Luca

Luca may not be destined to become an all-time Pixar classic, but there’s still plenty to love in this charming, and surprisingly emotional, coming-of-age story.

Premise: Luca (voiced by Jacob Tremblay) is a 12-year-old “sea monster” who transforms into a human form when dry, and who dreams of seeing the world beyond herding his family’s goatfish. When he meets Alberto (voiced by Jack Dylan Grazer), another, more adventurous, adolescent sea monster one summer, the pair decide to explore the nearby Italian town in their search of freedom, excitement, and their very own Vespa, despite the fact that the local fishermen are looking to kill any sea monsters that they find.

Review:

I’ll be honest with you, but when I first saw the trailer for Luca a couple of months before its release, I was decidedly underwhelmed. The humour looked very basic, the plot almost non-existent, and the overall tone felt like a straight-to-DVD cheap kids movie. I’m happy to report, therefore, that the actual film is infinitely better than the trailer may have led you to believe.

The film does perhaps get off to a bit of a slow start, but that’s arguably only because there is so much for it to set up. We’re introduced to the underwater community of “sea monsters”, and to Luca (voiced by Jacob Tremblay) and his family, which includes a movie-stealing cameo from Sacha Baron Cohen as Luca's translucent uncle from the dark of the deep ocean. We see the human fishermen from the nearby Italian town (but only from the sea monsters’ perspective), and we discover that Luca dreams of seeing more of the world that his job shepherding his herd of goatfish will allow. So far, so uninspiring.

“…the film is an ode to the summer friendships that children form that shape their lives for years to come…”

The film really comes alive when Luca meets Alberto (voiced by Jack Dylan Grazer), a slightly older sea monster who has already mastered transforming into human form, and who spends his time on a small abandoned island. The film is, first and foremost, about the friendship that develops between Luca and Alberto over the course of the summer, and it’s an ode to the summer friendships that children form in their adolescence that shape their lives for years to come. Luca is an outsider in his community, the only one who dreams of escaping to a better life, and although Alberto is already living his best life, he’s metaphorically and literally alone on his island with no one to share his experiences with. The two boys find kindred spirits in each other, that allows them both to start to figure out who they want to grow up to become.

The scenes with Luca and Alberto on the island are genuinely quite amusing and touching (in a way that wasn’t very well conveyed in the trailer), but they’re really just the prelude to the boys’ decision to venture into the human town itself. There, they meet fellow pre-pubescent outcast Giulia, her fisherman father Massimo, and the town’s bully Ercole (as well as Massimo’s very entertaining cat, Machiavelli, who steals most of the scenes he’s in). A sub-plot comes to the fore regarding a local triathlon which Luca, Alberto and Giulia enter (Luca and Alberto in the hope of using the prize money to buy an actual Vespa, while Giulia just wants to put reigning champion Ercole in his place), but this is really just there to give the events of the film a bit more of a structure. Throughout it all, the heart of the film is the summer friendship and the bonds that develop between Luca, Alberto, and later, Giulia.

“…by the end had managed to sneak in two or three surprisingly emotional moments…”

It’s with these emotional journeys that the film really succeeds, as the emotional ups and downs are far more meaningful for the audience than the plot-based trials and tribulations relating to the triathlon itself. A jaded viewer could argue that nothing much happens in Luca, and that there’s no real jeopardy or threat for the protagonists to overcome, but that would be a very ungenerous interpretation. The film does meander a little, but that’s part of its charm as it captures that sense of a long, lazy summer, and although there may not be life-or-death jeopardy, some of the emotional stakes really hit home.

For me, the second half of the film was definitely more emotional than the first half, but again, that’s maybe not surprising if the first half is concerned with set-up, and the second half with pay-off. And what at first appeared to be a quite “slight” summer film, by the end had managed to sneak in two or three surprisingly emotional moments.

“…evokes the joys of an idyllic summer in a 1950s picture-postcard Italian coastal town…”

The film is undeniably a celebration of outcasts and outsiders, and director/co-writer Enrico Casarosa has said that the film isn’t an allegory for any one particular group of outsiders, and is equally applicable, for example, to immigrants as it is to geeks. That said, it’s difficult not to read a touching LGBTQ+ allegory into the tale of two adolescents who literally have to hide their true nature from close-minded townsfolk who, at best, would shun then and at worst would possibly lynch them. That’s not to say that any of this is particularly overt, but it adds another, surprisingly touching and emotional, layer to the story if it does resonate with you.

The film also does a fantastic job of evoking not only the joys of a lazy, idyllic summer, but also of a 1950s picture-postcard Italian coastal town. Yes, there are certain aspects that don’t make sense (the sea-creatures appear to speak English in American accents, the townsfolk speak English in Italian accents, but then occasionally characters will break into speaking Italian, suggesting that what the audience was hearing as English was not, as I had assumed, meant to be translated from Italian?!). But these are minor quibbles when the nostalgic sun-kissed tone of the film is otherwise so enjoyable.

“…engaged me on an emotional level…”

All in all, despite telling an arguably less ambitious story than any of Pixar’s other recent films, Luca engaged me on an emotional level in a way that Soul never did. Sometimes all you need is to spend time with likeable characters and to follow them on their emotional journey, and on that level, Luca worked surprisingly well.

Oh, and make sure you stay not only for the end credits (which have illustrations showing what happens after the end of the film), but also for an extra end-credit scene.