Pixar has a way of telling stories that children adore beyond belief and adults too cannot get enough of and that trend continues with their latest with Disney, Luca. Calling the film “charming” is too tame of a descriptor. It is a glorious experience that transports the audience to a seaside village in Italy where water monsters and humans co-exist—mostly because the former stays underwater. That is until Luca (Jacob Tremblay, Room) meets Alberto (Jack Dylan Glazer, It) and an adventure of a lifetime ensues.
Luca is a water monster, so too is Alberto. Now, Luca’s parents—Daniela (Maya Rudolph) and Lorenzo (Jim Gaffigan)—have made it perfectly clear that he is never to venture to the surface so as to avoid those human monsters. Ever the curious child, we all know what’s going to happen next. Luca meets Alberto and they head above the water line where they turn into humans. The problem is the slightest water turns them back to water monsters. So, being careful is a must—even if Lorenzo has a flair for finding trouble. Once upon the land, Luca is mesmerized by every little facet that is the human existence. They even meet a friend in Giulia (Emma Berman), a girl their age who’s spending the summer with her fisherman father Massimo (Marco Barricelli).
There’s an annual race held in the village that Giulia believes she can win. Now, she is under this impression every year. But this year, she has help with Alberto and Luca in the triathlon of sorts—it involves swimming, pasta eating, and cycling. Meanwhile, Ercole Visconti (Saverio Raimondo) has won the event repeatedly over the years, even if he is technically too old to enter. Let’s be real. He’s a bully incarnate and, on an island, obsessed with water monsters, his sixth sense is telling him there is something fishy going on with Alberto and Luca and Giulia is hiding something.
The winner of this race will win prize money. With Luca and Alberto’s dream of buying a Vespa and traveling the country, the dough will do nicely.
Director Enrico Casarosa (who helmed the delightful Disney short La Luna) has a command of the story that is both as endearing as it is supremely entertaining. Like most Pixar projects, it too contains a message that is impossible to miss. Kids form friends, regardless of what their pal’s background or appearance is, and it is a moral that permeates throughout Luca, all without hitting you over the head with it. It’s subtle. It’s achieved through the old-fashioned way, through story development and rich characters that are not only drawn in a way that pops off the screen, but their emotional core is also in three dimensions.
In hindsight, Luca is a rather simple story, but it carries a heavy resonance. When kids are Luca and Alberto’s age, friendship is everything. Casarosa manages to weave a tapestry of that sentiment that is peppered with themes involving acceptance and the potential for uninformed mass hysteria. It’s also a vehicle for the younger audiences to soak inspiration to try harder, to reach for that higher plane of existence, and above all else, to continually strive to be the best version of themselves—regardless of what stands in their way.
Tremblay blew us away in Room opposite Brie Larson (who won an Oscar for her role as the single mom trapped in the most horrifying of situations) and the young actor has a fragile fierceness to his turn as Luca. After witnessing the Pixar/Disney delight, one cannot imagine anyone else bringing what Tremblay brought to the titular part. He is an actor of unimaginable talent who is just getting started in what he can achieve. There is a certain emotive center to Luca that the young actor encapsulates that is not only impeccable but brings something extremely special to the overall experience of Luca. His scenes with Alberto, his parents, and Giulia, pop with the raw reality that is a kid of that age and where his head would be and what it was that would grab his attention and cause him to become obsessed with it.
His parents (Rudolph and Gaffigan) is casting genius. They worry when their boy doesn’t come home and learn that it is highly likely that he has gone to the surface—something they insisted a journey he never takes. Meanwhile, Raimondo is every bit the antagonist of a film directed at children and adults alike. He has his little crew, and you would not be alone to wonder what this grown man gets out of bullying the village kids, but that is what drives him, and Raimondo plays the part with just the right amount of slime, confidence, and disdain.
Glazer’s Alberto is also pitch-perfect. He is an antagonizer without being an antagonist. He likes Luca and wants to show him the glory of life above water, and it is honestly, quite appealing. There is some inserted jealously added to the trio of Luca, Giulia, and Alberto as the film progresses that feels somewhat forced for the sake of conflict. But as soon as an eyebrow is raised at the disagreement, one can see that the power to unite and be more close than ever is palpably real.
The Jesse Andrews and Mike Jones screenplay are as touching as it is a firm coming of age tale that follows children of a certain age how they view the world—whether they be a water monster or a human monster. The film took me back to my childhood and those friends I had that meant everything and influenced me more at that point than my parents. Andrews and Jones have captured something that is like threading a needle. We’ve been boys, of course, but recalling those emotions and turmoil that ensues as the days progress is no easy task. It is truly an achievement of capturing a time in life when the world has never seemed more expansive, and yet we felt tethered to a family that is also our everything.
Visually, it is stunning. The color palette is that of southern Italy and one can practically taste the pesto pasta that Giulia’s father cooks up for her and her new friends. Luca should do for Italian tourism as Brave achieved for Scotland. The village where Luca and Alberto swim and live near and Giulia lives is about as quaint as is achieved in the cinema and don’t be surprised if you pull up Google to discover a like-minded locale.
Also, here’s hoping we get more adventures with Luca and his pals.
Grade: A