Luca

Release Date: June 18, 2021

Watch Date: July 22 – July 24, 2023

“Set in a beautiful seaside town on the Italian Riviera, Disney and Pixar’s original feature film ‘Luca’ is a coming-of-age story about one young boy experiencing an unforgettable summer filled with gelato, pasta and endless scooter rides. Luca (voice of Jacob Tremblay) shares these adventures with his newfound best friend, Alberto (voice of Jack Dylan Grazer), but all the fun is threatened by a deeply-held secret: they are sea monsters from another world just below the water’s surface.”

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    This was our daughter’s first pick.

    Whenever she sees us settle down for a movie she gets very excited. She probably pays better attention than our son when he actively asks us to watch a movie. But our little girl? It doesn’t matter how settled we get her into her own thing, if we sit down and pop on a film she’s there, intrigued, asking questions, singing along, and being very annoyed whenever we have to pause and go do something.

    It was also her birthday on Sunday, we are now the proud owner of a two-year-old – though based on the tiara she now won’t take off, Sunday hit and she turned into a princess, not an official toddler.

    So, the evening before her birthday, we were settling down, finishing off ‘The Emperor’s New Groove’ and getting ready for my pick. It was going to be ‘Pollyanna’ and Bob was not particularly pleased with the situation – but what can you do, other than use a veto? But then a little girl popped up and started pointing at the screen, and she wanted ‘Luca.’ Actually, she wanted ‘Bluey’ first but as good as ‘Bluey’ is, it’s not a movie. So we watched an episode of ‘Bluey’ and then popped this on, got through half, had to get dinner going, and then weren’t able to pick up until the day after her birthday, by which point she was too obsessed with her new toys and we got to finish the films sans interruptions. But this was her first pick in our marathon – and that’s something special. To me.

    Anyways.

    This is a beautiful film. It’s visually stunning. From the textures on the monsters scales, to the look of the waves, to every single gorgeous detail of Portorosso. Pixar movies are always visually appealing, but this is the first time I’ve ever watched one and wished I could visit it’s location. I want to go there, I want to go to Italy and be immersed in the culture, enjoy the small town vibe. They brought this little Italian town to life, and damn if I don’t resent them for creating an idyllic vacation destination that I can never visit.

    Yes, I know towns like Manarola exist in the Italian Riviera and if Bob thinks he’s going to shuffle off this mortal coil without taking me there at this point, he is very sadly mistaken. This film is a love letter to Italy, and if you don’t finish watching and immediately start looking to book flights to the Italian Riviera I don’t think you were watching the same film as me.

    Just like every other Pixar movie it’s funny and heartwarming. It’s on brand, and literally anyone could put this on and enjoy it – finding very little fault in any of it. But, here’s where I think I might struggle with the film:

    Much like ‘Turning Red’ this film has an extremely particular voice. There’s nothing wrong with that. If ‘Turning Red’ was about the female experience of growing up, going through your awkward teenage years, working through problems with parental figures and friends; well then, ‘Luca’ does the exact same thing from the male perspective. I mean, they both even feature young teenagers that change into, or out of, monsters. Alberto needs a father figure, Luca wants to explore the world away from his overbearing mother, they both come to rely on each other but need to figure out healthy ways to be friends and support one another, especially when a girl comes between them. All of themes and lessons are really fantastic, and really well done, but again, it’s the male perspective. So, just like I believe if you’re a man it’s harder to really relate to ‘Turning Red’ I think if you’re a woman it’s a little harder to access ‘Luca.’

    That doesn’t make either of these films bad, they’re both incredibly enjoyable and well made. It just means that both of them serve a certain portion of the population better than the other. And that’s alright, because I do still enjoy Luca, but I wasn’t hit as hard by it as Bob was, and vice versa for ‘Turning Red.’

    I wish that you saw a little bit more of Luca and Alberto’s life under the sea, and there’s a whole pastoral culture there that we only get a taste of for about five minutes. Different sea monsters apparently occupy different parts of the deep, they raise fish. I don’t know, maybe it’s the dormant marine biologist inside of me, but I want to learn more. Bob found the inclusion of Italian disjointed, since it was only ever exclamations really, or misunderstood phrases by Alberto, and being in possession of several Italian relatives he found that to be a little off putting. But if your two biggest complaints about a film are that they didn’t focus enough on a setting, or that the words they used kind of grated at you on occasion, you could do a lot worse.

    All in all, like every other Pixar film before it (and every one since), Luca is a work of art. It’s one that will make you smile, and might even bring you to tears by the end. And isn’t that all we ever want from our Pixar movies?