Hey everyone! Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there. Today I'm going to talk about the brand new Pixar film, Luca. There's also going to be some minor spoilers so I can talk about my favourite parts of the movie, so if you haven't seen this movie yet, go watch it and then come back and read this review. With that out of the way, let's talk about Luca!
I honestly wasn't sure about Luca when Disney and Pixar first announced it almost a year ago. Just because I wasn't sure what the premise for the movie actually was. So I wasn't excited for it, because I was keeping my eye on it, especially after I watched Soul over the Christmas holidays. I didn't know what to expect when I sat down to watch the movie last night on Disney+. I loved it.
The thing about Luca is that there are elements that are twists on elements from films like The Little Mermaid, Finding Nemo, various Disney Channel Original Movies, and of course other teen films that have come out. But, it's actually inspired by the childhood of the film's director, Enrico Casarosa. Which automatically makes it relatable to everybody no matter where or when you grew up. And I love that about this movie.
I also love that this movie is so much fun and is just a fun coming of age film. Not every movie has to have a villain or high stakes to be good. Sometimes it can be simple, goofy, and entertaining without being too heavy. That's one of the things I prefer about the Pixar films that came out when I was in high school versus the more recent Pixar films. Don't get me wrong, I love Soul and both Coco and Onward look really good (I haven't seen them yet) but, most of the modern Pixar films that I have seen have been pretty heavy movies so it's nice to have something that I can just put on and enjoy for an hour and forty minutes before bed.
I love the friendship between Luca, Alberto, and Giulia. It's so sweet and innocent and very against the usual mold of childhood friendships on TV and in movies. We don't know how old Giulia is, but Luca is thirteen and Alberto is fourteen and their friendship reflects their age, which is pretty cool. Especially because at thirteen and fourteen years old, there's usually this pressure for guys and girls to start dating and because of that pressure, friendships between guys and girls can sometimes be awkward because they aren't sure if they should be dating or not, and that's not present here. Though there's a montage of Luca and Giulia getting along that could be interpreted as them falling for each other, but they don't play it that way and I really like that.
Speaking of that montage, it's actually one of my favourite scenes in the entire movie. Mainly because it shows them becoming close, and they're also oblivious to how it's making Alberto feel. Which is actually pretty realistic. Not necessarily to their situation because Luca and Alberto have only known each other for a week or two weeks at most by this point though there's no indication of what the actual timeline of this movie is, but it's realistic because sometimes when you're in middle school and early high school and you make a new friend you put all your energy into that friendship sometimes to the detriment of friends you've had longer. And unlike in many other teen movies and TV shows, they don't have a prolonged argument about it, Alberto just goes and reveals his identity as a sea monster to Giulia in an attempt to get Giulia to shun Luca. Which is a crappy thing for Alberto to do, but it backfires on him because Luca doesn't reveal himself, and pretends to be afraid of him, basically ostracizing Alberto.
My other favourite scene is near the end of the movie, where Luca and Alberto have fully revealed themselves as sea monsters to the townspeople and Ercole, the rich, snobby, bully of the town, tries to turn them against Luca and Alberto like how Gaston turned the villagers against the Beast in Beauty and the Beast. What I liked about this scene is that Ercole waited until he had already lost the race and so it just makes him look even more like a loser and the townspeople are like, "Nope, you're a moron!" and that's it. Like Ercole is supposed to be the bad guy of this movie, but he's not actually evil, he's just full of himself and an intolerant jerk and so he just looks really stupid trying to turn the townspeople against Luca and Alberto, even after Giulia's father, Massimo, defends them and it's great!
I kinda wanna talk about Luca's family for a few minutes because they were great. I loved it when Luca runs away from home near the beginning of the movie, and his grandmother is lying there, laughing at the fact that he left to do exactly what she's done before, which is great. Also, why does Luca's dad, Lorenzo, in his human form, look like a cross between Uncle Vernon from the Harry Potter movies, and Jimmy's friend, Carl, from Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001)? I don't know why I even thought that in the first place, but for the rest of the movie afterward, I couldn't get that out of my head. Luca's mom is your typical overprotective movie mom but she is only overprotective of Luca because of her unfounded fear of humans, which just disappears when she and Lorenzo are on the surface and playing with the children, but nothing's really done with it. And I'm okay with that because this isn't that kind of movie. So it's just there so that Luca will have a reason to run away from home so the rest of the movie can happen.
Overall, I think Luca is an awesome film. It feels like a movie that would've been made in the early 2000s, when this kind of movie was Pixar's go to kind of movie, when they were still in their infancy as an animation studio. It also feels like a very modern movie too, which makes it a nice combo of classic Pixar and modern Pixar as it does have a theme to it of being tolerant of other people. Which Ercole is not. If you've been on the fence about seeing this movie, I definitely recommend it.
Alrighty, that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back on Tuesday with this week's Disney VHS review where I'll be talking about Walt Disney Cartoon Classics: Donald Duck's First 50 Years. So until then have great evening and I will talk to you later. Take care.
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