Soul

The movie features Pixar's first black lead character and a mainly black voice cast to represent the New York jazz scene. The casting is central to the film's identity, and Disney heavily marketed the movie as a major milestone for diversity. While the casting choices fit the story world perfectly, the studio used a dedicated Cultural Trust to prioritize identity representation during production.

The core story is about finding joy in everyday life rather than chasing career success. While the movie celebrates black jazz culture, it handles these elements as a normal backdrop for the main character rather than using them to push activist themes of systemic oppression or identity politics. The abstract soul characters are genderless, but this is a natural part of the fantasy setting and is not framed around modern queer activism.

The key creative team is highly mixed. High-level leaders like director Pete Docter have a mild track record focused on universal appeal. However, the wider crew includes several prominent activists. Script supervisor Jessica Heidt and producer Kiri Hart have very strong records of pushing gender diversity and representation-first mandates. Co-director Kemp Powers and writer Aphton Corbin also have active track records of prioritizing racial diversity.