Review: "22 vs. Earth"

Disney/Pixar’s Soul (2020) was very fortunate to win the Best Animated Feature Oscar last Sunday, April 25th, 2021, along with the Oscar for Best Original Score. On April 30th, 2021, Pixar released a new short, and a prequel film to “Soul,” on Disney+. Titled 22 vs. Earth (2021), it tells a story of Tina Fey’s “Soul 22” character’s time in “The Great Before,” before she meets Joe Gardner’s soul, and acknowledges why she doesn’t want to go to Earth. Here’s my review of this short film.

The short opens with Soul 22 explaining why she doesn’t want to go Earth. As she speaks to another random soul, she says she doesn’t want to go because she believes that it’s a “dirty, wet, and lonely” planet and that it’s just not worth visiting and she decides to rebel against going to Earth by rounding up five young souls to steal the inspiration of life from other souls in “The Great Before.” However, even when the five young souls steal the inspiration from the other souls, they wind up becoming inspired themselves and going to Earth, abandoning Soul 22 in a humorous way.

Just like “Soul,” the movie, “22 vs. Earth,” is inspiring because it reminds us that life on Earth can have all kinds of different meanings and/or inspirations. But beyond that, it shows that life’s many inspirations make life on Earth worth living. People often question the true meaning of life, but the truth is, life can have all kinds of different meanings.

“22 vs. Earth,” continues the beautiful visuals of “Soul.” Going on this 3D Animation journey, we get to see a bunch of different “souls” that couldn’t be more cute to look at, and by the time we see them head off to Earth, it’s as though the audience is in outer space. It’s a brief, but fun adventure.

“22 vs. Earth,” also continues the clever humor of “Soul.” It was written by Josh Cooley, who won the Best Animated Feature Oscar last year for his direction of Toy Story 4 (2019) and the short was directed by Kevin Nolting who edited “Soul,” as well as Disney/Pixar’s Up (2009) and Inside Out (2015), both of which were awarded the Best Animated Feature Oscar and written and directed by “Soul,” director Pete Docter, who also executive produced the short. Reprising her role from the film as the voice of Soul 22, Tina Fey appears alongside Richard Ayoade and Alice Braga, as the Counselor Jerries. The short film was scored by Trent Raznor and Atticus Ross, who won both the Best Original Score Oscar and Best Original Score Golden Globe for “Soul,” awards they shared with Jon Batiste.

“22 vs. Earth,” is a beautiful animated short film. As it reunites many of the same talent from “Soul,” along with the same visuals, it continues the same inspiring message from “Soul,” that life is full of all kinds of meaningful inspirations. Hats off to Pixar for making both a film and a short with such a unique message!