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Should Christians Watch Soul?

Name: GodlyScore Review: Should Christians Watch Soul?
Item: Soul (Pixar, 2020)
Rating: 3.1
Author: GodlyScore

Should Christians watch Soul? Pixar's 2020 masterpiece tackles the deepest questions — what is the purpose of life? — from a non-Christian but philosophically rich framework worth engaging.

GODLY

Soul (Pixar, 2020)

Mixed

★★★☆☆3.1/5 · GodlyScore 62/100

Soul follows jazz musician Joe Gardner who accidentally ends up in a pre-death realm and must find his way back to life. Visually extraordinary, emotionally deep, genuinely philosophical. The spiritual framework (a Great Before, a Great Beyond) is inventive but non-biblical. The film's core message — be present to your life, don't let ambition consume you — resonates with Christian values. No negative content concerns. 62/100 Mixed.

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What Soul Is

Soul (Pixar, 2020) follows Joe Gardner (voiced by Jamie Foxx), a middle school music teacher who gets his big break — and immediately falls down a manhole. He finds himself in the Great Beyond (afterlife) and escapes into the Great Before — a realm where souls develop personalities before birth. He partners with soul 22 (Tina Fey) to return to his body. Soul won Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score and is widely considered one of Pixar's finest films.

The Spiritual Framework

Soul's cosmology — Great Before, Great Beyond, pre-existing souls — is an invented framework with no specific religious source. It draws vaguely on ideas of pre-existence and generic afterlife imagery without promoting any existing religion. It is not promoting New Age, Mormon, or any other specific tradition; it is using spiritual imagination for storytelling.

The film's core message aligns with Christian values: don't let ambition and the pursuit of "your one thing" consume the actual texture of your life. The small joys — a slice of pizza, autumn leaves, music with a student — are worth attending to. This resonates with Philippians 4:8, Ecclesiastes's warning against striving, and Jesus's call to notice the birds of the air (Matthew 6:26-29).

For Christian Families

Soul is appropriate for families with ages 8+ and warrants parental conversation about the spiritual framework. The afterlife imagery is inventive but not doctrinally threatening — the conversation is: "That's a creative story about what souls might be like; here's what the Bible actually teaches." No negative content concerns otherwise. See our Christian Faith Films hub. Compare with Encanto. Plugged In reviews it in detail. Available on Disney+.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should Christians watch Soul?

62/100 Mixed. Soul is one of Pixar's finest films — visually extraordinary, emotionally rich, genuinely philosophical about what makes life worth living. The spiritual framework (Great Before/After, pre-existing souls) is inventive but non-biblical. The film's core message — gratitude, presence, not letting ambition consume life's real gifts — resonates with Christian values. Appropriate for ages 8+ with parental conversation about the spiritual framework.

Is Soul appropriate for Christians?

Yes with parental conversation about the spiritual framework. No negative content concerns (no language, violence, or sexual concerns for a family film). The spiritual framework differs from biblical teaching but is not threatening — it's creative storytelling, not religious instruction. The film's message of gratitude and presence aligns well with Christian values.

What is the spiritual message of Soul?

Soul's message: your life's value is not located in achieving your one great dream. The small, everyday moments are the actual substance of a life. This challenges the ambition and productivity obsession that consumes many people — resonating with Ecclesiastes's warning against striving and Christ's call to notice the birds of the air and lilies of the field (Matthew 6:26-29).