A very good movie

Even though Pixar’s recent track-record has been rather patchy, this movie did sound really intriguing and it was really neat that it was released for free on Disney+ on Christmas. Well, the guys from Pixar have done it again. Indeed, they have produced yet another masterpiece. Of course, the animation was gorgeous, I wouldn’t expect less from them, and the jazz music was really sweet as well, but, above all, the depth of the story and the themes developed was just really impressive. You might argue that it might be too similar to ‘Inside Out’, Pete Docter’s previous directing effort, but I didn’t bother me. Basically, this movie was some kind of a mix of ‘Inside Out’ with ‘Coco’ and ‘Up’ with some body-switching as well. Regarding the body-switching thing, you can imagine that they could have made the whole movie about this (how many movies have been made around this concept?) and it would have been still fairly successful anyway. However, and that’s where the movie really stands out from the competition, they went just way beyond that. Basically, they tackled the biggest question ever which is ‘What is the meaning of life?’, even if both characters were not even aware of this quest and this journey was just quite spellbinding. I also really appreciate the fact that, even though the main character seemed to be a decent guy, he was also flawed which made him so much more human and identifiable. The only critic I might have was that I wasn’t completely convinced by the logic ruling the Great Before or Great Beyond. I mean, for example, how many times did Joe go back back and forth between our world and this other realm? It seemed slightly too simple. Still, in spite of this minor flaw, the damned thing was just fascinating to behold and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

8/10