(keyboard keys tapping)
- [Narrator] Hi, I'm Michael.
This is "Lessons from the Screenplay".
Two fundamental elements of character design
are want and need.
What the character wants usually drives the story forward,
but it's often through the character's need
that a story expresses its theme
and creates an emotional impact.
In Pixar's "Soul" these aspects of story structure
are right on the surface, because the protagonist
is so preoccupied with pursuing a goal
that he ignores the joy to be found along the way.
So today I want to explore how the film
creates the arc of the protagonist, Joe,
to examine how it makes the audience
deeply empathize with his want,
while subtly signaling what he actually needs,
and to reveal how Joe's finally understanding his need
creates one of the most emotional scenes in the film.
Let's take a look at "Soul".
(soft instrumental music)
(lively jazz music)
- One, two, three, four. Stay on the beat.
- [Narrator] As the film begins,
the thing Joe wants is quickly made clear.
We see Joe's struggles as a middle school band teacher...
(clack)
as well as his talent and passion for music.
(moving piano music)
Joe is dissatisfied with his life
and longs to be a professional musician.
The inciting incident of the film
makes his want even more specific.
Joe gets the opportunity of a lifetime,
the chance to play with jazz legend Dorothea Williams.
- Wow!
I would die a happy man
if I could perform with Dorothea Williams.
- [Curly] Well, this could be your lucky day.
- [Narrator] He nails the audition
and is set to play the gig of his life,
but then something quite frustrating happens:
he dies.
(Joe shouts)
- [Narrator] This crystallizes his want.
- No, no, no, no, no, no. Listen.
I have a gig tonight. I can't die now!
- [Narrator] Joe wants to escape death, return to his body,
and play the gig that will change his life.
- I'm not dying today, not when my life just started.
- [Narrator] But in order for the audience
to identify with Joe,
we have to want him to get what he wants.
The film uses a few techniques
to show us how happy music makes Joe.
When he plays and goes into "the zone,"
beautiful visuals and sound design convey how he feels.
The characters around Joe are also impressed
by his musical ability...
- Joe Gardner, where have you been?
- [Narrator] Clearly communicating that he's talented.
And once Joe is in the Great Before,
we get a glimpse of how much rejection he has faced
in pursuit of his dream.
- Sorry, Joe. - Sorry, Joe.
- [Man] We're looking for something different.
- [Narrator] But what makes "Soul" special
is that Joe's want is something
that is culturally accepted as being worthy of pursuit.
Our culture tends to assign value based on achievement,
and most of us have probably thought at some point,
"If I could just accomplish this one thing,
then I would be happy."
So the film not only uses tried-and-true
filmmaking techniques to help us identify with Joe,
but also gives him a culturally-encouraged want,
something we might by default assume is indeed
a good and worthwhile thing to pursue.
And this brilliant choice ultimately makes the film's themes
even more powerful, once Joe realizes his need.
(soft instrumental music)
There's a great summary
of the relationship between need and want
in K.M. Weiland's book, "Creating Character Arcs."
"Your character will spend most of the story
pursuing an outer, plot-related goal
related to the Thing He Wants.
But what the story is really about, on a deeper level,
is his growth into a place where he,
first subconsciously, then consciously,
recognizes and pursues his inner goal, the Thing He Needs."
So how does Joe come to recognize
and pursue the thing he needs?
This is where Joe's antagonist,
or opponent if you want to use a softer word,
22, comes in.
- I'm gonna make you wish you never died.
- [Narrator] As a soul who has never been to Earth
nor ever been in a body...
- I'm in a body?
- Why are you in my body?
- [Narrator] The experience of living is entirely new to 22.
(gasps)
- Don't worry, it's okay. Just keep walking.
(jake hammer rattling)
(shouts)
- [Narrator] At first, being stuck in Joe's body
is overwhelming, but around the midpoint of the story,
22 starts getting into this whole living thing.
Meanwhile, Joe, who is stuck in the body of a cat,
watches as 22's complete lack of interest in jazz
creates new opportunities for human connection.
- It is nice to talk to you
about something other than jazz, Joe.
- Huh.
How come we never talked about your life before?
- You never asked. But I'm glad you did this time.
- [Narrator] 22 delights in living life moment by moment,
appreciating the things Joe overlooks
as he continues to pursue the thing he wants.
This hints at Joe's need:
to realize that attaching his purpose in life
to accomplishing a singular goal
prevents him from actually living.
Although Joe starts to become conscious
of his need at the midpoint,
this need is actually present from the start of the film,
in ways we may have even been blind to
because we were swept up in Joe's
culturally-encouraged pursuit of his want.
In that same first scene where Joe struggles as a teacher,
we also see that he experiences joy
watching just one of his students
falling in love with music.
In the second scene, Joe's mother points out all the things
he doesn't seem to appreciate about teaching music.
- And lord knows we need more teachers in this world.
And just think, playing music
will finally be your real career!
- [Narrator] And if we revisit Joe's lines
when he is faced with the Great Beyond,
we see that they reveal
his subconscious awareness of his need.
- I'm not dying today. Not when my life just started.
- [Narrator] Deep down, Joe knows
that he hasn't really been living his life,
but instead waiting for some magical future
that will mark when his life really starts.
Joe's need is present subconsciously
from the start of the film, and while he begins
to recognize it consciously at the midpoint,
how does he finally accept it?
In the final stages of a positive change arc,
the story must force the character
to confront their need, at the crisis.
