Pixar’s latest movie Toy Story, released in 1995, Pixar has explored different themes in its movies, always with its signature level of quality, humor, and characters who more often than not have tragic backgrounds and one big lesson to learn. Pixar’s newest adventure, Soul, is no exception, touching on a more philosophical topic with jazz music as a companion.
Soul follows Soul explores the concepts of the afterlife, pre-existence, and the journey of finding one’s true purpose and ion, and during Joe and 22’s journey, there was an unexpected player who ended up creating a plot hole: a cat, called Mr. Mittens.
When Moonwind (Graham Norton) shows Joe and 22 where Joe’s body is on Earth, he impulsively jumps to Earth and accidentally pulls 22 with him, but this doesn’t turn out as planned and 22 ends up entering Joe’s body and Joe enters the body of the therapy cat that was chilling with him at the hospital. When Joe asks himself how was that possible, the movie quickly cuts to the stairway to the Great Beyond, where the cat’s soul is seen casually sitting there, ready to go towards the light. Unlike Joe, Mr. Mittens doesn’t even move nor tries to escape, so it’s understood that it crosses over and dies. Joe and 22 are eventually caught by Terry (Rachel House) and taken back to the Great Before, with Joe returning to his body shortly after – however, as soon as he wakes up on Earth, the cat is alive as well.
As both Joe and 22 left their bodies (Joe’s and Mr. Mitten’s), with 22 staying behind in the Great Before and the cat’s soul crossing over through the light, it makes no sense that the cat was alive and well when Joe returned to his body. It’s a completely unnecessary plot hole that could have been easily avoided by not showing Mr. Mitten’s soul on its way to the light, as this also represents another problem: if Mr. Mittens made it to the Great Beyond, then the stairway must have had a bunch of animal souls too, not just human. The easiest way to explain the cat’s revival is through reincarnation: as Joe jumped back to his body, one of the young, new souls that jumped at the same time as he could have landed on Mr. Mitten’s body, thus giving it a new life.
Surely, it would have been sad (and it would have raised many questions) if the cat died on the subway while Joe got a chance to return and keep living, but at least that wouldn’t have created a plot hole. The cat isn’t seen for the rest of Soul, so the reincarnation explanation might be the best way to solve this unnecessary plot hole.
