Soul Passes Major Pixar Milestone in China

Soul has entered some rarified air with the most recent Pixar milestone it passed in China. A new report from Deadline indicates that the animated film is now the studio’s second most successful film in the country. Incredibles 2 actually held that title before, but now Soul stands alone at the second spot. If that weren’t enough, some old-fashioned word of mouth is giving the film a boost too. Russia’s gross now sits at $11.6 million. That’s the third-best mark for a Pixar release in the country. Similarly, Korea has seen a $10.1 million take for the film, which has Soul sitting pretty there as well. There have been numerous challenges with the rollout of the movie, but it has proved to be a massive win for Disney in both the streaming and theatrical arenas.

Comicbook.com had the opportunity to speak with story artist Michael Yates about the work that went into approaching Joe’s story with the kind of authenticity that viewers were going to demand.

“I think it was a number of things. I think we were really aware of that because, like with all of our films, we try to do as much research as possible. And I think the first thing was hiring Kemp Powers to be the writer, like he mentioned in his talk, a lot of Joe’s life is similar to his own life,” Yates began. “We also had an internal culture trust at the studio of African Americans that work together and we will come together and review different aspects of it and pitch different ideas for the character just to make it as authentic. And I guess even just like a wider berth, like it’s not just one person’s experience, it’s trying to relate as many African Americans as possible.”

He added, “And then we also had external consultants, from musicians to more African American Studies people. I think it was just like a constant process. And then, even like me, and after working on the film, just putting ourselves into it and constantly thinking about family members and friends and everything. And really it was definitely on the top of mind on this project. And it was a great experience, I think.”

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