are actually praising it
@@lanagievski1540 actually, there are some black people on tik tok that are complaining about the movie
@@victoriaescobedo5458 yes, actually. people are complaining that it wasn't "black enough" or that it was racist because for a lot of the movie Joe was a "soul" and for most of the rest of it, voiced by a white woman.
Yaknow, I've noticed that I really dislike "Story about a ____ Person" but I really enjoy "Story about a Person who happens to be ____." Soul is the latter, and I loved Soul. Spoiler below:
I just wished we get to know what happens to 22. I would have loved to see a post credit scene where 22 becomes a band student of an older Joe.
Yeah, it would probably be pretty cool, but 22’s arc is about moving on to eventually accept life- 22 doesn’t know if he is going to be born into a happy family, he doesn’t know if 22 will have a good life, bad life, 22 doesn’t know all of what will come- and at the beginning, 22 was afraid of that, and due to how people perceived 22, 22 even thought that thy did not deserve to get a chance at life, or that thy wasn’t good enough for life. 22’s arc was to accept life, and no matter how scared thy might be, and no matter what thy may face, 22 took a chance- he/she/they took a leap of faith, in a way. I think, essentially, we don’t see where 22 ends up to show how much he/she/they is risking, and how brave he/she/they is being by taking that chance.
But hey, don’t let that stop you from making animatics of them finally meeting up in life, it would still be pretty cool to see. And you can prefer it if they did meet up or Joe figured out what happened, I just think that is what the writers were intending when they made that creative decision.
Also, ditto on the preference of “Story about a Person who happens to be ____.” It is important to represent cultures, (I know I’d be pissed if someone misrepresented Peruvian culture in a big-budget film, or anywhere) but at the end of the day, we’re all humans, we’re all people. And as Savage boi said, (not exact quote) it’s important to cover the person behind the pigment, and not to fawn over the pigment itself, while still acknowledging it and representing it. (Maybe I added that last part, but you get it.)
I'm glad we know nothing tbh, leaves a lot to the imagination.
22 goes to asia/africa basing on her fall to the world so that probably didn't happened. but i like that her future is open, we can imagine what happened.
also before seeing the movie i was predicting 22 would end up being his daughter but honestly besides this being wholesome im glad i was surprised
I've been toying with the idea that 22 becomes Riley from Inside Out (same director) and Soul is kinda like a prequel to that story. 22 was ready to live and now she's got to grow comfortable with life and all the inner complexities that come along with that. "That's just plain ol' livin'."
Soul didn't make me cry but it made me think and dare I say it's even more important
As a white woman, I saw this film and absolutely fell in love with it, but I wanted to see/understand how black people felt about it. I was disheartened to see multiple critiques showing how it was actually very racist and how the black community once again was misrepresented and/or overlooked. I think, though, it's important to remember that these were individual's sharing their opinions just as you are.
For myself, it opened my eyes to a culture I am unfamiliar with and want to become more acquainted.
I especially appreciated your commentary about its overall message on life and how it is sorely needed today. I left this film feeling hopeful, which is something I have been craving of late. Thank you for your work! I can't wait to see more of it 😁
There's a clip on Disney plus where the guy who came up with the story said he wasn't trying to represent all black people or their lives, but just tell the story of one guy who is black. I think that a lot of people who criticise it don't realise this.
Listening to you talk about Hawaiian culture, my culture, really opened my eyes. Ive grown up in Hawaii my whole life so I’m very used to Hawaiian history, our struggles, and how grounded + connected we are through our ancestral history. My culture grounds me in a way nothing else can. Listening to you explain that you don’t have that broke me. There are thousands of cultures around the world, but I didn’t realize that not everyone is taught about their ancestry. Although I’m not a very “typical” Hawaiian I am so grateful for my people and my history. Having that connection is a privilege that not everyone has and it’s heartbreaking. But by finding something, some group, that you can connect to is just as amazing and I hope everyone finds that in the world. Whether it be culture, sexual/gender identity, music, arts, anything, you deserve to find your “tribe”. Mahalo.
I... am terrified.
I have been studying, working endless nights, making contacts to one day finally work in my dream studio in Japan. I am scared because I dont know if that will make me truly happy.
I want to leave everything behind and start anew but at the same time I end up wondering “what if you reach your goal and you are still miserable”
I am all in in this plan... sometimes I think “nothing matters” and just want to give up.
I even considered k*lling myself again.
Its hard, everything.
It feels nice to hear those words of support once in a while... I will try and do the best of my life. Thank you.
please don't stop going! life is worth living and you are loved
@@StarJester Seconded. We need people like you.
The main thing to keep reminding yourself when the pressure builds is that there is always a way beyond your problem. It's not necessarily an easy way. but you will always have some kind of choice or opportunity past your struggle that doesn't include hurting yourself.
It's important to push for your dream if it is still your dream. If you care about what you are doing and learning right now, keep going. but also keep your mind open to opportunity. You may find opportunities along the way that have nothing to do with this studio you speak of. And maybe you will get to that studio and you will find that it is a good fit. You may get there and find it's not the right fit that you thought it was. That doesn't mean that you can't find happiness elsewhere, that also allows you the opportunities to use the art that you love.
