- Today's video is brought to you by Express VPN.
Hey brother!
Well guys in a year where movie theaters basically shut down
Pixar still managed to somehow get two original films
out of their brains and into our hearts
and possibly even deeper into our souls.
This I guess is where I think my soul is.
As such though today,
it is once again, time to expand the Pixar universe
and discuss how
'Soul'
fits into the Pixar theory.
♪The Pixar theory, the Pixar theory ♪
♪ We're finally going to see clearly ♪
♪ The Pixar theory. ♪
- Guys, before we dive on into today's video,
we need to give a huge thank you to today's sponsor
ExpressVPN.
Let me ask you guys a question.
How do you choose your internet service provider?
Trick question, you probably don't,
because for the most part internet service providers
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and you don't get a choice.
Which like I know monopolies aren't supposed
to be allowed to happen
and yet here they are.
I remember learning about it in comm law
but I can never remember the reasons.
Either way, it's frustrating.
Dare I say,
soul sucking.
It leaves you with a hollow shell
of an existence.
Man that got dark fast, different approach.
Your data is like your soul
and you can tell a lot about a person based on their data.
Like their interests, passions, sparks other things.
And ISP's know that,
and sell your information to advertisers.
Which that is no good, that is no good at all.
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Data I mean data.
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More information in the description
down below.
The Pixar theory in case you are somehow unfamiliar
is the idea that every single Pixar movie exists
in the same universe on one giant timeline.
It all starts with the asteroid missing the earth in,
"The Good Dinosaur"
And tells the rise and fall of the humans,
animals, and machines.
And it takes place over millions of years,
finally ending with
"Monsters Inc"
or the
"Brave"
depending on how you wanna look at it.
Circles are weird.
Now unlike
"Onward"
which earlier this year,
super expanded the Pixar theory.
And took us to like a whole brand new planet.
"Soul"
goes in the exact opposite direction
and directs itself inward.
"Soul"
tells the story of Joe Gardner.
A struggling jazz musician in New York city
who has finally landed the gig of his lifetime,
performing with one of his jazz heroes
Dorothea Williams, who by the way,
don't know if you realize this
is actually an intergalactic superstar
with fans on other planets
including Ian and Barley's mom from
"Onward"
Sadly for Joe, however the very day
his dreams finally seemed to be coming true
is the same day he decides to step through
an open manhole and dies.
Sorry, this video, okay, its spoilers for soul.
This brings him to existences
most terrifying conveyor about whose sole purpose,
nope unintended,
but don't worry I have some very intentional words later.
Is to drop you into a giant glowing orb
known as the great beyond.
Honestly, I'm not really sure
what the point of the conveyor belt is though like,
why does it death just drop you directly
into the glowing or bug zapper of great beyondness.
- Harry no, don't look at the light.
- I can't help it, it's so beautiful.
- But seriously, why this alarmingly short ride?
Like you just died.
Why are you forced back into this like
semi form of consciousness for like 30 more seconds
before you die a second death?
I mean, I guess maybe they need to occasionally far mentors
for souls, like Twenty Two, but wait a minute, second death.
Why does that sound familiar?
Oh, right,
because there's already an entire Pixar movie
about this exact phenomenon.
Right, okay, so at first glance it probably
doesn't look like,
"Coco"
and
"Soul"
work very well together,
in terms of both fitting into the Pixar theory.
In
"Coco"
when you die, you end up in this
bright colorful land of the dead
where you get to live out kind of a whole second existence
and told there's not one single memory
or the left of you inside of a living person on earth.
But then in
"Soul"
when you die you end up on a conveyor bound
heading towards an existential bug zapper.
But what gives, right.
Like why isn't Joe
into skeleton land with his probably cat themed Alebrije.
By the way did you guys catch when Curly
introduces Joe to Dorothea Williams and it was all like
this is the guy that I was telling you about.
That's what you call foreshadowing.
Well, the reason Joe doesn't turn into a skeleton upon death
like what happens at
"Coco"
is basically because, Joe, is not Mexican,
nor does he actively believe in or practice
any Mexican customs or traditions.
See, within the Pixar universe, only people
who operate under this particular Mexican belief system
are eligible for this particular version of death.
Eligible feels like a weird word.
That might sound like a weird loophole
but did it ever seem weird to you when you were watching
"Coco"
that the land of the dead, which apparently houses
generations and generations of dead people
from all of history and all of earth that,
Ernesto De LA Cruz
is the most famous skeleton,
of like all of them.
Like, did it seem odd to you
that he was the most famous person do have died, ever?
