Disney & Pixar’s Luca
Luca is a Walt Disney Pictures production that released on June 13th, 2021. The movie is set on the Italian Riviera and follows Luca Paguro, a young sea monster boy who can take the likeness of a human when he steps onto land. The ability to change isn’t controllable as one drop of water begins to turn their skin back into a sea monster. This movie, like other Disney classics, takes a look into otherness and self-discovery.
Luca Paguro is fascinated by what the world looks like after some items fall to the ocean floor from a boat. This desire is met with a strong backlash from his parents, especially his mother who is fearful of what humans would do if they saw Luca. Luca deals with the feeling of otherness from both sides, humans and his parents. His mother threatens to ship him to the deep sea with his Uncle Ugo who is an anglerfish. Luca sneaks away from home and is pulled out of the water by Alberto Scorfano who is also a young sea monster boy. He has ventured onto dry land, so he teaches Luca how to walk and act like a normal human. Both venture to the local town and learn of a sort of triathlon that involves swimming, riding a bike and consuming a huge amount of pasta in the middle by a local girl named Giulia. She is bullied by a very popular local kid who does not like Giulia as she only comes to the town during the summer. Anyone that doesn’t seem from the town, he does not like.
The film looks to understand how a person goes through feeling like the Other and not connected to any group of people. For most of the movie, Luca feels alone and lost despite having Alberto as a close friend. This is because his parents are angry and looking for their lost son to take back to the ocean, all the while he can’t admit to Giulia he is a sea monster, let alone anyone else in the town. Luca even turns his back on Alberto, a pivotal moment of Lucas journey, when Alberto is found out to be a sea monster and is banished back to the ocean. Luca chimes in and yells at Alberto to go back where he came from. Luca is scared, not ready to admit he is a sea monster so he sides with the towns people instead of coming clean as well. In the end, Luca competes in the triathlon where he shows that he is a sea monster as well. Giulia comes to terms with this and saves Luca from the town bully by slamming her bike into the town bully.
The movie looks at Otherness through Lucas perspective and how a young boy has to deal with not “fitting in”. He has desires to go to school and do normal human activities but is being dragged back to the ocean by his own parents. By Luca admitting he is also a sea monster, his parents are exposed by the rain as well as a pair of old women who are best friends and have lived in the town for a long time. This shows that even other people are hiding and scared to come forward that have lived normally in the town without others knowing.
Work Cited:
Casarosa, Enrico, director. Luca. Disney+, Walt Disney Productions, 18 June 2021, Accessed 3 Dec. 2021.
Daniels, Robert. “Luca Movie Review & Film Summary (2021): Roger Ebert.” Movie Review & Film Summary (2021) | Roger Ebert, RogerEbert.com, 18 June 2021, https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/luca-movie-review-2021.
Willmore, Alison. “Review: Pixar’s Luca Is a Literal Fish-out-of-Water Fantasy.” Vulture, Vulture, 17 June 2021, https://www.vulture.com/article/luca-review-disney-pixar.html.