The Interview Process 

We can criticize depictions from old media, but they weren’t simply “good for their time”. They were fighting and struggling in a world we can’t imagine.

Set against the backdrop of the Jim Crow era, the film offers layered representation.

Soul takes intangible concepts like self and personality and makes them completely palpable and simple to digest.

This film manages to be simultaneously topical and timeless. Without being preachy, it highlights society’s flawed relationship with tech; insights into the complex ideas of family struggle are expertly dispersed among a perfectly paced and balanced story.

In the film adaptation, director Jon M. Chu turns each musical number into a massive show stopper, with grand set pieces and a wealth of diverse dancers. Yet, in this attempt to show reverence for the people of the Washington Heights barrio, Chu, or maybe more specifically those in charge of casting, left out a crucial part of the community, Afro-Latinos.

This modern update of the beloved classic swaps Cyrano's signature pronounced nose for achondroplasia, for a different vision that still retains the original's essence.