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9 Movies to Watch if You Like Pixar’s ‘Soul’

Recommendations for what to watch after you stream the new Pixar animated feature.
Soul Stairway To Heaven
Pixar
By  · Published on December 27th, 2020

Heaven (1987)

For this Movie DNA entry’s documentary recommendation, I could have recommended something about jazz or New York City — or jazz in New York City (check out the noirish doc I Called Him Morgan, which is about jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan and death and is set in NYC). But I kept thinking about this oddity directed by Diane Keaton of all people. Heaven is a documentary about Heaven, which of course, since nobody can really speak truthfully about, concerns people’s beliefs and speculation regarding the afterlife. Along with the interviews, which are shot in as much of  1980s aesthetic as can be, there are clips of film depictions of the afterlife, including one I’ll come to in a moment that surely influenced Soul.


All of Me (1984)

This year’s Pixar movies feel like they’ve got ’80s slapstick movies in their DNA. For Onward, the comedy that kept coming to my mind (and others’ given mentions in reviews) was Weekend at Bernie’s. For Soul, it’s All of Me. One of many collaborations between director Carl Reiner and actor Steve Martin, the movie also stars Lily Tomlin as a wealthy woman whose soul is accidentally transferred into Martin’s body. But she doesn’t have full control, and neither does he, which makes for some amazing physical comedy on Martin’s part. In Soul, the main character, Joe, and the soul 22 accidentally fall into the bodies of a cat and Joe, respectively, so they’re separate, but as they maneuver around NYC together, it’s almost like they’re similarly sharing one physical entity together.


A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

If the giant escalator to the Great Beyond looks familiar, chances are you’ve seen Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s A Matter of Life and Death. Or at least seen a clip of its iconic “Stairway to Heaven” somewhere else (maybe in Diane Keaton’s Heaven?). I haven’t seen the filmmakers reference the movie as an influence, but many a film critic made a point to show that they know of the movie by acknowledging the connection. It’s not just the stairway, though, it’s about a guy who is supposed to die and go to Heaven but fights his fate. Like Defending Your Life, there’s a sort of legal process involved. Also, like Soul, A Matter of Life and Death (originally known as Stairway to Heaven in the US) features different aesthetics for Earth and the afterlife, here that being, respectively, Technicolor visuals and black and white.


Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)

While Docter mentions Heaven Can Wait as an influence, and Warren Beatty’s 1978 film is worth seeing, I’m spotlighting this earlier adaptation of the same play instead. The retitled Here Comes Mr. Jordan follows a boxer (and pilot, similar to the main character of A Matter of Life and Death) who is mistakenly pulled into the afterlife by an eager angel despite it not being the guy’s time. Unfortunately, his body has been cremated back on Earth and so he enters another body, one whose previous occupant has recently died. The same story was remade again later as Down to Earth starring Chris Rock. And if you like these kinds of reincarnation and afterlife films, I also suggest watching Chances Are, Always, and What Dreams May Come, the last of which actually takes place entirely in the afterlife.


Bonus: Lineman (1972)

I could probably have just taken one episode of Osvaldo Cavandoli’s Italian animated series La Linea (a.k.a. The Line or Lineman) and labeled it a short film to watch after you see Soul. But I’m going to recognize that it’s a series of shorts, classified as a TV series, and let it sit out here as a bonus. Even if you’ve never seen the show, you’ve possibly seen the Lineman character, maybe in ads. He’s a simple continuous line drawing of a cranky man, whose dialogue comes across as gibberish but is easily understood in any language. Kind of reminiscent of Harold and the Purple Crayon illustrations yet not as sweet or adventurous and a bit of Chuck Jones’ Duck Amuck. For its relation to Soul, I’m apparently not the only person who was reminded of the Lineman while watching Terry, the two-dimensional afterlife accountant, especially when they snuck into the real world and had to stick to flat surfaces. See for yourself:

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Christopher Campbell began writing film criticism and covering film festivals for a zine called Read, back when a zine could actually get you Sundance press credentials. He's now a Senior Editor at FSR and the founding editor of our sister site Nonfics. He also regularly contributes to Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes and is the President of the Critics Choice Association's Documentary Branch.