LUCA
Pixar’s next opus is a humble ode to Italy. Well, Italy and sea monsters
The latest outing from the ever-unpredictable Pixar sounds like The Little Mermaid meets Stand By Me, except without the songs or a dead body. That we know of. Directed by Enrico Casarosa, who made the company’s Oscarnominated 2011 short La Luna, it’s an almost literal fish-out-of-water comedy.
The story follows two young male sea creatures — one shy, one bold — who take a trip to the world above, where they befriend a human girl and experience the marvel of life on dry land.
“It’s a bit like two kids going to the big city for the first time,” says Casarosa, except in this case the big city is a sleepy fishing village in Italy, where denizens tell terrible tales of the monsters in the water. The creatures blend in because when they’re out of the water they appear human; it’s only when they get wet that they turn scaly and fin-y.
Casarosa says the film is based on personal experience. “Yeah, I was born a sea monster,” he laughs. “No, I was born in Genoa, [Italy], and my summers were spent on beaches. I met my best friend when I was 11. I was really shy and I found this troublemaker of a kid who had a completely different life. I wanted to make a movie about those kinds of friendships that help you grow up.”
Aside from his own life, his influences for Luca were Miyazaki, “because I’m a fanatic”, he says, and Fellini, among other greats of mid-20th century Italian cinema, “because we wanted little homages to Italian movies all over the place.” Expect something charmingly intimate in scale, then, but limitless, we expect, in imagination. LUCA IS DUE IN CINEMAS FROM 18 JUNE