Listen to your feelings. Talk out your anxieties. Separate them from the rest of your feelings. Remind yourself that sometimes anxiety is a tool to show you that you are in danger and sometimes it's a roadblock to prevent you from something new and unknown. The unknown won't always be good. But it also won't always be bad.
I wish you luck. I believe you will find many different kinds and sizes of happiness in your life. I believe in you and I hope you are safe.
The lesson is important. I realized this lesson last year. When i was driving delivering mail. Living life, helping people, and breathing in that fresh air in the forest. Sure im not animating or worked on a video game but so far the good times, sad times, and melancholy times made me appreciate the opportunities i did have and the wonderful people in my life. A dream can happen. A goal can be accomplished but remeber why people say enjoy the journey not the end.
It makes me really happy to see some stoic ideas infused into a movie that will have a larger audience than most. The lesson in this movie isn’t told enough and I think it’s definitely worth saying.
Soul came out right as I needed to hear it. I'm a senior in high school and soon I'll be graduating. Soul opened my eyes and told me it's okay to not know about the future and I should be in the moment. I should be enjoying the small things instead of holding off on my happiness because I didn't earn it.
My close family friend wrote the script for Soul and it is so lovely to hear that his work has been well received! Thank you for the video, it was amazing to watch.
Having a movie about a CHARACTER and their life instead of something superficial like their skin color was refreshing, how long has it been since stories focused on characters and not in traits?
kind of wish u did more research into polynesian culture as it feels excluding just stating moana was based on hawaii; while somewhat true, the movie as a whole generally includes the whole spectrum of Polynesia
as a native american woman, whew, this whole video is a feel.
also we need to get you to hawaii.
I feel like if you went tto Hawai'i you would see how much the US has painted over their culture. Sure, they still have one, but compaired to other Polynesian Island that still have a language spoken daily, you would be saddened at how many Hawaiiens don't speak theirs.
over simplifies
@@AwkwarredTurtle I lived in hawai'i
"Our passion becomes our prison" is such a shrewd takeaway, and one that went completely over my head. Exquisite analysis of a story that I otherwise would have given a 6/10.
gorgeous, gorgeous video essay. thank you for not spoiling the film. and "life is a journey that has been packaged as a destination"? goddamn.
"our passion becomes our prison"
this hit home and is something I never thought about before, one of the many reasons why I love this movie
man when i finished this film i looked outside the window and it was snowing.
i cried my eyes out
In short terms:
Moana- Polynesian
Coco- Mexican
Soul and Princess and the Frog- African american
*black
@@leahdavis9434 Nah African America. I don't relate to those movies at all as a Black British guy.
@@django4013 thank youuu tired of Americans thinking they're the only black people
@@django4013 i'm not black myself so i feel like you would have an obvious better understanding than i, but i always thought african american currently was only used for people in america from africa while black was just used for people who are black because they don't know their african culture due to slavery and black in america became a culture based on their hardships and collective experiences. so someone from new orleans like tiana would be black, while someone who's from ghana and lives in the usa would be african american. do i make sense and is that correct? so joe gardner would be black because he's from nyc and i assume his parents and family heritage are from there too, so he's not african american.
The Violet Evergarden OST near the end made this 10x more emotional for me
This is all so true, and I love moonwind. Like here is a sign spinner, literally someone most people walk past and ignore, who many people look down on, but he's helping lost souls and has this important job in the universe and is genuinely happy
So glad to see the trend of writing stories of flawed people (which we all are) who happens to be black, instead of a perfect black person who happens to be oppressed. If the base of your character STARTS with him/her being black, it isn't a character, it's propaganda. You can still agree to the propaganda, but not relate to it on a personal level, which makes it feel lifeless and unincencere and therefore unimportant in the long run.
@@cococowboah I think sexuality and race are two different aspects when writing characters. The race you were born with is something you DEFINETLY have no control over, whereas sexuality is more of a lifestyle. I don't know how much choice you have over your sexual preferation (if anything at all), but I do know that you can choose wether you want to come out of the closet or not. You can't choose to "come out" as black! So I would definetly not treat a characters sexuality as an unchangeable entity when writing about him/her. Good luck with your story!
@@cococowboah I find a good way to deal with stereotypes with lgbt characters is to make sure you have more than one lgbt character in any given story. There's a broad range of people in the community just like for any other demographic. For example, giving a gay character a stereotyped trait will come off much worse if you don't have other gay characters without that trait. There's a ton of resources for writers available online on this subject, I definitely recommend seeking out more info. It's great that you're thinking about it already.
@@andreaswesterveld hey! I just want to say real quick, that as a lesbian, I have no control over my sexuality. I didn’t choose to be gay, just like others didn’t choose to be black. your suggestion that sexuality is/could be a choice is kind of damaging. Additionally, many are forced to come out. People want to be in a relationship, love other people, and this forces them to come out. I’m sorry if this happens to come off as aggressive, that’s not my intention, but your suggestion that sexuality is any more of a choice than being black is just plain wrong.
