Pixar’s ‘Luca’ is Standard Animation With Notable Inclusiveness

by Conan Simmons – July 1, 2021 – 9:17 pm

Taking place in the late 1950’s on the coast of the Italian Riviera, the latest animated film from powerhouse studio Pixar displays a straight-forward approach to its story of a teenaged sea monster, the title character ‘Luca’, whose curiosity about the surface world leads him ashore where he immediately, and inexplicably, takes human form instantly blending in with the locals along with the help of fellow teenaged sea monster, Alberto.

Together they seek to travel the world on a Vespa. This leads them to meeting local girl, Giulia, who informs them of a bicycle race where the top prize is coincidentally a Vespa. Of course, the inhabitants of the coastal community are always on the lookout to capture, what to them may only be mythical, sea monsters. And naturally there is also the town bully followed by a couple of goons to torment the protagonists.

For a Pixar film, the studio that changed the animation industry with such hits as ‘Toy Story’ and ‘The Incredibles’, this latest production feels a bit of a letdown. The only real remarkable point on the animation is simulation of the water at the surface which does look very nice and a good competitor to previous photo-realistic animation. Other than than there’s not much to say other than the character rigging is good. If this were from another animation studio it may be more of a triumph but Pixar has set such a high bar for itself by becoming the top in the industry that ‘Luca’ feels slightly stale.

The first part is unremarkably dull and only of interest to fans of animation. It isn’t until the introduction of Giulia when the film picks up becoming a bit more lively. There are some funny moments involving her cat, Machiavelli, who instantly discovers Luca and Alberto’s secret and with Luca’s parents coming to the surface, tormenting all the children they can find in a desperate effort to find their son.

The soundtrack of Italian popular music from the era is really the best part of the film. The soundtrack includes songs by Maria Callas, Edoardo Bennato, Gianni Morandi and Rita Pavone.

‘Luca’ may be middle of the road by animation standards and nowhere near the best of Pixar but there is one very notable thing about the film. It is a thinly-veiled metaphor for the LGBT community. While there are corners of animation where sexuality is more prominent, family films from major studios never veer far from the standard boy-meets-girl/girl-pining-for-love motif. In ‘Luca’ romantic interests are never explicitly addressed only alluded to with Alberto’s jealousy of Giulia and Luca’s evolving friendship and Luca’s more than casual affinity for Alberto. The subject matter transcends the metaphor at the end in a scene usually reserved for male-female romances.

Directed by Enrico Casarosa, whose 2012 Oscar nominated short ‘La Luna’ helped launch the production of this film, ‘Luca’ features the voices of Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer, Giacomo Giannioti, Emma Berman, John Ratzenberger, Maya Rudolph, Jim Gaffigan and Sacha Baron Cohen.