Christopher Weston
 

The new Soul trailer teases great things to come, but who is Dorothea Williams?

Let’s face it, we’ve all been reduced to tears by a film at some point in our lives. 

Cinema often possesses the power to immerse us in the stories being told, and when these stories become increasingly impactful, we can’t help but feel ourselves well up, be it with tears of joy or sadness. 

Speaking of joy and sadness, few films in recent memory have made audiences quite so emotional as Pixar’s Inside Out. The 2015 film addresses themes of emotion with exhilarating imagination, making such a huge impression that most crowds left cinema screenings bleary-eyed and scrambling for tissues. 

Along with efforts like Finding Nemo and Coco, the studio has cemented a reputation for sculpting works which resonate so universally and it looks like they’ve knocked it out of the park once again with Soul. 

Directed by Pete Docter, this forthcoming film tells the tale of Joe Gardner (voiced by Jamie Foxx), a music teacher who, after an accident, is sent to a realm where souls develop personalities before being sent to Earth. 

The trailer tells us a lot, but who exactly is Dorothea Williams? 

Soul: Dorothea Williams in the Pixar-verse

Dorothea Williams is a character who features in Soul. 

She is a jazz musician who Joe greatly admires, and as things begin looking up he’s presented with the opportunity to play with Dorothea and her band at the Half Note Club (featured above). 

However, those who love Pixar will know that there are sometimes small connections between the films, and it turns out the character is referenced in a previous movie!

In conversation with Empire, Onward director Dan Scanlon revealed that there’s a nod to Dorothea Williams in his film: “There’s a jazz performer in Soul named Dorothea Williams… Our movie doesn’t have any human beings in it so we thought, how are we going to get a nod in there?”

He continued: “Early on in act one, when Barley is racing over to clean up his game that Colt Bronco has knocked over, you can see the Lightfoot family have a bunch of albums. The top album is a Dorothea Williams album… I was like, that’s a good place to put it in there.”

Angela Bassett: Movies & TV

The character of Dorothea Williams is voiced by the wonderful Angela Bassett. 

Audiences may best associate the 61-year-old American actress with the role of Tina Turner in the 1993 biopic What’s Love Got to Do with It. 

More recently, she’s become well known for playing Ramonda in the MCU, appearing in such efforts as Black Panther and Avengers: Endgame. If you’re not a Marvel fan, on the other hand, perhaps you’ve seen her in Mission: Impossible – Fallout (she played Erika Sloane), London Has Fallen (Lynne Jacobs), This Means War (Collins) and Chi-Raq (Miss Helen).

As for TV, she’s played numerous characters in American Horror Story (Marie Laveau, Desiree Dupree etc.) and voiced Ana Spanikopita on Netflix’s BoJack Horseman. 

(EDITORIAL USE ONLY) Angela Bassett attends the Elie Saab show as part of the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Fall

Pixar fans embrace Soul trailer on Twitter

Since the enlightening trailer dropped, a number of admirers have flocked to Twitter to offer their thoughts. 

Honestly, this looks like it’ll be an absolute winner! Check out a selection of tweets:

 

 

 

 

 

In other news, The Good Karma Hospital is back!