By Luca Newton
It's been nearly a week since Pixar's 24th feature film released on Disney+, and I have seen it twice now, and have quite a bit to say about it..
Luca is a film I was always looking forward to.. I mean, it shares my name, and shares a country with part of my family. But not only that, it was also a brand new Pixar film. A studio who have a good track record, with a few exceptions. Personally I have at least enjoyed all their films at one stage of my life. I grew up on Finding Nemo, Cars was my first film I watched in a cinema. Sufficed to say, I definitely have tons of fond memories of Pixar. Going into Luca, I was optimistic. I came out of it with a smile of my face..
This review includes spoilers for Luca, skip to "No, Pixar Haven't Lost Their Touch" if you don't want spoilers..
What Is 'Luca'?
Under the seas of the Italian seaside town, Portorosso, lives sea monsters. Their existence has become the fixation of the town, as sailors fear for their lives each time they sail. However, as we see, under the water the sea monsters are exactly like humans. Living like humans except under the sea. We meet Luca, a young boy, in charge of farming the fish. One day, as he is herding the fish, he finds another sea monster who goes to the surface. Luca follows him and finds out that when he is above water, he looks exactly like a human. He starts to sneak out of his house to go up to the surface with his new friend Alberto, fixated on a Vespa, which is a motorcycle. Both Luca and Alberto fantasize riding on a Vespa into the sunset together, until he's caught going to the surface. His mother and father plan on sending him to the Deep with his Uncle Lugo. Luca and Alberto decide to go to the town of Portorosso to get a Vespa from "Senior Vespa". When they meet this "Senior Vespa", he turns out to be Ercole Visconti, a bully. Before anything can escalate, a young girl, Giulia sticks up for Luca and Alberto. There they learn of the Portorosso cup. A yearly competition where you race to swim, cycle and eat pasta. If you win, you get money. Luca and Alberto see that they can use the win to get their Vespa so ask to join Giulia's team. While training for the cup, they must avoid being discovered, and Luca must avoid his parents who have come up to the surface too..
What Do I Like And Dislike About Luca..
A movie with such a simple premise executes it excellently, and in perfect tone. What you see is what you get. A coming-of-age tale, akin to The Little Mermaid mixed with Call Me By Your Name, is what the film had been set up as, and it never fails to hit that simplistic, yet fulfilling, heart-filled premise to its advantage. That's what I loved about it, I was smiling for the entire runtime of Luca, even nearly shed a tear at the end, and laughed a few times. By the end, I was deeply satisfied, and my mood was up. At the end of the day, I watch films as a passion, something to enjoy - and Luca was an infinitely entertaining film.
The entertainment stems from the incredible voice work from Jacob Tremblay as Luca, and Jack Dylan Grazer as Alberto, who did both their characters justice. Both fully convinced me of any emotion their characters were going through. As someone who absolutely adored Room (2015), I've always respected Jacob Tremblay, and he does great here. It's important that these leads really portray their characters in a convincing and compelling way, as the film, as the title implies, is really carried by its characters. They essentially help make the film work, and they did excellently. The friendship between Luca and Alberto is essentially the core of the story, and they absolutely work, I liked both characters, each of them had their own flaws and strengths and it made them feel very real. Giulia was also a really good character, she was much more of a side character, but I found it really refreshing how she never went through the whole "you betrayed me" phase after finding out Luca and Alberto were sea monsters. Sacha Baron Cohen has a cameo as Uncle Lugo, and while he is literally in only 2 scenes, he absolutely stood out to me, he was absolutely hilarious. Saverio Raimondo as Ercole is honestly one of Pixar's best villains in a while. He has absolutely no evil plan, he is just an egotistical bully who really wants to win the Portorosso cup, and it's perfect. He is just a real dick for the entire film, and you learn to love to hate him. He has no evil plans, but he makes up for it with just being one of the most entertaining Disney villains in a while.
Luca, visually, may be one of my favourite Pixar films. The backgrounds look astoundingly beautiful - clear water and authentic Italian architecture, it truly captures the feeling of Italy. As a half-Italian myself, I've been to Italy many times, and it truly felt like a town I've been too. Not only the environments, but I personally really loved the character designs too. They look quite cartoonish, and almost clay-like, but it's just so appealing, and fit the aesthetic so well. In addition, I thought the themes of the film were really good with self-acceptance and friendship. They definitely resonated with me.
