Movie Monday: Luca

 

This weekend, the family settled in here at the Fortress of Ineptitude to watch the latest entry from Pixar, a film about sea monsters called Luca.   

Luca Paguro is a young sea monster living off the coast of the Italian city of Portorosso herding goatfish. Luca wonders about the world above the surface of the ocean. His wondering becomes exploration when he meets Alberto Scorfano, a fellow sea monster. 

Out of the water when they dry off, sea monsters assume human form. As humans, Luca and Alberto spend their days on a island, playing, exploring, having adventures.  

Alberto dreams of owning a Vespa so using spare parts from various pieces of junk he has collected, Alberto and Luca build their own makeshift Vespas which inevitably crash.   

But when Luca's super protective mother finds out about this, the jig is up as Luca is to be sent to live with his Uncle Ugo deep down in the ocean depths. 

Instead, Luca and Alberto run away to Portorosso. There they will get a real Vespa and explore the world.  

The boys are just in time for the Portorosso Cup Race, a chance to win the money they need to buy a Vespa.  In their way is Ercole Visconti, a local bully and repeat race champion.  

Giulia Marcovaldo, a young girl, befriends the boys who agree to form a team with Giulia to compete in the Triathlon, which involves swimming and biking and pasta-eating.

Yes, pasta-eating. The sponsor of the race is a pasta company. 

Luca and Alberto can't do the swimming part since exposure to water will revert their human forms back to sea creatures. So they focus on prepping for the bike and pasta races while Giulia will handle the swimming.  

There are complications. 

Massimo, Giulia’s father, employs the boys to help his fishing business. Lots of exposure to water to potentially reveal their sea monster selves. But the gruff, taciturn Massimo begins to bond with the boys who are very good at finding fish.  

Ercole just will not let up on his incessant bullying of the boys.

Luca's parents have assumed human form in Portorosso to find Luca and drag his ass back home. Not sure what exactly Luca looks like in human form, their clever plan to find him is to douse random kids with water. 

Meanwhile, the growing friendship between Luca and Giulia is causing Alberto to feel jealous.  Which leads to some drama and to both Alberto and Luca being revealed as sea monsters.  

Luca embraces a sort of European vibe with distinctive designs and quirky characterizations. I've never been to Italy but this films makes me feel like I've experienced the place.

Luca is a solid, good movie that may not rise to top of the Pixar filmography.  It is a simple story of a boy growing beyond the confines of his family, forging new friendships and facing challenges to those friendships. 

We opted to watch Luca on Disney+ instead of making a theater excursion and I think that was the right call to make. A simple tale of young friendship, Luca feels at home being seen at home.