Pixar films never fail to make me cry.

Luca follows a young boy sea monster who makes friends with another sea monster who pretends to be human, because it’s much more fun that way, and Luca decides to join him after finding out about the wonderful world of Vespas.

Luca and his sea monster friend Alberto head into a local town to be able to find a Vespa and realise that they can win the money to buy one if they compete in a triathlon of cycling, swimming, and pasta eating. I feel I would shine at this challenge if I was the pasta eater.

But of course as things continue, and the fact that if the boys get wet they become sea monsters again in a town that hate sea monsters and actively track them down to kill them, we see the stakes grow with these boys trying to achieve their dreams while also trying to keep hidden and hiding their true form.

This was a fantastic tale about being yourself and stepping out of your comfort zone and having people around you that accept you. In the movie we see that Luca and Alberto find people that do accept them and love them for who they are yet that isn’t a shared consensus by everyone, and for some people it takes some time to get to know them as people to really understand that they are good guys, and they’re not these terrifying sea monsters that people believe they are.

I thought this whole movie was a really interesting take on spreading your wings and defying your parents and doing what’s best for you and it’s a beautiful story. As always the cinematography was gorgeous, the setting of Italy was different and interesting and I love the fact that despite the characters were speaking English the text on everything around the town, the books, even the title sequence was in Italian. It was nice little details like that, that really cemented the whole film for me.

I read on Twitter some people theorising a gay symbology within this film and I can see it in some ways with Alberto and Luca possibly being more than friends and Alberto showing Luca this new world of being free as himself and not being tied to his parents who do not understand who he is or who he wants to be and wanting to send him away. I think that’s a really interesting case study on how we can enlighten children around different sexualities and different interests that people have without putting it too on the nose and angering all the Karens out there.

I definitely recommend Luca. It’s a gorgeous story with some great animation, a brilliant storyline, and really engaging characters. I feel if you’re a child a lot of it may go over your head but as an adult you can really feel the depth of the story and really sympathise with Luca and his situation of wanting to explore and be who he wants to be, because I believe we all went through that at some point in our teenage years, and watching it as an adult you know one day your kids will go through it too.

What do you think of Luca?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding