Pixar films have always been existential in some form, from Woody’s identity crisis in Toy Story to exploring dark themes like grief and death in Coco and Up. Yet Soul, directed by animation veteran Pete Docter (Inside Out), takes this aforementioned topic to its logical extreme: the creation of one’s very soul. It’s a surreal look at preexistence with the usual Pixar hallmarks of solid animation, strong voice acting, and a score that aptly fits in with plot’s subtext, making for easily the studio’s best movie in years.

Soul takes place over the course of a day in the life of Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx), an aspiring jazz pianist stuck teaching middle school band to students who mostly lack his passion for music. Pursuing this goal with no long-term financial plan seems foolhardy to his mother, Libba (Phylicia Rashad), a successful seamstress, but a fortuitous call from his old student Curley (Questlove) lands Joe an audience with legendary jazz saxophonist Dorothea Williams (Angela Bassett), who offers him a dream gig that’s to take place that night. Then just when things are looking up, Joe falls down a manhole and ends up a discorporate blue soul (still wearing his trilby hat) on what looks like a conveyor belt to “the Great Beyond.” The implications are pretty self-explanatory.

Naturally, not wanting to die on the cusp of his big break, Joe escapes to the opposite end of death: the Great Before, or the You Seminar, as it’s now called, where souls are created and outfitted with various emotions and personality traits. Disguising himself as a mentor for unfinished souls, Joe is put in charge of the rambunctious 22 (Tina Fey), whose disinterest in visiting Earth has driven hundreds of previous historical mentors insane, even Mother Teresa. Yet the two need each other since, if Joe can activate 22’s “spark,” he can use her completed soul badge to return to Earth and make his show, thus sending them both on a wild adventure.

Compared to most Pixar entries, Soul benefits from going in blind. There are a lot of jokes and plot points centered around Joe and 22’s fish out of water antics not shown in the trailers, with Foxx and Fey constantly bouncing off each other with great comedic timing. Both characters have certain expertise in fields that the other desperately needs for self-improvement, many of which are experienced through Joe’s personal life back on Earth. Without spoiling much, these situations involve some gags about a therapy cat, an insightful barbershop conversation, and one joke about the New York Knicks that had me in tears for a full minute.

Though the film successfully brings bustling New York City to life, its standout creation is the You Seminar, a Dr. Seuss–like fantasy landscape populated by baby souls and statuesque 2-D counselors all named Jerry (voiced by Alice Braga, Richard Ayoade, and Wes Studi). It’s above the realm of human understanding yet not wholly inaccessible, as various people can enter this spiritual world by getting in “the zone,” either through their professional craft/calling or psychedelic meditation. One expert in the latter is a hippie and living soul named Moonwind (Graham Norton), who regularly provides aid to Joe and 22’s quest when he’s not scouring the zone via a pirate ship for “lost souls” in need of rescue from their obsessive funks. Cutesy as it may sound, this is a visually ambitious world covering all forms of religious and spiritual philosophy in a manner that young viewers can understand, even if some larger themes may go over their heads.

Soul also stands out for its lack of any real antagonist, save for the occasional bureaucratic involvement of a cheerless soul tallier named Terry (Rachel House). Its main conflict is literally internal, as Joe and 22 embark on a journey of self-discovery that coincides with the movie’s running motif of jazz music, whose focus on improvisational expression contrasts with Joe’s rigid pursuit of a career achievement that will supposedly give his life purpose. When Joe gets in the zone, his musical passion comes out in a blaze of psychedelic colors, aided by a score composed by The Late Show’s Jon Batiste that captures the essence of losing oneself in art. It’s about as otherworldly a sensation as being in the You Seminar itself.

Where Soul will rank amongst the Pixar pantheon is difficult to tell, but I predict it will be a favorite for many. Like the studio’s best films, its high points are the stuff only topped by Studio Ghibli in terms of animation, the kind that make you feel things, question what you know, and warrant multiple viewings to better comprehend its grander ideas. Now that the film has been released on Disney+, that last part definitely won’t be so difficult.