Film Review: "Luca" (2021).

From the studio that brought you Toy Story and Soul comes Luca. This computer-animated coming-of-age fantasy film directed by Enrico Casarosa, in his feature-length directorial debut, written by Jesse Andrews and Mike Jones, and produced by Pixar Animation Studios. Set in a beautiful seaside town on the Italian Riveria, the film is a coming-of-age story about one young boy experiencing an unforgettable summer filled with gelato, pasta and endless scooter rides. Luca shares these adventures with his newfound best friend, Alberto, but all the fun is threatened by a deeply-held secret: they are sea monsters from another world just below the water’s surface.

In late July 2020, Pixar announced a new film titled Luca as a "Italy-set coming-of-age story", with Casarosa as director. Casarosa has described Luca as a "deeply personal story", being inspired by his childhood in Genoa, Italy, with the title character based on himself and Alberto on his best friend Alberto Surace. According to Casarosa, the result is a film that "pays homage to Federico Fellini and other classic Italian filmmakers, with a dash of Miyazaki in the mix too". In addition of Fellini and Miyazaki's works, the films La Terra Trema (1948), Stromboli (1950), Stand by Me (1986), Aardman Animation and Wes Anderson's stop-motion films were also cited as source of inspiration. To prepare for the film, Pixar sent several of the film's artists to the Italian Riviera for a research trip, during which they took photos of the area's landscape and peoples. The film is the first Pixar film to be made almost exclusively at crew members' homes because of the closing of Pixar campus in Emeryville, California, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film was originally set for a June 18, 2021 release date by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. However, in March 2021, Disney announced the cancellation of the film's theatrical release, and that the movie would instead stream worldwide on Disney+ in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Many Pixar employees were upset at the move to make the film a Disney+ exclusive, putting out public statements that doing it with Soul (2020) in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic was understandable, but doing it twice in a row even with the vaccine rollout ramping up, and not even putting it behind a premium paywall like Raya and the Last Dragon (2021), started to give the impression that the studio isn't respected by Disney execs.

The film stars the voice talents of Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer, Maya Rudolph, Jim Gaffigan, Peter Sohn and Sacha Baron Cohen. Thanks to the strong performances given by the cast, especially Tremblay and Grazer, the film becomes touching tale of eternal friendship that deals with nostalgia, learning to believe in each other, and the joys of childhood.

A very nicely crafted story that pays off on seemingly every little thing it sets up, a steady stream of laughs and endearing voice performances. I couldn't help thinking of my own best friend by the time the credits rolled, with what might have been a teardrop or two.

Simon says Luca receives:

Also, see my review for Soul.