Luca (Exclusive Series) (Disney Plus)

Initial release date: June 18, 2021

Studios: Walt Disney/Pixar Animation

Plot: Set in a beautiful seaside town on the Italian Riviera, Disney and Pixar’s original feature movie ‘Luca’ is a coming of age story about one young boy experiencing an unforgettable summer filled with gelato, pasta and endless scooter rides. Luca shares these adventures with his newfound best friend, Alberto, but all the fun is threatened by a deeply-held secret: they are sea monsters from another world just below the water’s surface.

Cast

Jacob Tremblay - Luca Paguro

Jack Dylan Grazer - Alberto Scorfano

Emma Berman - Giulia Marcovaldo

Saverio Ralmondo - Ercole Visconti

Maya Rudolph - Daniela Paguro

Marco Barricelli - Massimo Marcovaldo

Jim Gaffigan - Lorenzo Paguro

Peter Sohn - Ciccio

Marina Massironi - Signora Marsigliese

Sandy Martin - Grandma Paguro

Elisa Gabrielli - Concetta Aragosta

Mimi Maynard - Pinuccia Aragosta

Sacha Baron Cohen - Uncle Ugo

Writer(s): Jesse Andrews (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl)

Mike Jones (Soul)

Director: Enrico Casarosa

Rated PG for rude humor, language, some thematic elements and brief violence (95 minutes)

*** Slightly smaller review than usual***

Disney and Pixar’s ‘Luca’ is a very entertaining and humorous family movie. Obviously it came from Pixar, so it has to be good!!!

The story of two young outcasts is heart-warming and at times really funny. It’s a great movie about friendship and is simply enjoyable. And, the animation is amazing!

You can check out this family Pixar movie on the Disney Plus streaming service.

Here are some interesting tidbits for ‘Luca’:

• Portorosso can be seen as an advertisement on a talent agency window in Pixar’s previous movie ‘Soul.’

• Director Enrico Casarosa stated that he drew inspiration from the films of Hayao Miyazaki when creating the film. The character Luca’s original last name was Portorosso, a nod to Miyazaki’s 1992 film ‘Porco Rosso.’ In the final version of the film, the character’s surname was changed and the name of the town changed to Portorosso.

• The train number at the end is 94608 which is the zip code for Emeryville, CA where Pixar headquarters is located.

• At the very end of the credits, it says “produced in our slippers around the Bay area” due to the pandemic, this is the first movie that was made at home.

• The kites that Luca and Giulia fly with are the same design that Leonardo Da Vinci used for his unbuilt flying apparatus, a theoretical precursor to the modern airplane.

• The film celebrates Pixar’s 35th anniversary.

• On July 30, 2020, Pixar announced this film as an “Italy-set coming of age story.”

• To prepare for the film, Pixar sent several of the film’s artists to the Italian Riviera for a research trip, during which they took photos of the area’s landscapes and people. The film is rooted in the 50s and 60s, which Casarosa has described as a “golden age that feels timeless,” with the music and designs inspired from the period “to capture a little bit of this timelessness of summer.”

• ‘Luca’ were originally set to be theatrically released in the US on June 18, 2021. However, on March 23, 2021, Disney announced the cancellation of the theatrical release, and it instead was released on Disney Plus.

https://youtu.be/mYfJxlgR2jw