Pixar Animation Studios just hit the stage at the D23 Expo to share new details about two upcoming movies set to release in 2020. First, director Pete Docter greeted fans to introduce the cast of next summer's animated movie Soul. Officially revealed as the leading voice cast members, Tina Fey and Jamie Foxx came out to a raucous applause to join several other cast members on stage. Pixar has also released some first look photos at the movie's lead characters as well as a piece of concept art, which you can take a look at below.
As revealed at D23, by explaining where souls come from, the premise of Soul looks to answer the age-old question of, "Why am I here?" Its plot will take viewers on a journey from the streets of New York City to the cosmic realms in one of Pixar's most unique concepts yet. In the movie, Jamie Foxx will be playing music teacher Joe Gardner who gets a dream job but takes a wrong step, causing his soul to leave his body. It's in this realm where he meets 22, played by Tina Fey - a soul who does not want to go to Earth. Confirmed to be joining Fey and Foxx in the cast are Phylicia Rashad, Daveed Diggs, and Questlove. Additionally, the movie will feature original music from Jon Batiste and and an original score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
By this point, it's safe to trust Soul will be a must-see picture, given Pixar's impressive track record. Because their movies are generally very high in quality, all of their releases are all but expected to be big hits. Their previous two releases, Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 4, both pulled in over a billion dollars at the box office in worldwide ticket sales. We'll see if Soul manages to reach these heights, but in any case, it's more than likely to be a tremendous success.
Also touched on at D23 was the Pixar movie Onward, which will premiere in theaters in Spring 2020. Voice cast members Chris Pratt and Tom Holland hit the stage to speak about the movie, and as you can expect, the latter was met with tremendous applause in the wake of the difficult week he's had. Set in a magical world populated with elves, mermaids, trolls, and other mystical creatures, Onward follows two teenage elves looking to speak to their long-deceased father by way of magic. Of course, this news about both Soul and Onward is just a part of many awesome updates to come out of D23, and there's still even more exciting news continuing to come out of the event. We can quickly recap it all by saying it's definitely a great time to be a Disney fan.
From Pixar Animation Studios, Soul will be premiering in theaters everywhere on June 19, 2020. Onward will be hitting the big screen a bit sooner when it premieres on March 6, 2020. We've still got quite a while to go, but it certainly won't hurt to mark those calendar dates now. Information about the cast of Soul comes to us from Soul on Twitter.
