The 2021 Oscar for the `Best Animated Feature Film` was taken home by Pixar`s `Soul`, becoming the only film ever to win that award without playing in the US movie theatres. Last October, with the COVID pandemic having closed most of the nation`s cinemas, Disney announced that it would release `Soul` as a Christmas release exclusively on its streaming service Disney+. The movie centered around a jazz musician who`s trying to reunite his accidentally separated soul and body.

This marked the first time a full-length Pixar feature had been released for home viewing without first playing in movie theaters. Before its win at the Oscars, `Soul` had already made history on other fronts. It was the first Pixar feature to have a Black protagonist, voiced by Jamie Foxx, the first with a predominantly Black cast and the first with a Black co-director, Kemp Powers.