The trailer for Pixar’s upcoming film Soul just dropped, amidst a flood of tweets of panic yesterday. With COVID-19 having reached North America in a few major ways (NBA all star Rudy Gobert’s diagnosis causing a ripple effect that shut down every major sporting league for now, Live Nation abandoning upcoming concerts for the next short while, Sophie Grégoire testing positive for coronavirus, et cetera), we are all on high alert. Gas prices have plummeted. Stores are bereft of toilet paper and sanitizer. Most people are instructed to work from home; those of us without that luxury are threatened with the heightened possibility of being unable to work for an undetermined amount of time, if that hasn’t happened already.

The way I see it, this will all be just for a little while, if, and I say if, if we do all the right things. Coronavirus stays within a person for around two weeks. These shut downs are trying to take into account the silent infections, the actual virus, and the recovery afterwards. If we’re all sensible with our cleanliness, personal space, and abiding by whatever temporary regulations are set, I believe our hope can turn into a reality. For a split second yesterday, when the trailer for Soul dropped, fear subsided even just for a few minutes. It’s ridiculous and pathetic to equate an upcoming family film with the scariest pandemic of recent history, and that’s not what I am aiming to do. However, finding joy in a dark time can help. Even without these scares, 2020 has been off to an incredibly rough start. Now, it’s as if we could just cancel the entire year and hope 2021 is a bit more forgiving.

This is a film site, after all, and I’m sure if you’re reading this that you too find the healing powers of a well made film, especially during turmoil. We’re likely going to be cooped up in our living quarters for a little bit. It’ll be good to catch up on your favourite things. What’s interesting is that Pixar was banking on Soul to bring their studio back to a certain echelon, in only the kind of way that their best works can. I’m talking Inside Out and Coco (in the new decade after Toy Story 3, I mean). We’ve discussed the wobbly track record of Pixar’s as of late already. Soul was released after Onward, and in the summer, because of Pixar’s faith in the film. This was their strategy to help themselves.

Now, it looks like — if all goes as well as possible — it will be one of the first major films we will return to once society is more comfortable with revisiting public quarters; in a post-COVID-19 world. This film, about the appreciations of life and all of its elements, will be our reintroduction into the movie theatres. Everything else currently is being postponed. It’ll be something we could all use once we break through this rough patch. We need a glimpse of life, hope, and glee that Pixar can dish out on their best days, after the sourest opening quarter to a year we’ve had in ages. Of course, again, this is a film website, and I’m bringing Soul up on such a level because of that; there are millions of other ways we can move on after COVID-19 is (hopefully) settled and beaten. There will be many other films, too. The timing of Soul just seems hyper coincidental, and we should hop on that opportunity when the time is right. The world’s in a dark place, and any flashes of light are appreciated right now.

Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.

We Need Soul as Much as Pixar Does