Pixar's 'Soul' Release Shifts To Disney Plus, Making Of Doc Announced.
Throughout this year due to the ongoing crisis we've seen release dates constantly shifting, releases switching to digital and other changes as the studios scrambled to deal with the changing situation. So it was the earlier in the year Disney pushed back the July release of Pixar's Soul, taking Raya and The Last Dragon's Thanksgiving slot in the hope that the situation would have improved by then. We now know that unfortunatley that's not going to happen. Yet while Disney has pushed the rest of this year's planned releases into 2021 Soul was staying put as their sole remaining release on the calendar. Everyone expected them to delay it again- so much so that Universal confidently moved The Croods 2 forward to within mere days from its release. But Disney was staying quiet.
Until now. It has been confirmed that Soul has indeed been removed from its slot. But rather than another delay- which in turn would push back Disney's other releases- the studio has announced that it will instead debut on streaming platform Disney Plus.
This is a big surprise, as it has been suggested that any film with a high budget is unlikely to switch to a subscription streaming platform as they were unlikely to make their money back. Disney earlier courted controversy by moving the live-action Mulan to the platform, but charging a hefty premium to access it on top of the monthly subsciption. Despite the fact that it would later be available to watch by subscribers at no extra cost.
The Mulan release was sold as a one-off, but in reality it was likely a testing ground to see if they could get away with it. It seems that the gamble hasn't really paid off (although Mulan did have other controversies surrounding it that may have hurt its numbers) as- luckily- Disney won't be repeating this pattern for Soul. Instead, it will be streaming on Disney Plus on Christmas Day for all subscribers at no extra cost. And unlike some other early Disney Plus releases, this will be the same everywhere Disney Plus is available.
The news is another blow for embattled cinema owners, who are calling out for new films to show. Disney does plan to still release the film theatrically in markets that Disney Plus is not yet available.
It's also been announced they have made a new documentary or documentary series following the struggle to complete Soul amidst an ogoing Pandemic. This will follow in the footsteps of in depth making of documentary series on the making of Frozen 2 and The Mandalorian which are streaming on Disney Plus. Whether this will be a series or a one-off is to be confirmed, as are the release date and platform- but Disney Plus would surely seem the most likely home for whatever it turns out to be.
