Luca (2021)

Directed by

Enrico Casarosa

Genre

coming-of-age film, triathlon films, comedy film, fantasy film, adventure film, buddy film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 35m

Rated

PG

Rating

7.8 of 10 from 9,001 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A young sea monster boy named Luca discovers he can turn into a human on land. He makes friends in a coastal Italian town and spends a summer exploring, entering a triathlon, and hiding his true identity.

whimsicalgentlewarmplayfulnostalgicheartfeltsunnylightheartedcomforting

What happens

Luca is a 2021 American animated coming-of-age fantasy comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Enrico Casarosa and written by Jesse Andrews and Mike Jones from a story developed by Casarosa, Andrews, and Simon Stephenson. It stars the voices of Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer, Emma Berman, Saverio Raimondo, Maya Rudolph, Marco Barricelli, and Jim Gaffigan. The film is set on the Italian Riviera in the 1950s, and centers on Luca Paguro (Tremblay), a young sea monster boy with the ability to assume human form while on land, who explores the town of Portorosso with his new best friends, Alberto Scorfano (Grazer) and Giulia Marcovaldo (Berman), experiencing a life-changing summer adventure. Luca draws inspiration from Casarosa's childhood in Genoa, Italy. Several Pixar artists were sent to the Italian Riviera gathering research from Italian culture and environment to create Portorosso, the primary setting. The sea monsters, a "metaphor for feeling different", were loosely based on old Italian regional myths and folklore. As with the short film La Luna (2011), the design and animation were inspired by hand-drawn and stop motion works and Hayao Miyazaki's style. Casarosa described the result as a film that "pays homage to Federico Fellini and other classic Italian filmmakers, with a dash of Miyazaki in the mix too". Development on Luca lasted for five years, with production being done remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dan Romer composed the film's musical score. Luca premiered at the Aquarium of Genoa on June 13, 2021, and was released direct-to-streaming on Disney+ in the United States on June 18, 2021 in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It was released in theaters in countries without the streaming service, and given a simultaneous one-week theatrical run at Hollywood's El Capitan Theatre, from June 18 to 24, 2021. It was theatrically released in the United States on March 22, 2024. The film received positive reviews from critics, and was the most-viewed streaming film of 2021, with over 10.6 billion minutes watched. It was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at the 79th Golden Globe Awards and the 94th Academy Awards. A short film, Ciao Alberto, was released on Disney+ on November 12, 2021. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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