Soul Animators on Building an "Authentic" New York for the Pixar Film

Pixar's latest film, Soul, debuts on Disney+ on Friday, taking viewers into the life of Joe Gardner, a middle-school band teacher who gets a chance of lifetime when following his dream to be a jazz musician only to find himself in The Great Before where new souls prepare to head to Earth. Determined to get back to his life, Joe teams up with one of the souls, 22, who has no desire to live at all to try to make his way back to New York City, trying to show 22 what's great about living and learning a few things about life himself in the process. While there are many unique and breathtaking elements to the film, there's also a great deal of authenticity as well -- especially when it comes to the experience of New York. And for the film's animators, quite a bit went into making that part of Soul come truthfully to life.

"So, like, it comes from just doing our research and pulling form real life experience and like getting together and collaborating with one another," animator MontaQue Ruffin told ComicBook.com earlier this year. "So, for me, specifically in Joe and being a black man in New York, there was a mentioning of an internal culture trust and external culture trust and just being part of those conversations of like how their environment's going to look like whether it's the streets of New York or the barber shop or the tailor shop, or Joe's apartment, and even down to the acting, right, it was always including not just one person's voice, but a collective view. And that sometimes included the culture trust, but also like everybody's voices to specifically like the New York feel."

Bobby Podesta, animation supervisor on the film, noted how a lot of real-life New Yorkers chimed in with their thoughts as well.

"But that's the thing, we wanted whether you sat on the subway whether you walked into a barber shop, anyone who's walked into those spaces, we want it to feel that way. That's what we're trying to do that makes it believable."

You can check out the synopsis of Soul below.

Soul follows Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx), a middle-school band teacher who gets the chance of a lifetime to play at the best jazz club in town. But one small misstep takes him from the streets of New York City to The Great Before – a fantastical place where new souls get their personalities, quirks, and interests before they go to Earth. Determined to return to his life, Joe teams up with a precocious soul, 22 (Tina Fey), who has never understood the appeal of the human experience. As Joe desperately tries to show 22 what's great about living, he may just discover the answers to some of life's most important questions.

Soul debuts on Disney+ on December 25th.