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How SOUL Proves THE PIXAR THEORY!

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    Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, I'm Jan and in
    this video I'm explaining how Pixar's new
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    movie Soul proves the theory that all the
    studio's films take place in an interconnected
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    universe.
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    I'll also show you how Soul explains the Toy
    Story movies, where the Incredibles get their
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    powers, and the origins of the magical doorways
    in Monsters Inc and Brave.
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    Plus I'll explain how the new film fits in
    with Inside Out and Coco.
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    Of course, there'll be some spoilers, so take
    care.
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    Jon Negroni first introduced the idea of a
    single Pixar timeline, and it's in Soul's
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    The Hall of Everything where we can find especially
    compelling evidence to confirm Negroni's theory.
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    The hall is overflowing with specific objects
    and locations which often recur in Pixar's
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    films, from the iconic Pizza Planet truck
    to the blimp from Up, and even the weirdly
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    shaped rock, called Wille's Butte from the
    Cars movies.
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    And that's a huge pointer that the films exist
    in the same universe.
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    But Soul goes even further than this, because
    even though the film appears to be set roughly
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    in the present day, which I'm basing on the
    look and feel of New York City and the cellphone
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    Joe uses,
    the Hall of Everything even has objects from
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    the future such as the Axiom from Wall-E,
    one of a fleet of giant starliners that wasn't
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    used until 2105 when Buy N Large arranged
    for the evacuation of Earth.
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    This implies that The Hall of Everything may
    even contain blueprints or at least the inspiration
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    for events that are still to come in the future
    of the Pixar universe.
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    Soul also demonstrates one of the most important
    concepts at the heart of Negroni's Pixar Theory,
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    that humans are batteries.
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    The idea is that human beings are a source
    of energy to sentient objects such as the
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    toys in Toy Story which is why they crave
    the love of their owners;
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    otherwise, it's suggested that if the toys
    end up stored away they lose their life.
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    And in Monsters Inc, we know that technology
    exists that can harvest energy from human
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    emotions such as fear or joy.
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    And there are several moments in Soul that
    strongly support this idea of humans as an
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    energy source.
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    When Joe is on the elevator that leads to
    the Great Beyond, he notices that as the souls
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    of the recently deceased float up into the
    big bright light, they fizzle and crackle
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    like an electrical charge.
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    [electrical crackling sounds]
    As if to reinforce this idea that a soul is
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    a form of energy, there's also an electrical
    crackle sound effect whenever we see Terry
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    counting souls on her abacus.
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    [electrical crackling sounds]
    Joe also discovers in the Great Before that
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    before new souls can take their place on Earth,
    they not only have to acquire a set of personalities,
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    but they also need what the movie calls a
    "spark" to complete that personality.
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    Without this spark, theoretically a soul isn't
    allowed to go to Earth and live a human life.
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    Twenty-two does end up on Earth by accident,
    but the general rule is that a "spark" is
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    needed to complete the Earth Pass which a
    soul needs to live a life.
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    The word "spark" can, of course, mean a number
    of things such as a burst of electricity or
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    an intense feeling or emotion, which again
    points to this idea of human beings as a form
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    of energy or batteries even.
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    Another crucial element of Negroni's Pixar
    theory is the idea that Boo from Monsters
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    Inc travels back in time to become the Witch
    in Brave.
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    I'll get to how Soul supports this idea shortly,
    but first let's quickly recap what the theory
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    says about time travel.
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    Brave is set in 10th-century Scotland whereas,
    given the monsters' advanced technology, Monsters
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    Inc takes place in the future.
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    The clearest evidence which suggests time
    travel is the wood carving of Sulley that
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    the Witch has in her cottage.
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    She's also obsessed with bears which could
    be her way of expressing the strong friendship
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    she made with Sulley in Monsters Inc.