(soft instrumental music)
A protagonist can end a story
having gotten what they want, what they need,
or both, or neither.
In most quote-unquote happy endings,
the protagonist gets what they want and what they need.
In "Groundhog Day", spoiler warning, Phil gets what he needs
when he learns how to be truly selfless,
and in doing so becomes worthy of the thing he wants:
the affection of his love interest, Rita.
Check out our video on "Groundhog Day".
In more bittersweet endings,
the protagonist sacrifices the thing they originally wanted
for the thing they need.
In "Children of Men", spoiler warning,
Theo just wants to make some money
and maintain his apathy toward the future of humanity.
But in the end, he realizes that the thing he needs
is to reawaken his passion and to fight for humanity,
and he makes the ultimate sacrifice to that end.
Check out our video on "Children of Men".
"Soul" does something interesting.
The film makes Joe realize his need
by giving him exactly what he wants.
By the end of the second act, Joe is back in his body
and manages to make it to his gig with Dorothea Williams,
though it's clear he still hasn't embraced his need.
- Get ready Joe Gardner. Your life is about to start.
He plays the show and absolutely kills it,
receiving a standing ovation.
(audience cheering)
- Welcome to the quartet, teach.
- [Narrator] Joe has finally gotten
everything he has ever wanted,
so he's confused when he finds himself feeling lost.
- What's wrong, Teach?
- It's just I've been waiting on this day for...
my entire life.
I thought I'd feel different.
- [Narrator] This conversation with Dorothea
is what finally prepares Joe
to fully recognize his need, and it does this in two ways.
On the Spotify podcast "Soul" Stories,
"Soul"'s co-writer and director Pete Docter
recounts a story told to him by Trent Reznor,
who co-scored the film and is the driving creative force
behind the band Nine Inch Nails.
- [Pete Docter] He said, "I felt as a musician,
boy, if I could someday just play a stadium show,
that would mean that I've made it.
He said somehow he felt that it would fix him
and make everything make sense.
And what happened was, instead,
he plays the show, it's great,
and everybody has lives and they went home.
And he's left there going,
"Wait, I thought that was supposed to be
the thing that put it all in place, and it didn't."
And it was because of that story
of waiting backstage for people
that we put in, remember, Kemp,
we put in that the thing with the subway.
- [Narrator] "The thing with the subway" is a reference
to earlier in the film,
when Joe associates riding the subway
with monotony and dissatisfaction in life,
and he imagines a future
when he won't have to be concerned with such things.
- Every day the same thing, day in and day out.
But once I get on that stage tonight,
all my troubles are going to be fixed.
You're gonna see a brand-new Joe Gardner.
- [Narrator] But after playing the gig of his life,
he realizes that even his dream job is still a job.
- So... (chuckles)
what happens next?
- We come back tomorrow night and do it all again.
- [Narrator] Immediately after this interaction,
we see Joe ending his day by riding the subway home,
just like everyone else.
The second way the conversation with Dorothea
prepares Joe to recognize his need
is through the story she tells him,
which succinctly summarizes the problem with Joe's want.
- I heard this story about a fish.
He swims up to this older fish and says,
"I'm trying to find this thing they call the ocean."
"The ocean?" says the older fish,
"That's what you're in right now."
"This?" says the young fish, "This is water.
What I want is the ocean."
(soft piano music)
See you tomorrow.
- [Narrator] After getting what he wants
and hearing this story,
Joe now understands the theme at the heart of the film:
attaching your purpose in life to a goal
will not bring you permanent happiness
even if you achieve it, and in the meantime
you'll miss out on all the life happening around you.
Armed with this knowledge, Joe returns home,
remembers the joy 22 found in all the little things in life,
and finally gets what he needs.
- So, what do you think you'll do?
How are you gonna spend your life?
- I'm not sure.
But I do know...
I'm gonna live every minute of it.
(gentle instrumental music)
- "Soul" clearly demonstrates
the importance of a character's want and a character's need.
By making the thing Joe wants something
that our culture often encourages us to want as well,
the movie teaches a valuable life lesson
that we unfortunately hear very rarely.
If we decide that our lives won't really begin,
won't really have a purpose,
until we achieve a singular goal,
then we may miss out on all the life happening around us,
in this very moment.
Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed our video on "Soul".
I have a question for you.
I'm thinking about putting together
a video essayist roundtable
that would premiere on Nebula,
and I want to know from you guys:
Who are some video essayists
you'd love to see be a part of the conversation,
and what are some topics that you'd want us to talk about?
Let me know in the comments below.
If you're unfamiliar with Nebula, it's a streaming service
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Plus, there are things called Nebula Originals,
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If you're interested in signing up for Nebula,
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If you sign up for CuriosityStream, not only do you get
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So, for example, you could, on CuriosityStream,
check out "The Science of Cute",
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that features tons of adorable imagery.
And then also check out, on Nebula,
Tom Scott torturing some YouTubers
or Real Engineering's series on the logistics of D-Day,
which is really fascinating.
And if you use the link in the description below,
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So head to link in the description below
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Thank you, CuriosityStream, for sponsoring this video.
If you haven't, this is also a great time
to check out our podcast, "Beyond the Screenplay",
where each week the team and I do a conversational
deep-dive analysis into a different film.
The link to our episode on "Soul"
is in the description below.
Thank you as always to the patrons
for making this channel possible,
and thank you for watching.