Luca Review

Summary:

Luca is a young boy with a strong sense of curiosity towards the surface. He lives a simple life under the sea, but after his grandma tells stories of the surface, his interest is peaked. One day, as he is herding his fish, he runs into Alberto collecting trinkets. After Alberto leaves his harpoon behind, Luca ends up like a beached whale as he returns the spear. Scared of the surface and his parents, Luca hurries back home and away from the surface. It doesn’t take long for his curiosity to take over, and he returns to the surface. Once Luca figures out walking, Alberto shows him all of the cool human things he has stolen/collected. Luca sees a poster with a VESPA and is instantly hooked. The boys try to build their own, to very little avail, and realize they must embark on the human island if they ever want a VESPA.

Characters:

Luca, is a young sea monster who has grown up being a cautious good kid who doesn’t break his mother’s rules. There is another art of Luca though as he is curious about the human world and what that world is like. After he meets a friend named Alberto he does begin to take more risks and explore the world that makes him so curious. Alberto is another sea monster who like Luca is just a young boy but he doesn’t live with his parents and he lives on land. Alberto is a carefree kid who just does as he pleases without worrying about what others think. Alberto just wants to have fun and explore the human world.

It’s been a while since our last Pixar movie found in Soul, but here we are for the newest release: Luca! As a movie in general, this is a great kid’s movie. From the simple story, to the colourful setting, and the fun characters, this movie will bring some entertainment for the one and half hour run time. However, the simple story does leave much to be desired from viewers who want more meat in their plots.

To start off, there’s only one negative to this movie that really holds it back, and that’s the plot. Now, for certain movies, a simple plot is useful to focus on other aspects of the media, whether it be the characters or some philosophical idea. In the case of Luca, the simple plot doesn’t really do much for it. Although the characters are great, and I’ll touch on this more later, they didn’t really need the plot to stand out.

Now, as a child and watching this, I would have loved it. The story is simple to follow and there aren’t too many surprises. From an older perspective, I feel like this movie could have done a lot more with its story and world. I just felt like it was lacking. The concept and characters gave it some nice building blocks, but they were never used to their fullest potential.

On the other hand, I really enjoyed the characters in this movie. Not only was the concept of Luca’s race an interesting one, but it also felt very natural. All of Luca’s responses to the events around him were responses I would expect from his position. Sure, some of them were predictable, but it was nice to have a character that you can relate with. Besides Luca, the supporting cast was also great. Alberto was a nice perspective and even almost a foil to Luca’s character.

The way they contrast as well as related was refreshing and their interactions felt like something out of my friendships around that age. I also appreciate the human characters. They were all given a good amount of development and it balanced out the cast. Besides the characters, the animation in this movie is top notch and gorgeous. I think the animation and design of the water is what drew me to how pretty the whole movie looks. From the characters to the background, it was a very beautiful movie.

Overall, Luca was a good kid’s movie. It has a simple plot, a nice cast of characters, and stunning animations. For a kid, this would be a great movie to watch. However, for those craving more of a punch in the plot, this one isn’t really it.