Directed by: Enrico Casarosa
Written by: Enrico Casarosa, Jesse Andrews, Simon Stephenson
Cast: Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer, Emma Berman
Swift shot: Learn Italian while you watch this quick, charming little family film with nods to Pinocchio and other Disney classics.
Remember those sea-monkeys that destroyed your childhood, because you found out they were just brine shrimp? I have some good news for you, they are real and have a secret underwater hearth that they keep secret from land-dwellers.
To us bipeds, they are monsters. But most monsters lose their teeth when you get to know them. Such is the case with Luca.
Luca is a preteen sea monster; he spends his days moisture-farming, err, I mean herding goatfish. But he longs for something more than just existing. He wants to explore and is fascinated with the land-dwellers’ machines.
Anytime a piece of their world drops into the sea, he has to investigate. His mother, Daniela warns him to stay away from the land-dwellers, but her overbearing nature will ultimately push Luca into a new world of adventure.
One day Luca discovers a pile of trinkets . . . and a new friend, Alberto. Alberto shows Luca that sea monsters can transform on land to blend in with the humans. Alberto is very knowledgeable. Well, at least as far as Luca is concerned. Really, Alberto is wrong about many things. He’s not a bad kid, but Alberto has a secret of his own.
Thanks to his mother, Luca is afraid of many things, but Alberto is fearless. Luca starts sneaking out to help Alberto build a Vespa. But eventually he is busted.
Luca’s mother threatens to send him to live with his weird Uncle Ugo in the deep, so Luca decides he’s had enough. He runs away from his underwater home. And you can hardly blame him when the alternative was to float around going insane with his weird transparent uncle all summer. No thank you!
Eventually Alberto and Luca work up the nerve to head into a small town on the sea called Portorosso. They have no trouble fitting in, as long as they don’t get wet, nobody will ever find out they are sea monkeys, I mean sea monsters.
[Swift aside: One wonders what these monsters call themselves, because I doubt they refer to themselves as sea monsters, or even sea people for that matter. Are they merpeople?]
In Portorosso they cross paths with a bully, Ercole who is a snobby rich kid who thinks he runs the town. But it isn’t all bad news, as they meet the charming and plucky, Giulia and her not-so-warm father, Massimo.
Meanwhile, Luca’s parents are freaking out! And when they figure out he may have gone to town, they leave the comfort of their little under-the-sea dwelling and grow some legs of their own.
This is where the fun begins. Luca’s parents are trying to find him. Giulia has no idea Alberto and Luca are different, but they do seem incredibly naïve about a lot of things. But, she is like the perfect summer friend. She just wants to have fun and doesn’t really dig too deep into where Alberto and Luca come from.
Giulia was by far my favorite character from this movie. She reminded me of Pippi Longstocking a bit, and she just had this great energy about her.
As a kid, every summer needs a goal. And our little duo has decided they want to buy a Vespa and explore the world together. Yea, that costs Lira. So, they need to enter a podrace, errr, I mean the Portorosso Cup Race. Basically it’s a triathlon sponsored by a big pasta restaurant. Two guesses who has won the last several years . . . yepp, Ercole.
Eventually Luca learns by hanging out with Giulia that Alberto has been wrong about a great many things. And Giulia tells him about this wonderful place called . . . school. See the Pinocchio thing now?
Luca has a new goal, after the summer he wants to attend human school.
With a simple story about coming-of-age and what it takes to see your ambitions become reality, Luca has an added bonus of being a nice little postcard to Italy. Many times the characters will say something in Italian and then in English, which was nice.
Perhaps my only gripe with Luca, as with most new Disney movies, is the lack of a solid villain. All we get are a pimply bully, Ercole and his two half-witted goons, Ciccio and Guido.
And I have never seen Roman Holiday, but there was definitely some love shown to it . . . and one movie poster hinting about the allusions to Luca.
So, if you are Italian, watch this one. If you love Italy, watch this one. If you loved La Luna, watch this feature-length directorial debut by Enrico Casarosa and enjoy as he takes you back to his idealistic childhood memories. Or, if you are just looking to smile and laugh with the family, watch this one.
