Luca Movie Review
Nathan Swank
June 25th, 2021
LA LUNA is perhaps one of my favorite Pixar shorts. It’s about three generations, a boy, a father, and grandfather, who while out on a little boat, pull out a magically long ladder and climb to the moon. Their job is to sweep up all the glowing shooting starts that land and light the moon so fully. It was a sweet and beautiful little short film by director Enrich Casarosa. So I was excited to see his name come up on the most recent Pixar feature film, LUCA.
LUCA is colorfully animated, capturing some of the summer feels in Italy. Unfortunately, the 101 minute film would probably have been better served as a 10-minute short.
Set on the Italian Riviera, Luca (Jacob Tremblay) is a young Sea Monster who shepherds fish during the day and dreams of life above sea-level. He meets another young sea monster named Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer) who has been living his days on land in an abandoned lighthouse. The two make a fast friendship, heading to town to achieve their ultimate goal of owning a Vespa to travel the world on their little motor bike. When dry, their sea monster bodies turn human, concealing their unaccepted true form. The two boys team up with a human girl named Emma to compete in a triathlon of swimming, eating, and biking. It won’t be easy as they try avoiding a grown bully, Luca’s parents (voiced by Maya Rudolph and Jim Gaffigan), and any form of water, which will reveal their secret identity to townspeople who want their kind dead.
Pixar has some of my favorite films of all time and even a lesser Pixar film is better than most other films. However, LUCA feels a little watered down so to speak. The story runs through predictable and formulaic tropes without presenting it in any fresh, exciting, or even a humorous way. Not to mention a white-washed cast with unimaginative character animation, which seems to be totally dated in an era where we’ve simply seen it all done better.
While themes of courage, kindness, and acceptance are great, LUCA lacks in the presentation of those themes and even muddles them up a bit. Parallels in our own lives, involving anything that divides people is prevalent but I think the acceptance of homesexuality and the fear of “coming out” to people who may treat you differently or even hate you because of it, appears to be where LUCA tries to hone in on more. But that idea is never fully realized and even treads too closely to falsehood rather than one’s truth. And even that metaphor may not necessarily be apparent to many or even intended. But that adds to many of LUCA’s problems, its vagueness of trouble or bigger issues with neatly bow ribbons to quickly tie up hoping everything looks just fine in the film’s resolution
True to life or not, LUCA fails to address the town’s acceptance of a bully who lies, cheats, and attempts murder running rampant. The film rightfully addresses the harm of villafing someone who is just like you, but misses the mark on the troublesome idea of revealing someone else’s secret or outing them before they are ready.
I appreciate the wide-eyed giddiness of knowledge and adventure. The desire to learn more about the world and universe by first simply lifting one’s head above water is a wonderful idea. However, as a viewer, I was far more curious about their underwater world, which has limited screen time, rather than their discovery of a world I already know.
While there may have been some scenes of goodness, even a brief capture of a pull at the heart-string, tear-inducing moment that Pixar seems to have mastered, I was bored. My kids were bored too. And that is why LUCA feels more like one of the random forgettable Netflix originals rather than a deeper Disney Plus standout.
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