@@c3ru1ean41 Nice to get some fighting back! Maybe I'll learn something new myself. I really do belive that most likely, you cannot decide your sexual preferation. There is some evidence of this, like a certain genetic mark on the X chromosone called "Xq28" strongly represented in gay people. HOWEVER! Unlike race, (and this is researched on and proven) the culture and values you grow up with WILL affect the way you see romantic relationships. The education you get a child strongly affects the way your brain develops. So even if you're born gay, it is possible that those feelings gets supressed through childhood. (And maybe hopefully resurface years later?) My point isn't whether it is a choice or not, but that it's NOT the same thing as race since it is psychological rather than physical! In concept, you can hide your sexuality if you want or have to, but that isn't possible with race. I just think that is something to take into consideration when writing characters.
"Life is a journey that has been packaged as a destination"-Savage Books, 2020.
"So many of us define our
lives in relation to some far-off goal our passion becomes our prison and we view each day not achieving it as an indictment on ourselves"
Well said, I never thought about it this way but this explains a lot. I feel like I can never take it easy until I reach that far-off goal. It's amazing what you can learn from random people on UA-cam.
Keep up the good work! 💎
This is the first video I've ever come across of yours and it could not have been at a better time. When you said "I don't know who needs to hear this right now," the subsequent words felt like you were talking directly to me. Thank you and I appreciate you.
Beautiful analysis! Thanks so much for shouting out Finn! I love that character for all the reasons you mentioned. Soul was magical. Subscribed for sure. As an African American I so appreciate you giving voice to so many things that I have felt and didn't really know how to articulate for so long. Thank you for mirroring my joy and excitement at seeing the last few Disney Pixar films that really celebrated other cultures in ways that weren't mocking or belittling or exploiting them. Wow! So glad I found your channel.
I'm very happy your excited about Moana and the respect shown to Polynesian cultures but I can't help but feel hurt that you reffer to it as 'Hawaiian culture' because while it is Hawaiian culture it's also Samoan and New Zealand. Its painful to hear someone cut down your culture to only the people who share it and who live in America. I know this wasn't your intention but I'd appreciate it of you took a little more care to be a bit less American centric in the future, so you don't cut out people who share the experience but not the nationality.
I am so glad Pixar and Disney bring so much culture into their movies to such a young audience showing them people are different and that is ok.
Loved the video and I wholeheartedly agree! I think representation is so important in stories that don't just revolve around the minority they are representing. Your race, gender identity or sexuality is part of your life and shapes your experiences but not everything in your life revolves around them.
I agree Soul was really a story I needed at the right time, I think Soul spoke to a large audience, high school students struggling to find meaning in digital school, graduates wondering if their remote jobs mean anything and parents stuck at home feeling trapped. A really sweet reminder to appreciate life
This movie brought stuff out of me almost immediately. When Joe started playing the piano to illustrate how he got hooked on jazz made me tear up, and I have no idea why. But it was beautiful.
I've never realised that they've never done black people on their homeland like they did for Moana and Coco, they're always in America.
well duh
@@razorreptile oi, I'm not black so I've never notice. No need to be rude...
@@actuallyhonestly duh
Black Americans land is just america
There are so many cool African folklore tales that could be adapted to the Pixar screen. Princess Ynenga is an excellent tale of a warrior princess who wants to be married but her father doesn't want to lose her because she's a military prodigy.
"What if *black people* had feelings?"
That one broke me
stop the self pity
As Denzel Washington said, "It's not color, it's culture."
I’ve never been moved enough to make a comment until just now. I knew Soul felt different as a movie but he sums it up beautifully and explains an important message a lot of us needed to hear. Thank you for creating this!
Need to keep reminding myself that life isn't about achieving goals, it's about creating an everyday life that you're happy with. Thanks for the reminder
One thing I liked about Soul is that the Black people actually LOOK like Black folk.
so you're a script writer AND a counsellor? King shit.
This is an amazing video that really helped me to understand your perspective
I really liked Soul for the same reasons. I like Soul because they depicted them as a “real person” and focused more on their characters journey.
I'm really happy to hear that you are glad the movie didn't make it a story about his black heritage. I've seen so many people trying to speak for others saying that "the movie is at fault for not focusing on him being black and making him a blue blob for half the movie".
What this movie did was something I haven't seen since Spiderverse, which like you said, gave them a really important story, in this case about the self and inner worth, and they just happen to be black. It integrates black heritage and community into the story, but that's it. It's integrated. Not INTEGRAL. That's one of the best steps to normalizing more diversity in film in my eyes. Yes, it's important to know about history, struggles and traditions, but why is it seemingly wrong to just have a story about a someone of a certain race without it BEING about their race?
These things can co-exist. Miles' Hispanic heritage isn't integral to Spiderverse. On the flip side, while it does tell an important story about family and being true to yourself, Mexican heritage is very much integral to Coco. While a similar story could possibly be told without it, it wouldn't be the same movie in the slightest. Celebrating and normalizing are both very important.
This was beautifully narrated and explained, and you even got some teary eyes out of me towards the end ngl