There was a local winner in last night's Academy Awards and he’s becoming no stranger to picking up an award.
Minnesota's Pete Docter won a record third Oscar for directing the best animated feature film, Disney’s “Soul”.
The movie is about a middle school music teacher named Joe Gardner, who seeks to reunite his soul and his body after they are accidentally separated, just before his big break as a jazz musician. “Soul” is the first Pixar film to feature an African-American main character.
Doctor, while accepting the award said, “We’re really thankful to our partners at Disney. When we said we want to do a film that explores the purpose of life, they’re like go-ahead, that’s not your usual cartoon fare.”
Docter also gave a special shout out to music and art teachers around the country.
“This film started as a love letter to jazz,” Doctor said. “But we had no idea how much jazz would teach us about life. We don’t get to control what happens, but we can, just like a jazz musician, turn whatever happens into something of value, into something of beauty.”
Docter grew up in Bloomington, MN and he previously accepted Oscars in this category for “Inside Out” and “Up”.
