What happened to the Pixar Soul cat?
It’s one of the lingering unanswered questions in Pixar’s latest film, Soul, which debuted exclusively on Disney Plus last December.
Starring the voice of Jamie Foxx as Joe Gardner, a middle school music teacher trying to become a big-time jazz musician, and Tina Fey as 22, a soul afraid to become human, it also features a cat named Mr Mittens, and our feline friend had a fairly substantial role, as both Joe and 22 wind up inhabiting Mr Mittens’ body at some point.
But what is he doing and how does he factor into the plot?
Well, Joe spends most of the movie in a coma after accidentally falling into a manhole, and Mr Mittens is an extremely fuzzy, overweight therapy cat visiting the hospital. Most of the comic relief from the film comes from his antics as he continues his feline antics despite the immense concerns of the other characters.
The Pixar Soul Cat was a highlight, but what happened to Mr Mittens?
While joe eventually returns to his body, the ultimate fate of Mr Mittens is left unexplored.
“The cat had nine lives,” Soul co-director Kemp Powers explained on Twitter to curious fans, as People Magazine reported, adding that they created an entire sequence (in live-action film terms, a scene or montage) of the cat returning to his body.
“We considered playing it over the end credits, but considered it a bit too silly tonally,” Powers continued.
While Soul is a lot of things, most of all emotional, as nearly every Pixar movie is, one of the things it is NOT is silly, as it’s possibly the most ambitious and philosophical story they’ve told yet, exploring what it means to be happy as a human and what the typical urban African-American experience is like.
According to the website Daily Paws, therapy cats do actually exist, and their job description is very similar to that of therapy dogs like our friends Bark-Andre Furry and Sir Winston Da Doodle.
So while the film implied that perhaps Mr Mittens passed away, according to Powers that is not the case, which is a good thing.
Pixar’s Soul can be viewed on Disney Plus.