How would Pixar’s new, brightly colorful animated film “Luca” have performed as a theatrical-only release?
We’ll never know, but given the robust state of the box office since Memorial Day — especially for films that are not available on demand — Pixar’s parent company Disney might be second-guessing its strategy of releasing“Cruella”to theaters and Disney+ simultaneously (although there was a premium fee attached to the streaming option) and now relegating “Luca” exclusively to Disney+, free for subscribers.
That being said, the largely unambitious “Luca” is a bit of a letdown for Emeryville’s Pixar. It’s a simple tale of two young sea monsters who turn into human boys and crash a small Italian village, eager to prove their human worth — and win a Vespa — by winning the town’s annual triathlon.
Compare that to the two 2020 Pixars,“Onward,”in which two sparring brothers unite on a mythic quest to resurrect their dead father, and the stirring“Soul,”which asked big questions about life and its meaning and tried to answer them, even offering Pixar’s first Black lead character.
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By contrast “Luca” just seems a trifle, although it is clearly a nostalgic labor of love for Italian-born director Enrico Casarosa, whose 2012 Pixar short “La Luna” was nominated for an Oscar.
Sea monsters, it seems, can instantly transform to humans when they emerge from the ocean. Luca (voice of Jacob Tremblay) is living a simple life shepherding fish (to what purpose?) and living in an underwater cave with his mother (Maya Rudolph), father (Jim Gaffigan) and grandmother (Sandy Martin).
有一天,他偶然发现一个海怪男孩他的年龄, Alberto, who lures him to the surface, and Luca discovers the wonders of being a human boy. After a bit of bonding near the shore — too much in fact; the film doesn’t pick up for a good half-hour — they venture into town, a small village that suggests the story is set in the 1950s, given the presence of a Marcello Mastroianni photograph and a “La Strada” poster and that the ownership of a Vespa is a status symbol.
Luca and Alberto meet a girl, Giulia (Emma Berman), a sweet red-haired spark the movie needed. She wants to win the triathlon too, but being a nice kid she agrees to train the boys. The villain they’re all trying to beat: the impossibly vain Ercole Visconti (Saverio Raimondo), a bully who has won the triathlon the past three years.
Also blocking the boys’ path: the threat of rain and the fact that one-third of the triathlon is swimming (getting wet switches them back to sea monsters); and Luca’s mom and dad, who have assumed human form to come looking for their son.
There are some rumblings about the sea monsters wanting to express their true selves and being accepted by humans even though they are different, yadda yadda, but it’s not very well developed and “Luca,” like its charming village at low tide, is a shallow dip in the water.
L“Luca”:Animated. With the voices of Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer, Maya Rudolph and Jim Gaffigan. Directed by Enrico Casarosa. (PG. 95 minutes.) Available to stream Friday, June 18, on Disney+.