Yeah, I agree that wouldn't be odd
but it's not because this particular version of death
is manifested solely by the people of Mexico.
Why is this the case?
Because memories, see, across the Pixar universe
it is human memories that keeps things alive.
This for example is why the toys are able to come to life.
But then you have other toys like Wheezy
who are very close to being forgotten, appearing very sick.
When the final memory of Bing Bong fades
he vanishes when people start forgetting Mr. Incredible,
the hero existed Bob himself starts becoming very depressed.
The earth, the whole earth literally starts dying,
700 years after humans have abandoned it
because they can barely remember it.
- Define earth.
- Earth the surface of the world
as distinct from the sky or sea.
- Wow.
- But then look almost as soon as they come back,
boom, life.
Going back to
"Coco"
You can even look at Hector
who is not quite the pearly white skeleton
that the rest of Miguel's family is.
He's literally and figuratively
just holding on by a thread
because he's close to being forgotten.
And an even more direct example in
"Coco"
is when Hector's friend
Chicharron dies a second death,
after finally being totally forgotten.
But this whole skeleton world exists
because the people of Mexico
have given into their biological instincts so much
that they have unknowingly created a literal pathway
from their deceased but not forgotten relatives
and the real world.
So in a way, the land of the dead and
"Coco"
is just a different representation of the conveyor belt in
"Soul"
It's just the state of limbo
they have manifested because they're so in tune
with the idea of keeping things alive by memory.
And therefore it is their collective consciousness
and memory that creates this very Mexican feeling world.
Now that said it is also very possible
that other cultures also have very different versions
of death within the Pixar verse.
Like I'd love to see what Ian and Barley's
version of death looks like
'cause certainly they have a way different belief system.
Probably.
What I think we get to see with Joe, however
is just the most broad spectrum
version of human death that exists
within the Pixar universe.
Although we do also vaguely get the sense
of the conveyor belt looks sort of like frets on a guitar.
So maybe it's possible Joe is having some sort of impact
on his appearance and its surroundings.
Maybe this is his brain singular interpretation of things.
I don't know.
It's very hard to say, it's a hypothetical.
Anyway, the idea of a second death
isn't the only parallel you see between
"Soul"
And
"Coco"
For example, in
"Coco"
You learn that the dead do in fact
have a way of viewing the living.
It's very official and heavily monitored,
but once a year they are allowed to cross over
if they have the right permissions while only once a year.
I mean, it's pretty simple any more than that
you're just straight up haunting people.
But,
"Soul"
Also has such a mechanism when Joe and Twenty Two,
meet up with Moon when he's able to use his wizard staff
thank you very much,
to draw a hole in the sand and witness real life.
There aren't any security checkpoints
or anything like there are in
"Coco"
But then again they are sailing around in a pirate ship
and there are a lot of very weird consequences that result.
So maybe there's a very good reason
they have those things in place for
"Coco"
The flower bridge everyone crosses
also seems to behave in a similar way
to the conveyor belt in
"Soul"
Hector tries to cross it but he doesn't belong there.
So he simply sinks into the ground.
And Joe tries to jump off the conveyor belt
but is stopped by some kind of plasma field.
Of course, if Hector had been able to cross
he would have ended up in the real world
and we see the Joe actually does break through
and falls through a,
what I'm gonna call abstract thought.
- What is going on?
- Were abstracting.
- But eventually he falls through a portal
into the great before
which happens to be the same portal
he keeps falling through
every time he tries to jump down to earth.
So it's conceivable that's where he would have landed
from the conveyor belt as well.
But I don't know, I could be wrong about that.
It's just a hypothetical, great job J.
That was a upon about the origin of existence.
You are on fire today.
Anyway, all of that is just to explain
why dying looks different in
"Coco"
And
"Soul"
But actually it's the same.
Cool, but now that we've dropped out of a portal
and landed in the great before,
let's talk about the great before
because it has some pretty unique properties.
I mean, for one it's the origin point
for all conscious thought life and inspiration in existence.
So I guess that's cool.
But even more important, Twenty Two tells us
time doesn't really exist there.
Which is just really hard to wrap your head around because
just based on her number Twenty Two,
she has literally been there almost forever.
And I mean the actual concept of forever.
But then she's also had mentors from across
like all of known history.
So, time must've been passing in some way
but also not at all.
And actually, if you look right here
and you translate his name tag from Hindi,
it translates to lamp.
And since we know that eventually technology takes rise.
It means the technology also has souls.
And that in the future before Joe lived
Twenty Two was mentored by a lamp.
Probably, interestingly though
she also has this just a box portal room thing here
which she can enter and then exit
at a different point into an area known as
the zone where time definitely does exist.
