Pixar’s Soul fans are loving a brutal joke about the New York Knicks in the film. People got their first chance to see the movie on Disney+ yesterday, but a lot of NYC residents weren’t expecting a perfectly executed burn during Soul. For those who aren’t basketball fans, the Knicks are pretty bad. The team hasn’t won a professional championship since 1973. So, Kemp Powers decided to bring some of that classic New York sports anguish to the film. He tweeted about the dig on Twitter and a bunch of fans could appreciate what the team managed to convey at that moment. The Knicks might be tragic at points, but those fans love their team unconditionally. Hopefully, Powers can find a way to acknowledge them when they reach the mountaintop again. The storyteller explained the entire thing on social media yesterday.
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“For all those asking, YES. I am responsible for that Knicks joke in @PixarSoul. I’m a diehard, lifelong Knicks fan,” Powers explained. “Despite their enormous payroll, the last time they won a championship was 1973. The year I was BORN. I think I earned the right to make that joke.”
Even Pixar is roasting the Knicks 💀💀 pic.twitter.com/nIUM8f2V46
— Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) December 27, 2020
Comicbook.com’s Nicole Drum talked to some of the animators about bringing a realistic version of New York City to life. So, the efforts there stretch further than shots at the team that plays in Madison Square Garden.
“So, like, it comes from just doing our research and pulling from real-life experience and like getting together and collaborating with one another,” animator MontaQue Ruffin explained before the film’s release. “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 barbershop 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.”
For all those asking, YES. I am responsible for that Knicks joke in @PixarSoul. I’m a diehard, lifelong Knicks fan. Despite their enormous payroll, the last time they won a championship was 1973. The year I was BORN. I think I earned the right to make that joke.
— Kemp Powers (@Powerkeni) December 25, 2020
Soul‘s animation supervisor Robby Podesta was all-ears when real-life residents added their two cents on how to manifest the city on-screen.
“But that’s the thing, we wanted whether you sat on the subway whether you walked into a barbershop, 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.”
What was your favorite joke in Soul? Let us know down in the comments!
