Pixar’s Soul proved to be one of the best films of 2020. The Peter Docter directorial won the Best Animated Feature Film and the Best Original Score Award at the Oscars 2021. After such a big win, the makers decided to release 22 Vs Earth, a short film based on 22’s life, released on Disney+Hotstar today.
22 Vs Earth is directed by Kevin Nolting, who was the editor of Soul. The short film gives us a glimpse of 22’s life in The Great Before, prior to her meeting with Joe Gardener (Jamie Foxx). Tina Fey is back to voice the cynical soul who despises Earth to the core.
The short film is just 6 minutes but gives us a clear idea of how much 22 hates Earth. In the prequel, she blames Earth for taking all her friends away from her. As we saw in the film, these unborn souls that look like light blue blobs are brought to life on Earth once they find their spark. This is exactly what 22 hates.
In the short film, 22 forms a team of 5 unborn and innocent souls and works to stop other souls from going to Earth. She calls the mission ‘Apocalypse’ that’s nothing close to the actual meaning of the word. I’m not going to reveal what it means as I don’t want to give away the hilarious spoiler.
22 and her gang do everything in their capacity to stop the unborn souls from finding the spark that gives them a pass to enter Earth. Without the pass, no one can enter the ‘sad, rocky planet’, as she kind of describes. Does she succeed in her mission? Well, you will have to watch 22 Vs Earth for the same.
Kevin Nolting has presented us with a wonderful and simple prequel. He didn’t dive deep into giving us the reason for 22’s hatred towards Earth. But we get to see all the efforts she took to stop other blue blobs from getting born on the planet. It amazes us how spending time on Earth with Joe in Soul changed her mind. That’s some major character transformation!
The reason for making 22 Vs Earth was also to shift the focus to 22. In Soul, the story was more about Joe, and she acted as a sidekick. About how challenging this task was, Kevin Nolting had earlier told The Hindu, “Yes, it is challenging in that respect as we know 22 and what she is. We don’t have time to explore a lot more, and we have to be true to the feature film. Because we did not explore 22 as much as Joe in the film, we started talking about what made her this way and the specific incidents that led up to this 22 we see in Soul.”
22 Vs Earth: Is it worth it?
Overall, 22 Vs Earth is a cute treat for every soul. You get to see the stubbornness of 22 and how she managed to stay away from Earth and tried to stop others from doing the same. It’s just a 6-minute watch that will leave a smile on your face.
22 Vs Earth is currently streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
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