Luca (Jacob Tremblay) dreams of adventure among the land monsters instead of herding fish for his family, but is scared of disobeying his overprotective mother (Maya Rudolph) so he never dares go to the surface. He meets Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer), fancy-free and fearless, who teaches Luca that he can look human when dry. They run away to the coastal town of Portorosso in search of the mythical vehicle that can give them the freedom to travel the world: a Vespa. But Vespas cost money, so the two sea monsters agree to join perennial underdog Guilia's (Emma Berman) triathlon team to finally beat local bully Ercole (Saverio Raimondo) and win the prize money. The longer they are in the human world, the more Luca longs to belong. He must risk everything he knows to find a place for himself.
This has been compared to Call Me By Your Name and I can kind of see it, even if Disney does repeatedly drop the ball on queer representation. It could absolutely be a metaphor for coming out, if that's how you want to interpret it. If not, it still works as a coming-of-age story about overcoming fear and learning to navigate the world with confidence.
The other thing I heard most often about this film was that Disney "dumped" it on Disney+ instead of giving it a theatrical run because they weren't confident in it. I think they are trying very hard to keep people from cancelling their subscriptions and saying it's the only way to see new Pixar films. It might be both. What do I know? If it wasn't for Loki, I'd have probably cancelled mine by now, so maybe I'm projecting.
At any rate, Luca is a very cute Pixar film and an excellent kick-off to summer.
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