How Disney Pixar's 'Soul' Is Inspiring Young Musical Minds

Whether you’ve seen it yet or not, Disney Pixar’s Soul is a must watch for all music lovers young and old. Not only as a beautifully animated piece of cinema, but also for some of the incredible undertones beneath this wonderful film.

Today we’re taking a quick look into the film, how it may be impacting young minds to take up music and would love to know your thoughts!

If you were inspired by Soul to start learning the piano but don’t know where to start - Check out our Acoustic Vs Digital Piano guide here!


The Plot:

Firstly, Soul is a visual masterpiece - As always, Pixar continue to test the boundaries of modern animation and have created an attention to detail within their animation that is simply incredible to watch.

Without giving anything away, the story of Soul revolves around a middle school band and music teacher called Joe. Joe’s dream is to play jazz in front of crowds and yet, like for so many musicians, things keep getting in the way of his dream.

On the day of his ‘big break’ within the industry, Joe faces an unexpected surprise and is sent on a journey to uncover what ‘soul’ really means…

VIEW OUR PIANOS TODAY!

Things we love:

The obvious first love that we have for this movie is it’s emphasis on Jazz and particularly the delicate art of piano Jazz. All of Joe’s performances and movie scoring by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross deliver a real taste of the potential that piano jazz has to offer audiences and makes the genre accessible and exciting.


The second and perhaps most powerful point that we love about this movie is the unbelievably accurate portrayal of what it truly feels like to be ‘in the zone’ when playing an instrument.

We often write about how music is able to take you away from your troubles and is the perfect form of stress relief for many, but the beauty of Soul’s portrayal of this feeling is that for just those few minutes, when you’re fully immersed in the sound, Joe completely forgets about everything else around him as he plays.

Once again, without giving too much away, Soul is a fantastic film for questioning what terms like ‘soul’ and ‘success’ mean - something that all too often gets lost or overthought in the musical world. The film encourages audiences to take a moment and enjoy the simple things we overlook everyday, how we interact with the world around us and all of the incredible opportunities around us.

VIEW OUR PIANOS TODAY!

What Soul Does For Young Minds

Music and the creative arts seem to be a recurring theme within Pixar’s recent releases - With Coco stressing how much joy music can mean to someone and now Soul demonstrating the impact that it has on our spiritual and emotional wellbeing, there’s a clear push from Disney to try and engage both children (and adults!) with the power that music brings.

For us, we think that this message is a fantastic tool for children’s development and does what few other films have achieved...Get children excited about learning music!

Soul (and Coco) both do fantastic jobs of making music accessible, fun and an inspiring world to be a part of. The film also brilliantly portrays ‘that moment’ when Joe discovers his love for music when he first entered a jazz bar and heard jazz for the first time.

This is something that is so often overlooked and seldom portrayed in film, but something that every single musician can relate to - We all have that one moment that sticks in our heads for when we discover a passion for music. We believe that Soul does a brilliant job of emphasising this moment and encouraging children to get out there, learn more about the arts and find their own ‘moment’, whether that be within music, art, dance, sport or anything else!

VIEW OUR PIANOS TODAY!


Perhaps one other prolific point that Soul makes is that music is a personal journey. Just because you perhaps don’t enjoy playing music at school or in a more formal setting, doesn’t mean it can’t be an incredible place for self expression at home or when on stage.




Overall, Soul is a fantastic tool that we think both students and teachers alike can enjoy. It demonstrates not only the power of music, but that the musical learning experience is a fun and exciting place to explore for people of all ages - That’s a big thumbs up from us!


Want to learn more? Read our guide on how music impacts children’s development or What age children should learn music.
If you want to get your child involved in music you can also check out our starter piano range, or get in touch with our expert team today! We would love to hear from you!

Back to blog