Luca

8/10 

In Luca now on Disney+, Luca Paguro (voiced by Jacob Tremblay) is a young Italian sea monster who's curious about the human world. (Yes, the sea monsters have regular people names. It's best not to think about it too much.) He meets the adventurous, uninhibited sea monster Alberto Scorfano (Jack Dylan Grazer) who introduces him to the surface world, and the two end up deciding to visit a human town (they can take human form) where they befriend a human girl Giulia Marcovaldo (Emma Berman). 

Now, this lacks some of that special narrative backbone or innovation that the best of the Pixar films have. The plot is not the most original what with having clear Little Mermaid similarities, a "learn-to-look-past-people's differences" message that makes the ending predictable, and a traditional bully protagonist with two lackeys. In fact, I was thinking of rating this a notch lower at first. Then the third act came, and they hit all the emotional beats out of the park. The biggest strength to this is the relationships between the three kids and you become invested in their goals and the changes in their journeys.

Giulia's father Massimo (voiced by Marco Barricelli), a large, imposing, yet caring guy, is a fun character, though he isn't in this that much. I also got to give director Enrico Casarosa credit, he does not shy away from the occasional moment of the boys getting physically hurt. I mean it isn't something that happens a lot, but this isn't something you see in many animated children's films.

Being a Pixar movie, Luca looks really, really good, managing to captures the old-timey Italian seaside. The character design is probably the most cartoonish of all the Pixar movies. Yeah, I mean as cartoon characters they all look cartoonish, but the designs really go for the simple, stylized look. Have you seen the Pixar short Luna? Casarosa directed that too; same style.

Again, not one of the best of the Pixar movies but definitely a good watch. I think children will especially love this. Recommended.