#Luca sea monster movie#

And though the surface world in “Luca” represents something similar to that of “ The Little Mermaid” or “ Finding Nemo”, it’s interesting that the conservative unease about the surface world reads more like social xenophobia, and not necessarily danger.Īfter the “us-vs-them” dynamic is established, “ Luca” wastes no time getting our scaly tween curious and rushing to the surface via a couple of human gizmos he finds on the seafloor as well as the encouragement of a slightly older boy, Alberto, standing above the water in what we learn to be, his human form.

#Luca sea monster movie#

The divide between Luca and his family is clear, with the boy sensitive and adventurous kid marching to the beat of his own drum, and his mom and dad doing their best to carry on the long tradition of movie helicopter parents (submarine parents?). His parents, Daniliena ( Maya Rudolph) and Lorenzo ( Jim Gaffigan) are traditional and conservative Italian fish people, and his secretly rebellious grandmother, voiced by Sandy Martin, steals each scene she is in without having to do or say all too much. Immediately following the above-sea prologue, we venture down into the water to meet Luca Paguro, a newly pubescent sea monster and young working class fish herder. In a more robust style of animation, the scene would likely strike terror into the film’s kid audience, but with Luca’s blocky and bubbly character style, it tugs on intrigue rather than fear. We soon learn that this creature is Jack Dylan Grazer’s Alberto, Luca’s soon to be partner-in-crime, but for now, creature of the deep will suffice. The first frames of ‘ Luca’ capture a Spielberg-esque suspense encounter between some old Italian humans and a creature of the deep. Because Luca’s underwater town serves as a starting base for the film, if the opener to this piece were to assert the boy’s humanity before his monstrosity, it would be completely insincere, and perhaps a little offensive to sea monsters. In fact, the scales, gills, and fins of his entire sea monster community, thriving underneath the shallow waves that crash against the coast of Portorosso, pop in shimmering hues of blues, greens, and purples. Luca’s monstrousness is not something hidden from audiences, nor is it a trait to be discovered halfway through the film. Unlike other movies where his fishiness may come as a late-in-the-game wrench in the works, the young monster’s scales, gills, and fins are on display from the very first moment he plunges onto screen.

Because of the film’s layered textures, perhaps it is best to start with the obvious. Embedded with flavors of multicultural subtext and complex identity politics, “Luca” demonstrates the dual nature of friendship, assimilation, and queerness (yes, queerness) often unrepresented or misconstrued within the animation studio’s canon, as well as the broader scope of animated film. However upon further scrutiny, ‘ Luca’ might not be as simple a tale. Bright-eyed and curly-haired, Luca ( Jacob Tremblay) is a regular Italian boy living in a regular Italian town who becomes entangled in a regular Italian friendship with a new companion, Alberto ( Jack Dylan Grazer).