Pixar’s latest adventure takes us to an Italian seaside fishing village following the budding friendship of two boys, the titular Luca (Jacob Tremblay) and daredevil Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer).  In their pursuit to see the world, they team up with local underdog, Guilia (Emma Berman) to compete in a triathlon where the grand prize is a beautiful red Vespa.  But as their training continues, the boys need to hide a deep secret about themselves; that they are sea monsters. 

Right off the bat, Pixar shows off a beautiful color palette, not just in the underwater setup (that frustratingly avoids a “Part of Your World” reference), but the Italian villa where the latter half of the film is set brings up memories of warm summer sun brightening everything it touches and bringing out its most vibrant colors.  It is not just the colors where they excel, but the character design is so charming in Luca that you can’t help but fall in love with these two wide-eyed goof balls as they bounce around the countryside with boyish exuberance.  The vocal talents of both of the young stars shine through and they play off each other so well as their summer of adventure begins to take shape and they learn about the surface world and all it has to offer. 

The addition of Guilia adds a very unique dynamic to the group.  She is in no way the villain of the film, but she brings out shades of jealousy from the two boys.  This emotional grey area without the development of a love triangle is so nice to see, and it adds a layer of complexity not often seen in animated films where character’s relationships with each other are often just black or white.  Their friendship is further tested when Guilia discovers the boys’ secret and needs to hide it from her father who, like the rest of the town, is staunchly anti-sea monster. 

The true villain of the film, though, is Ercole (Saverio Raimondo) and he is absolutely comical in all the worst ways.  His over-the-top hand wringing style of evil nemesis is just a little too much for my taste, especially when compared to the even-headed collection of characters that populate the world of the film. Thankfully, Luca really is not about the race and Ercole’s presence in the film is rather minimal.  Luca uses its incredibly simple plot of “enter race, win Vespa” more so as a delivery vehicle for its theme of acceptance. 

Themes of acceptance and being true to oneself are a dime a dozen in animated films, but rarely does one do it as well as Luca does.  What makes Luca unique is that is asks us to be accepting not just of our own biological differences, but also of others.  There is a lesser version of this film where it would focus on Guilia trying to convince her friends and neighbors that sea monsters are not all bad, think of Dreamworks’ How to Train Your Dragon (2010).  While I do love How to Train Your Dragon, by putting Luca at the front of this story, this message of acceptance takes on a whole new meaning and it asks its audience to accept the things they cannot change about themselves.  But where Hiccup’s difference is in his actions and beliefs that dragons can be good and helpful to the village, Luca and Alberto are different in their biology.   

And the animators take a lot of care to show it; whenever the boys interact with water, their human skin retreats to give way to their sea monster scales.  It is cause for some very creative problem solving as a seaside Italian villa has lots of opportunities for the boys to find themselves in and around water.  Not only does it add some narrative flavor, but the actual transformation process is also beautifully animated as the scales seem to grow out from their skin.  But in a town that hates sea monsters for vague reasons that fall apart when run against even the slightest tests of logic, the idea that Luca is an allegory for coming to the realization of one’s queer identity begins to take shape. 

There are elements in the story that help to give this theory weight.  Luca is threatened by his mother (Maya Rudolph) that she will send him to the deep to visit his shrink uncle (Sacha Baron Cohen) to help Luca stop having these great fantasies about visiting the surface.  This threat of conversion is what pushes Luca to finally run away and see what the surface is all about.  As the plot line develops and the search for where Luca has gone continues, it can only be described as a parent’s own journey towards acceptance that their children are their own people, with their own identities.  

The entire supporting cast in this film is truly stellar.  As mentioned, Maya Rudolf brings a great presence and has some truly laugh out loud moments of comedic chemistry with Luca’s father voiced by Jim Gaffigan.  Guilia’s gruff fisherman father, Massimo Marcovaldo (Marco Barricelli), shares some truly tender moments with the boys, specifically Alberto, and it is a very sweet story line to follow. 

Luca is such a refreshing film to come out of Pixar, an original concept that is not trying so hard to be big and profound and make us question how we think about life or death or all of the feelings in-between.  Rather, it is a delightfully simple story about three societal outcasts just trying to pave their own way in life towards their own goals and happiness.  You can choose to see the deeper meaning there, just under the surface, as I have, or you can enjoy it at absolute face value.  Either way, it is a very important and positive film for audiences of all ages.