Disney+ is always trying to make you pay an extra thirty bucks to unlock their big blockbusters such as "Mulan", "Raya and the Last Dragon", and "Cruella". These movies are complete garbage in their own right and is clearly a scheme to ensure they don't lose as much money as possible. However, Disney never bothers to do this for the last two Pixar films, "Soul" and "Luca". Is it because they believe that no one would pay extra for these "boring" movies or do they actually think quality titles should absolutely be free for all subscribers? I think it might be the latter. The titular Luca is a sea monster who lives with his parents as a shepherd and wanting more out of life. When he meets another young sea monster named Alberto, who spends his time on an onshore island, the two start a great friendship that is at risk from Luca's demanding parents. The two boys begin a plan to visit the nearby town of Portorosso and win a contest that can buy them their very own Vespa, which they can use to ride together out to the world. When the two team up with the determined Giulia, this new friendship is put to the test while they must hide their secret to the rest of the town. Compared to the other Pixar films, this is the most slice-of-life that the studio has gone, and I'm rather pleased by it. There are still good themes and morals to take out of the film much like any Pixar film, but the emotional moments are more downplayed to make way for charm and comedy. I will touch on how the emotional moments could have excelled in a bit when discussing characters, but this is perhaps one of the most safest Pixar films in terms of ambition and execution, which is not a bad thing.
Jacob Tremblay as Luca is so wide-eyed, innocent and wholesome, much like most of the child actor's roles. Luca as a character is easy to get and understand in terms of desires. He's not like Arial, who wants to get close to the human world by being in love with a prince, his want of knowledge and wonder is pushing his character rather than having a crush on Giulia, which would have been so easy and lazy to do. A aging Jack Dylan Grazer voices Alberto, the slightly older and reckless friend of Luca who only wants to spend time with him rather than open up to others. The voice-cracking Grazer is practically perfect in playing both the loveable and distasteful friend who is more interested in his wants rather than what he or Luca needs. The chemistry between Alberto and Luca is pretty good for the most part as you can see how they would be friends and how their personalities can both unite and split them apart. However, the only issue is that they literally just became friends, which is a bit hard to get invested in during the emotional moments. If they just tweaked the story to have the two been long-life childhood friends with one of them befriending someone else and wanting to seek more out of the world, it would be fantastic. As is, the friendship is likeable enough, but Alberto becomes too much of a jerk and the emotional centre despite the time spent together as friends. Giulia is almost like young Ellie from "Up", but given much more screen-time and chemistry with the leads. She's really loveable and I give tons of credit that the chemistry between her and Luca is far more on the platonic side rather than a romantic one, as it serves greatly for Luca's character as a whole. Ercole is the return to form for the straight-up villain archetype for both Disney and Pixar and he's good at being the typical bully archetype that challenges the younger protagonists. He's not going to be a memorable character, but he works for the movie and the naivety of the characters. As for the side characters, they are also really good. Maya Rudolph and Jim Gaffigan as Luca's parents have such enjoyable banter in the overly-concerned mother and the carefree father, Massimo is practically the best character as Giulia's intimidating yet caring father who gets along with Luca and Alberto in a genuine matter, and there are Ercole's croonies who obey Ercole until the end, even if it means to slap one another. Overall, the cast is really great with a ton of likeable leads, side cast and friendship dynamics. I do believe though that Luca and Alberto's friendship could have been tweaked to be more emotionally impactful.
The animation is as top-quality as you can get for Pixar. At first, I wasn't a fan of the human designs being more cartoonish and exaggerated sort of like a Sony Pictures or Illumination film. However, the designs manage to really grow on me, mainly due to how the animation as a whole is varied and moody depending on the energy of the characters. Portorosso is brought to life in such a gorgeous and personality-fuelled way that you would want to spend the weekend in the fictional costal town. I love how they use the Italian language to its advantage, the staples of pasta, espresso, gelato as well as the goal of getting a Vespa adding to the child-like wonder along with a bit of culture to the film. The animation isn't concerned on being hyper-realistic, but rather have cartoonish-looking characters behave real in the natural-looking town and environment. The animation gets to be more expressive and vibrant during Luca's fantasies, which is kind of surreal when watching a Pixar movie. The designs of the sea monsters are vivid and kind of cute with Luca's sea monster form being freaking adorable at times. They do look a bit too much like sea monkeys, but it's still a great design. I also love the animation details when the monsters transform or start to reveal their scaly nature when getting wet. The score by Dan Romer is pretty good in capturing the costal town, summertime energy and Italian inspired cues in the music, along with some uses of classic Italian songs and opera. It's not super memorable, but it's practically his best work in his resume. Overall, the feature-length debut of Enrico Casarosa is an extremely strong start and I hope he gets to do more Pixar films in the future.
"Luca" is surprisingly just as strong as the previous films the legendary studio had put out. Sure, the emotional weight could have been far stronger if the friendship between Luca and Alberto were ironed out, but that's really about it. The story is simple and sweet, the tone is more charming and fun rather than super dramatic or emotional, Trembley as Luca is such a great lead in his innocence and child-like wonder to explore the world, Grazer's Alberto is perfect as the jerk with the heart of gold, Giulia is eccentrically loveable and shares a nice friendship with Luca, Ercole is a funny bully archetype, the parents of both Luca and Giulia are greatly portrayed and voiced, the score by Romer feels calm and spirited, and the animation is as excellent as it can be with bringing the costal town to life, having odd human designs work well in the realistic setting, and having a wide variety of vivid colours and effects. If the film managed to work on the emotional centre, I would honestly think that it would be on par as "Coco". As it is though, it's still a fantastic Pixar film.
Verdict: 9/10. Just as strong as the best of the best the studio has to offer. Check it out whenever you can!
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