Soul's Mr. Mittens Plot Hole Has Finally Been Cleared Up
Pixar's latest release, Soul, is getting serious critical acclaim since its release on Disney+ in December. Though its playful visual gags and animation make the movie fantastic for children, Soul has also proven to be perfect for adults, as it tactfully explores more mature subjects like death and the afterlife. As with any popular film, there will be viewers who notice a plot hole or two. In Soul's case, there is one plot hole fans have pointed out that has finally been filled in.
Some deep-thinking fans on reddit wondered how Mr. Mittens, the therapy cat Joe (Jamie Foxx) accidentally inhabits while trying to get back to his own body, was able to return to Earth alive after his soul appeared to have passed on. The film's co-writer and co-director, Kemp Powers, cleared up the plot hole, taking to Twitter to write: "The cat had 9 lives, to answer your question about how he got back. We actually boarded an entire sequence that showed how Mr. Mittens got back to his body. We were considering playing it over the end credits, but it was a bit too silly tonally."
The Soul team had to cut some ideas that weren't working
The Mr. Mittens returning to his body sequence wasn't the only part of the scrapped storyline we won't get to see in Soul on Disney+. Originally, the film was going to feature a heist storyline in which a soul would try to steal their way back into their life. According to co-writer and co-director, Pete Doctor, in an interview with SlashFilm, that idea soon changed. "We quickly recognized that if we're really talking about what makes life worth living, and we don't actually go show real life, then there's going to be a lot of talking about it but not a lot of proving it to the audience."
Some of the other ideas that were tossed included 22 (Tina Fey) as the main character and Joe as an actor instead of a musician. Soul's story supervisor, Kristine Lester, said one idea was scrapped due to its lack of believability. She told Collider: "And I remember one time there was an idea where Joe and 22 were trying to sneak through the You Seminar and pretend to be counselors, and so, the old story trick is that it's like, okay, it's two people stuffed into a coat. They were walking around in an overcoat standing on top of each other pretending to be counselors, and we watched that and we were like, 'That isn't really believable, is it?' There's a lot of stuff like that."
Thankfully, the filmmakers went ahead with the story that ultimately made it into the movie, turning it into another Pixar classic.