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Joseph "Joe" Gardner is the main protagonist of the 2020 Disney/Pixar film Soul. He is a piano player and middle school music teacher.
As a human, Joe is African-American with a black mustache and has black-rimmed glasses on to see better. He wears a grey fedora, a black sweater, brown pants, and red shoes.
As a soul, his nose is not featured but his glasses and fedora are now part of him.
Personality
He is lively, inspirational and kind, but at times arrogant about his life purpose.
Biography
Joe Gardener was a middle school band teacher who has long dreamed of performing jazz music onstage, and finally gets a chance after impressing other jazz musicians during an opening act at the Half Note Club. As he was celebrating his new gig, he accidentally fell down a manhole. This put him in a coma, a state where he is neither alive nor dead, thus sending his soul to the Great Before (the place between the Land of the Living and the Land of the Dead). There, he meets a soul with a dim view of life named 22, who he finds himself mentoring. Now with 22's help, he must find his way back to his body and thus wake up from the coma, before time runs out and he fully dies.
When Joe was a young boy his father took him to a jazz club where he found his passion for music. Since then, he has aspired to be a successful jazz musician but wasn't unable to get his big break. When he finally got his big break he fell down a manhole and got into a coma.
Not wanting his life to be over when his big break is about to come, he refuses to go to the great beyond and volunteers to be a mentor to 22, when he fails to be a good mentor he is about to be sent to the great beyond when he and 22 ran.
Joe and 22 end up returning to earth however 22 ends up in Joe's body, while Joe ends up in a cat's body. During their stay 22 discovers the joy of life, they are eventually caught by Terry. The Jerrys noticed that 22's badge has been filled out, though Joe still believed that his experiences and tastes filled the badge. Angry, 22 tosses the badge at Joe and disappears into the zone. Joe learns from a Jerry that instead of a life's purpose, a spark simply means that a soul is ready to live. He heads back to Earth and has a successful first performance with the Dorothea quartet, but does not feel right about what happened. Inspired by the objects 22 collected while in his body, Joe plays the piano to enter the zone and look for 22, who is now a lost soul, with the help of Moonwind. He tries to return her badge, but 22 remains hopeless and broken about her purpose; using a small maple seed that 22 had collected, Joe convinces her that she is ready to live, and she returns to normal. With her badge back, 22 finally enters Earth with Joe accompanying her for as long as he can. As he prepares to head into the Great Beyond, Joe is stopped by a Jerry who tells him that he has inspired them and will give him another chance at life. Joe thanks them and returns to his body back in Earth, now with the intent to live his life to the fullest.
Joe is the first African-American main protagonist of a Pixar movie.
He is also the second non-Caucasian main character in a Pixar movie, after Miguel Rivera.
Whenever Joe is playing the piano, his movements and habits are copied verbatim from musician Jon Baptiste, right down to certain finger gestures and ticks that help with the performance.
At the time the main story takes place, Joe is 46 years old.
