Review of Luca (2021) by Soulwarfare — 09 Jul 2021

At this point, I am truly a sucker for any Pixar movie, so of course, I was going to watch Luca. The synopsis is "Set in a beautiful seaside town on the Italian Riviera, the original animated feature 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, but all the fun is threatened by a deeply-held secret: he is a sea monster from another world just below the water's surface". So is this another hit from Pixar or an unfortunate 'flop'? Let's get the obvious out the way, Luca is visually stunning. The marine world is gorgeous, but when they are on the surface of the water it looks photorealistic. Additionally, the land is also spectacular and rich in colour, which makes it so pleasant to look at. I also really love the character design for the characters in their land and underwater forms, it isn't as realistic looking as Soul but it has this "Studio Ghibli" look to them that makes it very charming. The cinematography in Luca is excellent as well. There are some shots in here that feel like a painting. They manage to capture the joyfulness of the setting and make this sort of realistic land feel completely magical.

The music score by Dan Romer is also phenomenal. Dan perfectly captures the hopeful and Italian nature of the setting. The score perfectly elevates every scene and giving it more impact. One memorable score that sticks out is every time our main character Luca starts imagining, the music that happens in these scenes is just wonderful. I also love the chemistry between our 3 main characters. Every time the 3 main leads are together on-screen is the best part because their bonding is just so sweet to watch. This is also thanks to the voice performance of Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer and Emma Berman who do a great Italian accent. I also love the theme that was explored in Luca about friendship, acceptance and openness as it is a great message and it was done very effectively here.

However, Luca does play it very safe compared to previous Pixar movies. The plot doesn't have much twist or interesting development and for the most part, is very predictable. This is okay as it is more focused on the friendship between our characters rather than having high stakes in the plot. Although, it does make Luca not as memorable as say Toy Story or UP. I also have a slight issue with the 3rd act as it resolves nearly everything way too easily for my liking. There are also some plot threads that don't get resolved and it does certainly feel like sequel 'bait' a bit which is a little annoying. Overall, Pixar does it again by providing another big hit. Luca is an extremely joyful, fun and pleasant movie to watch that it would be honestly a shame to not watch it. It may not do anything unique but what it does, it does superbly. Luca is a magical experience and I certainly would love to revisit this world in a sequel.