Luca: Film Review

Vocal cast: Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer, Emma Berman, Jim Gaffigan, Maya Rudolph

Director: Enrico Casarosa

A sweet, but insubstantial, tale of friendship Luca may be, but its literal fish-out-of-water story may leave some feeling like Pixar has lost some of its edge - despite powering on as ever with some truly gorgeous visuals.

Half the problem is that Luca feels like a mesh of other stories from the Disney back catalogue - elements of Cinderella, proponents of Finding Nemo and The Little Mermaid all persist in among the charm.

Room's Jacob Tremblay is the Luca of the title, a fish-kid who doesn't quite fit in. Spending the day underwater off Italy's coast, shepherding guppy fish around and protecting them from "land monsters" who live in boats on the surface, he yearns for something more.

When Luca goes above the surface by accident, thanks to Grazer's Alberto, he transforms into a boy and finds a whole new world opening to him. After Luca's parents find out and threaten to banish him to the bottom of the sea, Luca and Alberto run away to a seaside Italian riviera and embrace the summer lifestyle.

But the village lives in fear of the sea monsters they believe are haunting their waters...

A love letter to Italy, carefree summers with new friends, Vespas and seeing the wonder of the world for the first time, Pixar's Luca is a charmingly delightful little film that's nicely executed and has a central message of acceptance within.

Casarosa's clearly left these villages in Italy behind, but has lived with their idyllic memories for years, ensuring the animators have translated their charm to the big screen with ease. But in populating these vistas with some admittedly stereotyped individuals (the grumpy fisherman, the heavily-accented braggadacio, the frumpy fisherwives), those behind Luca have failed really to imbue the film with the kind of timeless heart that Pixar's become known for.

It is adorable in parts, thanks to the leads' big eyes as the sea monsters replete with their big swathe of purple and blue fins, and both Tremblay and Grazer make fine protagonists.

But if anything, Luca feels like a short, stretched out more to a story that probably needed just a little more polish.

In its opening frenzy of love and admiration for Italy's finest, the film soars; Vespas and countrysides collide with the giddy pleasures of finding new friends. It's just that in the latter portions of the film, it just doesn't quite coalesce into much more.

Luca is streaming on Disney+ from Friday June 18