Joe Gardner waits his whole life for one big gig. The day he finally lands it, he falls down a manhole — and ends up where souls get ready for Earth. There he meets 22, a soul who has dodged being born for centuries. Mother Teresa, Lincoln, Jung, Muhammad Ali and Copernicus have all tried to inspire her. None of them lit the spark.

With Soul, Pixar got closer to the truth. In the movie, new souls are bluish, translucent and much alike. They need a “spark” to go to Earth. But in the early concept art on Pixar’s site, the souls shine in every color of the rainbow, each one its own color.

Before they leave for Earth, souls pass through the personality pavilions: one gets curiosity, another gets grumpiness. It looks a lot like the Big Five personality traits from psychology. Traits are handed out before birth. The spark you find on your own.

That’s a much better picture of reality. Your true colors. Your soul is a mix of colors. Or better yet, notes. Like music. Nobody has to explain music: kids hear it and start dancing. If God existed, he’d be something like that. Freediving is an underwater dance to the music of your soul. Everyone has their own melody.

Music runs through the movie itself: the world of souls sounds electronic, and Earth sounds like jazz. That music won the film an Oscar.

Lost souls

Between the worlds drift the lost souls: dark, shaggy, shapeless. They are people on Earth whose passion turned into obsession. We wrap ourselves in the daily story we keep telling ourselves. Hypnotized by our own passions, we’re always suffering over something and can’t simply live in peace. In the movie, lost souls get brought back, cleaned down to what they were at the start. Down to that small flame that burns inside you your whole life, for as long as you’re alive.

And the spark itself? Joe is sure his is jazz. 22 looks for hers in callings and grand missions. In the end it comes through a slice of pizza and a maple seed spinning down into her palm. The spark is a taste for life itself. Meaning works the same way: you build it yourself — you’re the author of every one of your days. You are life that wants to live itself.

Carl Sagan said we are a way for the cosmos to know itself. The cartoon says the same.

What music plays inside you?

And if the music is already playing, there’s no point in waiting. Which raises a strange question: do we need hope at all?