Analysis of the Visual Representation of the Pre-Existent World in the Animation "Soul" with Emphasis on Children's Mental Perception

Pete Docter’s feature-length animated movie “Soul” (2020) takes an innovative approach to exploring abstract and metaphysical concepts such as the nature of the soul and the pre-birth world. Given the age rating adopted for this animation, children are an important part of its audience. Developmental psychologists have found that abstract thinking in children is not fully developed until around the age of 12, so depicting these complex abstract concepts—especially the concept of the pre-birth world—in a way that is understandable to children has been less explored in animated works. This has been one of the biggest challenges for the creators of this animation. The purpose of this research is to analyze the visual representation of the pre-birth world in the animation “Soul” with an emphasis on children’s mental perception and to provide solutions for visual representation of similar abstract concepts for children. This research is descriptive-analytical in nature and its data collection was done through the library method and observation of the animation. The analysis of the animation "Soul" was done with the help of qualitative method and the animation selection was done through purposive sampling. The results show that the creators of the animation "Soul" have depicted the complex concept of the “pre-birth world” in a way understandable for children, by using diverse colors and attractive images, a strong and captivating storyline, simplification of complex concepts, tangible and identifiable story and characters, depicting abstract concepts in a non-abstract way, universality and creating a space for questioning and dialogue.