Soul is a much more effective film than Pixars recent output. The exposition dump thats far too familiar in Inside Out and Coco is more effectivly spread across the films first act, and interwoven organically into the narrative. That alone gave this an air of prestige above Pixars last five or so movies. It's unfortunate that that skill doesn't extend into the films closing act, as last-minute rule changing tears immersion apart, much like Lukes force ghost in The Last Jedi did. Specifically, [spoiler]Joe takes a MacGuffin back into the soul realm. How this is made possible isn't bookmarked at all earlier in the film. The logic halted the films momentum for me. There are a handful of simular rule breaks, but this one in particular is the most significant for me.[/spoiler]

For most of the film, I was immersed and engaged, and teared up in places... but the occasional lump in the creative process prevented me from fully connecting with the narrative.

Regardless though, I believe this to be my favourite Pixar film in the last 10-20 years.

EDIT: [spoiler]Egh, this technically is bookmarked near the start of the film, as 'souls' are seen to bring items they resonate with with them when they're "in the zone". Maybe they didn't highlight this clearly enough, or maybe the intensity of that particular info dump was too dense to properly consume. In my opinion, the information dropped during that scene should have been spread out a bit more.[/spoiler]