Movie Thoughts: Luca (2021)

• Released: 18 June 2021
• Directed by: Enrico Casarosa
• Running time: 1 hr 35 min
• Rating 4/5

Synopsis

A young sea monster falls in love with the surface world and escapes to a human town with his best friend to prevent being sent away to the deepest part of the sea.

My Thoughts

This is definitely a movie that looks very different style-wise from Pixar. And, honestly, I totally welcome it. I remember when Onward first came out and people were memeing about the look of the main character, how the character designs have become pretty recycled and are just overall so tame. So with this all-new look to a Pixar movie, I totally love it! The style is very rounded and more toon-y, but it works really well. 

Aside from that, I also really loved the rest of the visuals. From the underwater world (though I would've loved to see more of that) to the cozy Italian town of Portorosso. The sea monster character designs were also really neat.

Visuals aside, I liked the story. It's a simple one, just about someone finding their place in the world and following their dreams, but executed very well. The whole bit with the race added some more stakes to the plot than simply Luca's parents looking for him. I honestly wasn't sure at first if I liked the twist of Luca choosing going to school over following his dream of traveling the world with Alberto and their Vespa, but honestly it worked really well since we were shown from the start how much he loved learning about the surface world. 

The characters were also likable. Luca is pretty standard, but nonetheless you root for him and want to see him succeed. Giulia was fun, with her endless drive for beating Ercole, and Alberto was a good companion for Luca. I did worry he'd grow to be unlikable as he grew jealous of the bond between Giulia and Luca, but he never quite got that far. He just had his moments of flaw, that's all.

I guess I could complain about how I'd hoped for a little bit more worldbuilding for the sea monsters. Like, it felt pretty much just like an underwater suburbia with sheepherding and all. It didn't particularly feel that unique, other than that their society was underwater. The sea monsters even refer to themselves as such, which is weird because "monster" obviously has a very negative connotation to it. You'd expect them to at least have a name for their kind, something like merpeople or whatever. It'd just have added a bit more depth to their society.

But, overall, I'm very glad I saw Luca! It's yet another strong addition to the Pixar library.