Directed by Enrico Casarosa, Luca is set in a beautiful seaside town on the Italian Riviera and is a coming-of-age story about one young boy named Luca (Jacob Tremblay) experiencing an unforgettable summer filled with gelato, pasta, and endless scooter rides. Luca shares these adventures with his newfound best friend, Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer), but all the fun is threatened by a deeply-held secret: he and Alberto are sea monsters from another world just below the water’s surface.
Pixar has absolutely been dominating animation with so many incredible films, especially their last entry Soul, which to me was honestly the best Pixar film ever made to date. So whatever Pixar had coming up next I was going to be completely on board with no matter what, and that included today’s release. Luca is a truly wonderful and heartfelt adventure about friendship, finding acceptance, and conquering fears. While I wouldn’t really consider it a top-tier Pixar film I can definitely say I loved this film and consider it another great original hit for Pixar, one that I think a lot of people will love too.
Starting off with the characters, we have our two boys, Luca and Alberto, who have a truly excellent dynamic with each other and have fantastic voice performances by their respective actors. Both characters are dealing with their own personal struggles and they both do their best to help each other with their problems, some of which they share.
Luca is very curious about the world outside of the water and wishes to try new things but has many fears that he tries to conquer with the help of Alberto. A lot of his fears stem from the overprotective nature of his mother (Maya Rudolph), which can definitely be relatable to how some parents treat their kids.
Alberto on the other hand is someone who has lived most of his life alone on the surface and he tries to be a great mentor in the eyes of Luca, while also trying to see if he can be accepted by everyone but fears that he won’t be. He is very closed off due to his past but as his friendship grows with Luca he becomes more open and honest.
So the two definitely help each other with their problems and at the same time just try to have as much fun as they can and it does lead to some really emotional moments that really pull at the heartstrings.
Another friend they end up making is a human girl named Giulia (Emma Berman), who is an outgoing and charming adventurer with a love of books and learning. She also has great interactions with the boys and is given a great performance by the voice actress. She also happens to have a hilariously imposing father (Marco Barricelli) who is actually softer than he appears to be, and a hilarious angry cat that looks like he has a Mario mustache that I can’t stop chuckling at.
There is also a local bully of the town, Ercole Visconti (Saverio Raimondo), who is set as the antagonist of our two leads as they end up going against him in a local race. As Pixar villains go I think Ercole is definitely a very weak villain in comparison to other, more memorable Pixar villains. He’s pretty much a basic bully through and through, and he definitely has one of the most punchable faces among all the characters in the film. The voice acting for him was totally fine but I feel like he could have just been written a lot better.
The voice work overall is really good even from the supporting characters who provide great and humorous performances all around. There’s even an interesting cameo from one particular actor that I never expected to be in a Pixar film who I found to be really funny.
The narrative is a basic summertime coming-of-age adventure that definitely leans towards younger audiences but it has a lot of great themes and details in it that I think even older audiences can really appreciate.
One of the most notable details the film has is that it also feels like an Italian film. Especially for how much it captures the looks and culture in great ways without ever being stereotypical, which was something I kind of feared was going to happen, given that American filmmakers have always had a stereotypical view of Italy. The most likely reason for this is because the director, Enrico Casarosa, is Italian, so he made sure that nothing in this film contributed to any stereotypes regarding Italian culture, and made sure that everything looked and sounded accurate.
That being said there are of course some things the filmmakers include that are funny, such as the misuse of certain Italian phrases, but they never feel overdone to the point where it is annoying.
The themes of friendship and conquering fears are handled very well as you would expect from Pixar, but what probably surprised me the most was how they handled the theme of acceptance.
I really like how this theme is played out in this film more than I’ve seen in other films. While most other films like to sugarcoat it, this film takes a realistic approach in that not everyone will be willing to accept who or what you are, and that sometimes you have to take the best you can get from those who are willing to accept you, even from the most unlikely of places. And I really love that they did that because even though we know there are going to be people who will be accepting there are always going to be some who won’t be, which perfectly reflects what we have going on now in our current society. Serious props to Pixar for having the courage to include this in an animated film that you’d think would take a more “Disney approach” to something like this and make the world seem like sunshine and rainbows.
If I was to nitpick one thing about the story overall it would have to be the handling of the sea monster stuff. We never really get to explore much of the sea monster’s world and how certain things work with them, which is unfortunate because the things we do see make me want to learn more about them and their world, especially for how inventive it is. Some of it might have been able to contribute to the themes involved in the story, but the focus is mainly on the main characters being on the land interacting with the human world.
The animation is absolutely gorgeous as expected from Pixar, and the style is unique, drawing inspiration from other animation styles seen with other studios and their projects. I feel like everyone is going to have their own comparisons, but I felt this film definitely has the style and feel of animated films from Aardman Animations, especially with how some of the characters look. But I totally don’t mind this because I think it all looks great as well as incredibly smooth.
The gorgeous visuals of the Italian Riviera burst off the screen with great color along with the beauty of the water showing off the truly magnificent craftsmanship that was put into this film. It also further enforces that this should have been given a theatrical release alongside the Disney Plus release because it’s honestly a crime that this fantastic animation is not allowed on the big screen. With Soul it was understandable, given the time of its release, but with theaters reopened now this should have been allowed to come out along with other Disney releases like Cruella and Black Widow that also have simultaneous theater and Disney plus release.
And finally of course there is the music, which is as you would expect awesome and perfectly fitting for the Italian Riviera setting. It really brings everything to life and absorbs you into the story and visuals of the film.
Luca is a great little gem that deserves as much attention as possible and proves that Pixar is continuing to provide amazing films that aim for quality above quantity. I’m going to give Luca an A.
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