On the other side, what didn't I like about Luca?
There's not much I straight up DIDN'T like about it. It was a solid film overall. I will admit that film itself could have been more than it was. I liked its scale, but it introduces quite a few concepts it sort of drops later and never mentions again. Like the population of sea monsters. We see Luca farming, but there is absolutely no additional world building. We literally never see "The Deep", that is the place where Luca is threatened to go to. I feel like showing that place for even a brief moment before the after credit scene would've done a good job at really creating stakes which weren't really there. I understand that Uncle Lugo was mainly a cameo, but I feel like him being almost a secondary antagonist and a bigger presence would've helped with stakes, but honestly I can understand why he wasn't.
For the most part, the film has good pacing, however the third act felt a bit weird and rocky in its pacing. The focus is on the Portorosso cup, but they place the argument and resolve before and after this competition. So, when I was watching I was less interested in the cup and more waiting for Luca and Alberto to make up and do the cup together. I mean, they had this whole trio set up for the cup, but by the end of the film, Luca really does it basically by himself, with so little help from Alberto, when I think they should've really worked together for the whole race. It would've fit the central point of the movie; Luca and Alberto's friendship. Finally, I thought the film was pretty predictable, nothing was really against what I expected. Which is fine, but it really would've stuck out more for me if it was less predictable.
No, Pixar Haven't Lost Their Touch
Now to the reason I felt compelled to make this post, because it just annoyed me. Scrolling through Twitter, and seeing a post saying that Pixar have lost their touch, citing Luca as their example. Or the countless tweets asking "Why aren't Pixar the same as they used to be?"..
I will say, in the recent years Pixar's output has been rockier than before. Since Cars 2, Pixar would also go on to release more sequels such as Monsters University and Incredibles 2, as more divisive sequels - not everyone was happy with their output of sequels, as they simply never matches the magic of an original idea, and original film. Two of their original properties around that time were Brave and The Good Dinosaur, people claimed missed the true Pixar magic that people had fell in love with. People really took it to heart, and lost faith in Pixar, and started to complain about how Pixar isn't the same since.
Pixar haven't lost their touch - instead, they started having less of a perfect track record. Some of their films weren't quite as good as others, and for other studios like Sony Pictures Animation Studios would not be an issue, because they're known for having duds - however, Pixar were held high as these perfect filmmakers with a perfect track record. Surprise, surprise, they're not perfect. They are capable of making films not as good as others. I think people really need to understand that going forward. They're not always going to make masterpieces every year.
The thing that annoyed me specifically is the ignorance to Pixar's recent successes, and fixation on their duds to illustrate their point. Instead of Inside Out, they talk about The Good Dinosaur. Instead of Coco they talk about Brave, instead of Soul they talk about Onward. There have been so many recent original Pixar films that have been absolutely been on par with Pixar's standard. Inside Out, Coco and Soul are all absolutely incredible films, people completely ignore in their "Pixar are now bad" tweets and articles. It begs the question if these people are specifically overreacting, and hiding their successes to emphasise their failures just as a way of coping with the reality that Pixar aren't perfect.
However, when I say this, I can actually understand the Brave or The Good Dinosaur examples, but I just don't think Luca is worthy of that comparison. It's genuinely a great film that shows how Pixar haven't lost their touch, yet some people are so adamant to prove their points they'll pick the film apart. It's because Luca is infinitely simpler than other Pixar films. It's not deeply emotional and thematically rich, it's more of a simple film with heart. For some reason, that can't qualify as a good Pixar film? Apparently a Pixar film needs to be sad to be truly good? I just think it's absurd. To me Luca is absolutely a Pixar hit. I won't claim it's a masterpiece, or say that it's one of their best, but it's a damn good movie because of its simplicity - such a refreshing Pixar film, and a great palette cleanser after the thematically rich and ambitious Soul. I hope Pixar do more palette cleansers that make me feel this good after. They definitely haven't lost their touch, they just can't make great sequels except for Toy Story.
Luca isn't without flaws, but it certainly is a refreshing film to watch, which had me smiling for the entire duration of the film with incredibly charming characters with unforgettable bonds, and outstanding visuals. It absolutely shows Pixar has still got it.
8.5/10 - Filled with Heart
Thanks for reading.
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