A Dive Into Fable-Like Wonders That Pursues All Meanings of Adventure (Disney Pixar's LUCA)

Pixar has made such a roster that gives you bittersweet feelings throughout and right after watching the films they've made. It's one of the reasons why die-hard fans of the Pixar filmography are always ready for a new and original film even if it's by sneaking in tissues to the cinemas. Luca is Pixar's latest release on Disney Plus instead of the cinema to make sure everyone has a chance to catch this fable-like story that is one to remember. 

Luca tells the story of the titular character who is a sea creature of sorts (no explanation given as to what they are in any part of the film) that befriends the adventurous Alberto to travel to the human-filled Italian town nearby to find a way to get a Vespa to travel the world but Luca gains the interest in more than just traveling the world through Giulia, a local girl he and Alberto befriend in this dangerous journey.

I will honestly say that Luca may not be the best Pixar film ever made but it considers itself to be loved enough that it could win the hearts of audiences by its familiar yet touching story of friendship and accepting others for their differences. Like every other Pixar film, Luca makes you laugh (but not out loud) and nostalgic enough to remember this storybook-like setting. 

The animation of Luca differs from other Pixar films. Usually, Pixar, or Disney at least, creates animated films that look so good to make it seem like certain scenes were actually shot in live-action when it wasn't. Perfect examples of this are films like Finding Dory with the ocean sequences or most accurately, last December's Soul, that made the African American 3D characters have open pores and visible beads of sweat to fall from their head. Whereas Luca's animation, however, resembles the kind of drawings you'd see in children's books or art pieces made by well-trained artists. From the way the characters look to the shapes and colors of the clouds in the sky, Luca is a much different way of experiencing animation especially when you think of animation Pixar is usually known for. 

When watching Luca, all I could think about was how rare is it to find movies about characters that live in the ocean and how Luca, was somewhat inspired by such classics as The Little Mermaid and Finding Nemo. Those movies were in my head whilst watching Luca but the internet had a much different comparison in mind. As it turns out, there were similarities being pointed out from the Oscar Nominee drama-romance film, Call Me By Your Name, especially with the way how the end scene played out, something even I can't deny. But I am sure that Pixar is not ready to tell stories that subtly reference homosexuality just yet, let alone in a more outlandish way Call Me By Your Name managed to portray a friendship turned romance in a peaceful town in Italy. 

Yes, the coincidental similarities are there but this story is a much innocent yet in a sense, heartbreaking enough to even get children to feel something in the end but that doesn't mean there wasn't a more obvious nod to homosexuality. In this sense, what stuck out to me was how they portrayed Luca and Alberto's struggle to hide their true selves to fit in a community to make sure they don't be hated or worse, get murdered for being who they are, a struggle most members of the LGBT community have suffered whether back then or today. 

Luca is a great family film to watch this weekend and I think it is a film not meant to be missed for it's a fun, loving, and relatable story of being young, naive, and optimistic towards even the scariest of possibilities that lay ahead of anyone's lives and also for its reliability towards almost anyone who had a wild imagination as a child.