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    On top of that, the Witch has carvings of
    the Pizza Planet truck which should be impossible
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    given motorised vehicles most definitely did
    not exist in medieval Scotland
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    and she has carved parodies of famous art
    by artists from the future like Michelangelo.
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    The door to the Witch's cottage is also magical
    and can transport her into an alternate interior
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    version of her hut, and it can also make her
    disappear.
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    This is because Boo learned how the technology
    of the portal doors at the Monsters Inc factory
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    worked, which is how she travelled through
    time and space.
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    Crucially in Soul, we can see this same technology
    in the You Seminar.
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    After souls are paired up with their mentor,
    Jerry conjures up a door and sends them through
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    it, instantly transporting them to another
    location.
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    And when Jerry gives Joe his second chance
    to return to Earth, he passes from The Great
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    Beyond through a door and emerges on Earth
    through another door.
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    Given The Great Before existed at the beginning
    of time, it suggests that the technology for
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    magical portals in the Pixar Universe was
    originally born there.
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    Soul also makes a sneaky possible reference
    to Boo's time-travel shenanigans in what initially
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    appears to be a throwaway line by one of the
    Jerrys.
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    When Terry turns up to complain that the count
    is out by one soul, Jerry replies:
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    "I seriously doubt that.
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    The count hasn't been off in centuries."
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    This is a vital piece of information for Pixar
    theorists because it tells us an anomaly similar
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    to Joe escaping the elevator that was taking
    him to the Great Beyond has happened previously,
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    several hundred years ago in fact.
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    To understand what may have happened all those
    centuries ago, let's look at what happened
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    when Joe's soul accidentally fell into the
    body of Mr Mittens.
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    "Why am I in a cat?"
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    "I don't know!"
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    "Meow."
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    It seems that Mr Mittens' soul was sent off
    to The Great Beyond.
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    So, what if Boo did a similar thing when she
    time-travelled to medieval Scotland?
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    Could she have landed in the body of a Scottish
    woman and displaced her soul sending it up
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    to the Great Beyond?
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    That would mean there'd be an extra soul in
    the afterlife without a corresponding dead
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    body on Earth, which could be the reason for
    the count being off as Jerry said.
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    Interestingly, when Joe returns to his old
    body in Soul, Mr Mittens appears to regain
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    his original soul too as we see him reunite
    with his owner,
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    so if my theory about Boo and the Witch's
    soul is correct, it makes me wonder whether
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    Terry did anything about the anomaly that
    occurred in the soul count hundreds of years
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    ago.
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    By the way, it's worth pointing out that there's
    also a Brave easter egg in Soul during the
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    video at the You Seminar when we see a soul
    find its spark after it successfully shoots
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    an arrow into the centre of one of three targets,
    referencing Merida's demonstration of archery
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    skills when she fired arrows into three targets.
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    And there are, of course, many more Pixar
    easter eggs in Soul including the Chinese
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    takeout box, A113, and the Luxo Ball, all
    of which I reveal in my full easter eggs video.
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    Now, there are two Pixar movies, Inside Out
    and Coco, which on the surface seem to contradict
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    Soul and maybe pose a problem for how smoothly
    it fits into the interconnected universe of
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    the Pixar Theory.
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    The first issue is to do with personality.
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    In The Great Before, we discover that every
    soul acquires a set of personalities before
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    they go to Earth.
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    "This is where personalities come from?"
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    "Of course!
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    Do you think people are just born with them?"
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    However, in Inside Out, personalities are
    formed whenever a new core memory is made.
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    "Each Core Memory powers a different aspect
    of Riley's personality.
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    The Islands of Personality are what make Riley...
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    Riley!"
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    While these ideas about personality may appear
    to be at odds with one another, they can be
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    easily reconciled if we think of a new born
    soul as having a baseline personality at birth,
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    some of which adapts and changes as that person
    grows up and has different experiences.
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    In fact, in Inside Out we see that Riley loses
    her personalities when she experiences a traumatic
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    event, however, these are later restored and
    new ones are also added as she grows up;
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    so an individual's personality is clearly
    not something static or unchanging.
