REVIEW Luca
Pixar’s 24th feature film is a charming, lovingly crafted coming-of-age story with a terrific blend of wit, innocence and adventure.
Luca is the second consecutive Pixar to not have John Ratzenberger in the voice cast (although he is visually acknowledged in Soul). A seemingly minor detail (the actor is still, at the time of writing, working with the studio, reprising his role as the Yeti in the upcoming Disney+ series Monsters at Work), but in other ways a potential clue to Pixar’s new mission statement of trying new things.
In fact, while it undoubtedly wasn’t intentional, there was a point to be made that both Toy Story 4 and Onward, developed before John Lasseter’s ouster by Disney but released after, were about moving on without the original leader/father figure, while Soul, whose director Pete Docter now serves as Pixar’s Chief Creative Officer, can at least partly be seen as a metaphor for the studio seeking new ways to get the creative juices back.
Luca, which does follow a familiar “children finding their own way” narrative, is also significant in that regard in that it’s one of the few Pixar films – 8 out of 24 at the time of writing* - to be directed by someone who wasn’t part of the original Senior Creative Team at the studio.
That person is Enrico Casarosa, who made his debut with the short La Luna in 2011 and has now made the leap to features with a project that is part autobiography (the geography is explicitly based on his native Liguria) and part fantasy adventure that blends Fellini and Miyazaki. The story focuses on the friendship between Luca Paguro (Jacob Tremblay) and Alberto Scorfano (Jack Dylan Grazer), two sea monsters who can pass as human when on dry land, provided they don’t get wet.
While many Pixar movies have imagined the future, be it conceptually or visually, Luca is unabashedly rooted in the past (contextual clues suggest the story takes place in the late 1960s, a few years before Casarosa was born), in a world that is explicitly Italian, with Vespas, pasta dishes and a soundtrack that includes Gianni Morandi, not to mention the commendable choice of having a largely Italian voice cast, especially for the human roles – the villainous Ercole, for example, is voiced – brilliantly - by comedian Saverio Raimondo (his special Il Satiro Parlante is available on Netflix). That said, the biggest scene-stealer – a cat named Machiavelli – is one with no lines at all, and this in a movie where the adult sea creatures are played by Maya Rudolph and Sacha Baron Cohen, among others.
And yet, there is that unmistakable universal quality that makes any Pixar story instantly relatable: at its core, it’s a story of pre-teen friendship with adventurous elements. Some may view that as a step back, when in fact it is refreshing to see the studio go for something simpler that reaches the heartstrings in a more understated manner. There is no great metaphysical quest to embark on, and the movie is all the better for it, even partially poking fun at the trope in places.
It's deliberately smaller in scale, with a look that harkens back to stop motion and eschews the usual Pixar aesthetic, suggesting a departure from the house style is possible (and arguably necessary if the studio wants to remain competitive in this day and age, rather than resting on its laurels). Said possibility comes courtesy of a new generation of storytellers who, much like the young protagonists, will not be pinned down by what their elders used to do. Casarosa’s first feature is a counterintuitively bold leap forward, fueled by creative passion. And should anyone try to second-guess his choices, the answer comes straight from the movie itself: silenzio, Bruno!
*Brad Bird was technically the first outside director to join Pixar, but he is widely regarded as an honorary member of the original brain trust alongside John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Lee Unkrich and Andrew Stanton, most notably when the five of them accepted the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival in 2009. As such, his three films are counted as part of the 16.
Luca (USA 2021, 101 minutes)
Director: Enrico Casarosa
Writers: Mike Jones, Jesse Andrews, Enrico Casarosa, Simon Stephenson
Producer: Andrea Warren
Music: Dan Romer
Cast: Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer, Maya Rudolph, Jim Gaffigan, Saverio Raimondo, Emma Berman, Marco Barricelli, Sacha Baron Cohen
Distributor: Disney+ (streaming)