'Luca' Review: Pixar’s Sea Monster Mash
The best of Pixar Animation’s latest film lurks underneath its surface.
Bright-eyed and curly-haired, Luca (Jacob Tremblay) is a regular Italian boy living in a regular Italian town who becomes entangled in a regular Italian friendship with a new companion, Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer). However upon further scrutiny, ‘Luca’ might not be as simple a tale. Embedded with flavors of multicultural subtext and complex identity politics, “Luca” demonstrates the dual nature of friendship, assimilation, and queerness (yes, queerness) often unrepresented or misconstrued within the animation studio’s canon, as well as the broader scope of animated film. Because of the film’s layered textures, perhaps it is best to start with the obvious. The kid’s a sea monster, tail and all.
Unlike other movies where his fishiness may come as a late-in-the-game wrench in the works, the young monster’s scales, gills, and fins are on display from the very first moment he plunges onto screen. Luca’s monstrousness is not something hidden from audiences, nor is it a trait to be discovered halfway through the film. In fact, the scales, gills, and fins of his entire sea monster community, thriving underneath the shallow waves that crash against the coast of Portorosso, pop in shimmering hues of blues, greens, and purples. Because Luca’s underwater town serves as a starting base for the film, if the opener to this piece were to assert the boy’s humanity before his monstrosity, it would be completely insincere, and perhaps a little offensive to sea monsters.
The first frames of ‘Luca’ capture a Spielberg-esque suspense encounter between some old Italian humans and a creature of the deep. We soon learn that this creature is Jack Dylan Grazer’s Alberto, Luca’s soon to be partner-in-crime, but for now, creature of the deep will suffice. In a more robust style of animation, the scene would likely strike terror into the film’s kid audience, but with Luca’s blocky and bubbly character style, it tugs on intrigue rather than fear. Immediately following the above-sea prologue, we venture down into the water to meet Luca Paguro, a newly pubescent sea monster and young working class fish herder. His parents, Daniliena (Maya Rudolph) and Lorenzo (Jim Gaffigan) are traditional and conservative Italian fish people, and his secretly rebellious grandmother, voiced by Sandy Martin, steals each scene she is in without having to do or say all too much. The divide between Luca and his family is clear, with the boy sensitive and adventurous kid marching to the beat of his own drum, and his mom and dad doing their best to carry on the long tradition of movie helicopter parents (submarine parents?). And though the surface world in “Luca” represents something similar to that of “The Little Mermaid” or “Finding Nemo”, it’s interesting that the conservative unease about the surface world reads more like social xenophobia, and not necessarily danger.
After the “us-vs-them” dynamic is established, “Luca” wastes no time getting our scaly tween curious and rushing to the surface via a couple of human gizmos he finds on the seafloor as well as the encouragement of a slightly older boy, Alberto, standing above the water in what we learn to be, his human form. As Luca emerges from the life he knew and into the thrust of uncharted soil, his body morphs fluidly from sea monster to human. We learn through Alberto, and eventually Luca’s parents, that this shapeshifting is something that all sea monsters can do once they step foot (literally) onto the beaches of Portorosso. It’s hard not to imagine this seamless transition from fin to flesh signifying anything other than a cultural assimilation that sea monsters are automatically forced to go through. With water as the transformation catalyst, Luca and the rest of these sea monsters can turn into humans, but the people that we eventually meet living in Portorosso cannot transform into sea monsters when they touch water. It’s a powerful metaphor that only the “othered” are forced to swap into their human skin when faced with the majority group’s oxygen.
As the friendship of the two boys grows, bonding over adventure, exploration, and being ostracized for being different, they fall in love with the idea of traveling the world together in, of course, the most Italian of scooter vehicles, a Vespa. Piaggio, the manufacturer of the motorbike, and its bank account were surely ecstatic when the company was approached by Mickey Mouse himself. And in order to obtain the two wheeled wonder, they boys decide to enter a race in the town where the grand prize can earn them not only a clunky scooter, but the chance to be alone together… friends forever… just two young men voyaging the world by themselves… alone but together… taking on the world… without nay-sayers… or girls.
Perhaps there may be a better time to mention the external queer discourse surrounding the film and it’s pre-release marketing, but taking into account the entirety of Luca’s runtime, it could not be more clear that a queer reading of the film could be extracted from its themes, characters, narrative, writing, etc. In a movie that maps so perfectly and succinctly onto a queer narrative of acceptance, belonging, found family, and identity, it is frustrating that there are many at Disney, including director, Enrico Casarosa, who are quick to un-gay the film. Especially in a story that has the potential to prove crucial for queer kids, it’s disheartening that creatives, studio execs, and entertainment news outlets are incredibly adamant and quick-to-the-draw when addressing the film as specifically not queer. For all the great storytelling and storytellers involved, ‘Luca’ is yet another casualty held down by and an immense, disappointing, and blatantly dollar-hungry force allowing a disclaimer to be placed before the film that reads: “LUCA IS NOT GAY.” This is the film that has a treasure chest of queer themes; the film that has a conversion camp metaphor at a major plot point; the film that has glaring similarities to a certain queer film beloved by people worldwide. But yes, not gay, please ignore.
Though it’s relationship with queerness outside the scope of its script is a pressing issue all on it’s own, ‘Luca’ still maintains its family-friendly, character driven pace as our two heroes train for the Portorosso Cup Race. The side characters within the town, particularly their found family consisting of humans, Giulia (Emma Berman) and Massimo (Marco Barricelli) help to expand and deepen the lore of the film while keeping the drama light but full of flavor. And on the other side of the spectrum, keeping audiences on their toes are villainous antagonists like Ercole, the local effeminate bully, and his goons who deliver some of the most menacing lines within the studio’s cannon, and inflict actual human on human physical violence we don’t really ever see in a similar films..
Within Pixar’s line-up, ‘Luca’ strikes an odd balance. On one hand, the storytelling is simple. Luca is a sea monster. He wants to win a Vespa. However, as you submerge yourself within the world of the film, it’s subtext in regards to multiculturalism, xenophobia, and yes, queerness becomes forever visible. It is a shame that there are some readings and experiences that have been denied by the film’s own creators and perpetuated by publications as clickbait. Instead of giving the audience a chance to encounter a deeper understanding of the film through any lens of their choice, there are ulterior motives that dampen Luca's potential.
Yes, the kid’s a sea monster… but we know he’s also more than that.