In 2024, Disney is releasing three recent Pixar films in cinemas: Soul, Turning Red, and Luca. These titles were released directly to Disney+ during the pandemic, but they’re finally getting the big-screen releases they deserve. While every one of them is well worth watching in theaters, I’d like to focus on 2021’s Luca, Pixar’s quiet and charming coming-of-age film about friendship and forging your paths.
Set in Italy during the summer, a young sea monster named Luca has spent his entire life in the water, but that all changes when he meets another young sea monster named Alberto, who shows him how to be human and exist on the shore. The two boys decide to go to the town of Portorosso, meet a new friend named Giulia, and have a summer filled with bike rides, pasta, and nights spent with best friends under the stars.
It’s a surprisingly small-scale narrative from Pixar, but this sweet, personal story is exactly what makes the film feel so big. Director Enrico Casarosa has said himself that Luca is a “deeply personal story” inspired by his childhood in Italy and his experiences with his childhood best friend. “I wanted to make a movie about those kinds of friendships that help you grow up,” Casarosa said.
And make one, he did. Luca and Alberto’s shared goal of traveling the world in a Vespa is a silly one, but by the time Alberto asks Luca if he wants to help him build a Vespa, you’re all in. The following montage of Luca constantly telling Alberto he has to go but staying much longer to help him build the bike anyway is a whist but genius way of showing the beginning of a new best friendship, of meeting someone and forming an instant connection with them.
It isn’t just Alberto, too; Luca forms a solid friendship with Giulia as well, and the film has multiple fantasy sequences from Luca’s mind that strongly capture his innocent wonder and his growing connections with both Alberto and Giulia. Not only are these sequences gorgeously animated, they’re downright magical, carrying the sense of awe that only a children’s story can give us.
These sequences are lovely to look at, but more than that, they capture a truth most of us already know deep down: friendship is an utterly magical thing, and it’s the kind of magic that can’t be replicated anywhere else.
Of course, it’s not just the friendships that are growing, but Luca and Alberto are both growing as well. They’re discovering new things, picking up new skills, finding new interests, and forging their paths, even if those paths may mean possibly needing to go in separate directions. The two may be a team, but the movie never forgets that Luca and Alberto are, first and foremost, individuals.
Individuals who shape and change one another, but individuals who must go through a coming-of-age story specific to themselves. As director Casarosa said, “Childhood friendships often set the course of who we want to become, and it is those bonds that are at the heart of our story in Luca.”
All of this may be rather low-stakes for a cinematic outing for some people, especially those used to the big chase scenes and action sequences that typically frequent a Pixar film. To me, though, it’s this familiarity and intimacy that makes it perfect for such a big screen. When you’re experiencing these things, doesn’t the whirlwind of making a new best friend feel gigantic? Doesn’t the rush of meeting someone who’s on your wavelength feel superlative?
This kind of platonic love can be so rare and so important that the possibility of growing apart from them is greatly heartbreaking. Alas, like all love, it can be exhilarating, confusing, and ever-changing in all the best and worst ways. Things change, kids grow up, and life doesn’t stop for anybody.
There’s never any guarantee someone will stay in your life forever, and with that come feelings like bitterness and jealousy, emotions Luca doesn’t ignore. But it also doesn’t ignore how big a friendship can be and how it can impact us both for the better and for good.
With breathtaking animation and stellar writing, Luca very quickly became one of my favorite modern Disney films, and I’ll be first in line when it finally gets its much-deserved theatrical release this March. Hopefully, you’re convinced to watch it on the big screen too.
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