And we know time exists there because
Moon wind literally says him
and his crew meets there every Tuesday
we see Twenty Two messing with real people in real time
and we watch a lost soul get returned to its body
in real time.
So, on one side of the box,
we have a point fixed on the present.
And on the other side of the box,
we have a point fixed specifically nowhere in time.
Traveling through a door
and ending up at different points in time.
Why does that sound familiar?
All right, because according to the Pixar theory
that is exactly what the witch is doing
across all of time in her endless search for solely.
Also not for nothing Twenty Twos box
isn't just the door between the two places.
There's like a little room on the inside
that they have to travel through
similar to the witch's workshop
which is like all full of Pixar Easter eggs
like the pizza planet truck or A1 13.
And hey look, oh wow,
what do you know, Twenty Two has a Luxo ball right there.
What are the odds, what are the odds?
Who knew.
Actually fun fact this isn't related,
but the pizza planet truck
and A1 13 can both be found in the same shot
in the hall have everything right here and right here.
Isn't that cool.
Also, also we have a 2319 right here
and at John Ratzenberger's voice does not appear in this one
but the man himself does right here.
And I think that's all of the main ones.
Oh, wait, no it's not remember the Chinese food box
that pops up in all the different movies.
Yeah, well that's right here on this guy's desk,
but so anyway does that mean that Twenty Two is Boo,
is the witch?
Well not no, but I don't think so.
I mean, we see Twenty Two land in Joe's body and
"Soul"
Is pretty, definitely taking place well after
"Monster Inc"
At least on the human side of the door,
the monster board is of course way in the future
after the humans returned back from the Axiom,
but master standard Pixar theory.
Anyway, my point is that Joe is obviously older than Boo
and yet by that point in time Twenty Two
doesn't already have a body, so.
But at the same rate, like we just said
the great before operates outside of time.
So it's possible when Twenty Two jumps down to earth
at the end she isn't actually landing in the present.
Which, oh my God, this is really hard to like
wrap your head around and think about.
Either way, won't worry.
We have many thoughts about who Twenty Two
might actually have ended up being or was,
or will have been hard to say
anyway that's a different video.
In the meantime, though, the just the box portal
at least operas up some credence and explanation for
how time travel might work in the Pixar universe.
But if you still need more evidence
of time travelingness within
"Soul"
Let me redirect you back to the hall of everything
where they say anything on earth could inspire you.
All right, Well then let's see what counts
as anything on earth because this place is
Easter eggs central and those Easter eggs span across
a lot of time.
Like here's the archery range from
"Brave"
This is Charles Muntz blind way up in the sky.
This is the whale from,
"Finding Nemo"
That's the broccoli pizza from,
"Inside Out"
And that, that right there, that is the Luxo Jr lamp
from a whole different void
where it's just a bunch of letters.
But the really big one and the dead giveaway
here in the hall of everything is this one,
the Axiom.
Because yeah for the rest of that stuff, you could say
it either did exist or presently exist on earth.
But the Axiom definitely does not already exist
in the present like during, while Joe is alive.
But there it is destined to be already having happened
and yet also never having happened.
I kind of loved the fact that it's like way off
in the distance, like maybe it's no,
no way it hasn't been anyone's spark just yet.
Not yet, but either way it's there
because Pixar is all one universe
on one giant time loop created by Boo
trying to ensure that Sully never suffers the second death.
Because if she travels to the past and remember something
from the future, it effectively creates a never-ending loop.
As long as she sets the events of,
"Brave"
in motion she ensures the future will always happen.
She will always go on to be a little girl again
and meet Sully and then travel back to start things over.
And the memory stays alive.
And that is how,
"Soul"
Fits into the Pixar theory.
Guys, I've been having so much fun going through,
"Soul"
Trying to find lots of different Easter eggs.
This one is like chock full of them.
If you found any that we did not mention today's video
be sure to leave them in the comments down below.
We're not surprising me because there are so many.
Also guys we've put together an annual survey
for super Carlin brothers to kick off 2021.
There is a link to that in the description down blow
it only takes a few minutes to fill out
and it would really help us to know
that we're just sort of like on the same page as you guys,
in terms of making the kind of content you want
and maybe where we need to steer back on course
or where we can try new stuff as well.
So if you wanna take that out to really help us out.
Thanks so much.
You guys as always thank you for watching today's video.
Don't forget to leave a like on it
if you haven't already and subscribe.
So you don't miss anything future Pixar
theory, videos from us.
If you want to see our song about the Pixar theory
you can check that out right here, but Ben
that's all I got for me.
I will see you in another life brother.