PAGE 18 • GO! MAGAZINE
Thursday, June 24, 2021 • The BuLLeTIn
MOVIES & SHOWTIMES
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‘Luca’ dives into the joy of friendship
BY MAKENZIE WHITTLE
The Bulletin
P
icture it, the Italian Riviera in the
1950s, a young sea creature dreams
of seeing the world beyond his front
door in another Pixar movie that seems to
pull in every character trope from their rep-
ertoire but still manages to be heartfelt and
an all-around perfect summer movie.
“Luca” certainly isn’t breaking any ground
with the literal fish out of water, coming-of
-age story, but it really doesn’t matter. Is it as
momentous as say, “Toy Story” or as sob-in-
ducing as “Inside Out?” No. But it manages to
be just as much of a joy to watch as the others.
Kicking off with classic ’50s Italian pop
songs and credits written in Italian, we are
immediately immersed in this summer by
the sea before going subsurface where we
meet the young sea monster and farm boy
Luca (voiced by Jacob Tremblay) who, like
every teenager questions the rules set in place
by his loving parents (voiced by Maya Ru-
dolph and Jim Gaffigan) and dreams of the
world where the people are — wrong movie,
but you get the idea. The world on the surface
is dangerous, his parents say, and while sea
monsters change their appearance when dry,
the threat of exposure and death is a constant
concern.
When Luca stumbles upon some human
items near the “pasture” he meets Alberto
(voiced by Jack Dylan Grazer), a cool and ad-
venturous older boy who easily walks onto
land, transforming from his aquatic persona to
his humanoid one, pulling Luca up with him.
On the surface and in full human form,
Luca sees what he’s been missing and even af-
ter scampering back home, he dreams of see-
ing the sun and feeling the breeze on his face
test
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Disney+
A scene from “Luca” now streaming on Disney+.
again. So, he sneaks back to hang out with
his new friend daily as they adventure, invent
and play together on the small island.
But Luca’s parents eventually catch him
and threaten to send him to The Deep with
his uncle Ugo (voiced by Sacha Baron Co-
hen). So, Luca swims/runs back to Alberto
and the two decide to go to the small vil-
lage, find a Vespa and run away together.
But getting a Vespa is harder than it looks
and so they befriend a quirky girl named
Giulia (voiced by Emma Berman) who in-
spires them to join her team in a triathlon
composing of swimming, biking and eat-
ing pasta the fastest against the nasty Ercole
(voiced by Saverio Raimondo) and win the
money to buy the scooter.
The three instantly become friends, and
Giulia invites them to stay with her and her
father, the imposing-looking fisherman
Massimo (voiced by Marco Barricelli) who
has a vendetta along with the rest of the
village against sea monsters. So, both boys
must keep their identities a secret at all costs,
while Luca’s friendship with Giulia deepens
and Alberto quickly becomes jealous.
There’s nothing new in the story, and it’s
predictable and full of characters we’ve seen
time and time again including the overpro-
tective mom, the oblivious dad, the aban-
doned kid who says he’s fine on his own (he’s
not), the “good boy” who discovers who he
truly is, the imposing dad who’s actually a big
softie, the quirky/weird redhead and even the
wise-cracking grandma. But again, it doesn’t
seem to matter that this is probably the least
ambitious Pixar movie because “Luca” is still
More Information
“Luca”
100 minutes
Rated PG for some thematic elements, brief
violence, rude humor, language.
fun to watch and has a lot of heart behind it
from its authentic feel of the place (director
and co-writer Enrico Casarosa is from Genoa
and many of the characters are voiced by Ital-
ian or Italian-American actors).
The story has some pretty obvious, though
mostly unintentional allegories to “other-
ness” (the internet is full of think pieces on the
queerness of the film, and rightly so) most no-
tably about finding out who you are and find-
ing a community or a family that accepts you
for exactly the way you are. While they are ob-
vious, they are still sweet and genuinely nice to
see reflected on screen. However, it seems to
have a hard time committing to those through
lines of acceptance and it comes out slightly
more frivolous than it should have been.
The themes don’t come close to the deep
emotions of other recent Pixar movies, but
that’s just fine. Sometimes, we just need a
little palette cleanser about friendship and
finding your people in this time of feeling
incredibly isolated. “Luca” is just the palate
cleanser we need with its unabashed joy.
e
Reporter: 541-383-0304, mwhittle@bendbulletin.com