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    Likewise, Soul also shows us how Twenty Two's
    personality changes as she experiences life
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    on earth.
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    Something else we need to reconcile is how
    Coco's Land of the Dead fits with Soul's depiction
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    of The Great Beyond.
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    In Soul, the afterlife is a relatively simple
    place with an escalator that leads souls to
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    a giant white light in the sky.
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    This representation may be alluding to the
    idea that many people who report near-death
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    experiences describe a tunnel with a bright
    light at the end that draws them towards it.
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    Coco's spirit world, on the other hand, is
    complex and bursting with colours, with the
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    Marigold Bridge forming a connection between
    the Land of the Living and the elaborate and
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    complex Land of the Dead.
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    Fear not though, because we can resolve these
    differences by turning to Pixar's official
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    The Art of Soul book, which describes The
    Great Beyond as
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    "a place beyond all that can be known […]
    represented by a brilliant white light in
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    a vast space […]
    What lies beyond the light is all up to interpretation."
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    As the book suggests, we can interpret what
    is beyond the bright light in our own way,
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    and so we can see the Land of the Dead in
    Coco as a culturally-specific vision of what
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    the afterlife is unique to people of Mexican
    heritage.
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    This would also explain how Coco can have
    its own specific rules for its spirit world,
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    such as allowing the dead to cross over to
    the Land of the Living one day each year.
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    What's common to both Soul and Coco though
    is that the dead souls all retain the appearance
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    and age they had at the time of their death,
    whereas in the Great Before, all the souls
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    look more or less similar, likely because
    they haven't yet taken a human form yet.
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    The sparks that a soul acquires may even explain
    where the Supers in The Incredibles got their
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    powers.
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    Could it be that the souls that ended up as
    superheroes were supercharged with extra powers
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    by the spark they received in the Great Before?
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    There is, after all, a statue of what looks
    like a caped hero on a plinth in the Hall
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    of Everything.
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    Maybe that statue was responsible for sparking
    the unfortunate idea of caped superheroes.
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    "No capes!"
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    And this is just a fun idea, but could the
    soul that's being interviewed here for the
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    You Seminar training video be the soul of
    Buddy Pine, aka Syndrome.
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    "I'm a manipulative megalomaniac, who's intensely
    opportunistic."
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    "Oh ho!
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    This one might be a handful, but that's Earth's
    problem."
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    Perhaps Syndrome got his spark from that statue,
    because after all it was his cape that proved
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    to be his ultimate undoing.
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    And yes, Syndrome wasn't born with powers,
    but that statue might have inspired him to
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    seek glory in whatever way he could.
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    Or could that soul be Evelyn Deavor, the master
    manipulator and evil tech genius from the
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    second Incredibles movie?
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    The soul's possibly female-sounding voice
    might also suggest this, although we know
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    from Twenty Two that a soul can change their
    voice to sound like any type of person.
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    "I can sound like this if I wanted to.
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    Or sound like this instead.
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    I can even sound like you."
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    If you like either of these ideas, leave a
    thumbs-up or comment below with which other
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    Pixar character you think this troublemaking
    soul could be!
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    Now, do you have any more ideas on how Soul
    fits into the Pixar Theory?
  • 12:28 - 12:33
    And if you enjoyed any of my Soul theories,
    a thumbs-up is hugely appreciated.
  • 12:33 - 12:37
    You can also tap left to discover where all
    the other Pixar easter eggs are in the movie
  • 12:37 - 12:40
    or tap right for something else you're sure
    to like.
  • 12:40 - 12:42
    Thanks for watching and see ya next time.
  • 12:42 - 12:43
    Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!
Title:
How SOUL Proves THE PIXAR THEORY!
Description:

more » « less
Video Language:
English
Team:
Flicks And The City
Duration:
12:48

English subtitles

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