Soul
What is your purpose in living?
“Soul”, is an Academy Award Winning animation film that I recommend to everyone. It discusses life and the purpose of living in an interesting way.
Plot
The movie starts out with Joe Gardener getting a job that he has always wanted, but then fall into a manhole. This shows us that we should always remember “extreme joy begets sorrow”, or bad things will happen.
Joe then appears on the way to the “Great Beyond”, but he doesn’t want to die when the life he wanted just started. So, he tries to cheat death and ended up in the “Great Before” instead.
Mistaken for a mentor, Joe was assigned to train a soul — 22 to get her badge and mentor her to Earth. 22 has been in the Great Before(The You Seminar) for thousands of years because she desires to avoid Earth. But still, Joe convinced her to find her “spark ” to complete her Earth Badge so that Joe can use it to travel back to Earth.
After they fail to find 22’s spark, they visit “the zone”, a place where souls appear when their passions show and create a trance, but it is also a trap for lost souls that have lost their purpose of living.
They came across Moonwind, a soul that helped Joe locate his body, and Joe accidentally returns Earth and taking 22 with him. Joe then finds himself in the body of a therapy cat, and 22 in “Joe’s” body.
During their time on Earth, 22 finds out that life on earth isn’t as bad as she thought, and she didn’t want to go back to The You Seminar. So, when Moonwind prepares to return Joe to his body, 22 ran off with Joe(cat) chasing her. They ended up being sent back to The You Seminar by Terry — an accountant that counts souls that are supposed to be sent to the Great Beyond.
Back at The You Seminar, 22 found out that her badge is filled out and travels to Earth through the Earth portal. There, a Jerry told Joe that “A Spark Isn’t A Soul’s Purpose.”
On the way to the Great Beyond, A Jerry stops Joe and gives him another chance on Earth, which Joe promises that he will live every moment of his new life.
Lessons I learned in “Soul”
I think that “Soul” is a very inspirational movie, and I learned quite a few lessons from it.
DON’T CHEAT
Everything has its own rules, and breaking them is not a way to get out of it. We should face the truth and accept it, no matter what.
ENJOY THE SMALL THINGS
There are lots of things in our daily lives that we ignore, but we should enjoy them and find happiness in them like 22 did in the movie. She enjoyed the pizza Joe gave her, she enjoyed the lollypop a barber gave her, she enjoyed all the little things during her time on earth. That is another kind of happiness we should find in our lives.
IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO DISCOVER YOUR PASSION
Don’t worry if you haven’t found your passion in living yet, because it’s never too late. Take 22 in the movie, for example, it took her thousands of years to finally find her passion. The point is to have a passion, not when you discover it.
YOUR SPARK ISN’T YOUR PURPOSE
A Jerry told Joe “a spark isn’t a soul’s purpose in living”, and that’s right because your spark is to make you have the motivation for living, not your purpose. Therefore, we should all find our motivation in living and live our best lives.
Altogether, I think “Soul” is an outstanding animation film and one of the best I’ve ever seen. I am really looking forward to another Disney animated film that will give me more inspiration!
