Disney have announced that a new Pixar short film featuring characters from their Oscar nominated outing Soul will debut on Disney+ as soon as April 30th.
22 vs. Earth will be a prequel to the events in Soul, focusing on Tina Fey’s skeptical 22 long before she met Jamie Foxx’s freshly deceased Joe Gardner.
Taking the reins from Pete Docter and Kemp Powers will be Soul editor Kevin Nolting, who last week picked up an Annie award for best edited animated feature for the Disney+ Christmas Day release. Nolting revealed that the story for 22 vs Earth came from an idea that they couldn’t fit into the original film and that it was “a chance to explore some of the unanswered questions we had about why 22 was so cynical. As a fairly cynical person myself, it felt like perfect material.”
THR revealed that the short will focus on 22’s attempts to form a rebellion of five other new souls in defiance of the rules of The Great Before.
What is it that makes you…YOU? This November, Pixar Animation Studios’ all-new feature film Soul introduces Joe Gardner (voice of 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 (voice of 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 is directed by Pete Docter (Up, Inside Out) and features a voice cast that includes Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Phylicia Rashad, Angela Bassett, Ahmir Questlove Thompson, Daveed Diggs, Graham Norton, Rchel House, Alice Braga, Richard Ayoade, Wes Studi, Fortune Feimster, Zenobia Shroff, Donnell Rawlings and June Squibb.
Originally published April 21, 2021. Updated April 22, 2021.
