Some folks got the impression that this was a remake of The Little Mermaid. It is a Disney cartoon movie about an adolescent human-fish combo from off a European coast who takes great interest in the surface realm, especially human culture, despite parental insistence that humans are too deadly (and doesn't know what to do with a fork). But that's about where the similarity ends.
The title character (Jacob Tremblay) is not a merperson in the usual sense. He looks more like a cute distant cousin to the Amphibian Man from The Shape of Water, except that any part of him that gets dry (which happens ridiculously fast) looks perfectly human. We don't know a term for his species besides "sea monsters," and since they tend to call humans "land monsters," I'd expect them to use another term for themselves.
Anyway, Luca stops merely daydreaming about the surface after he meets Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer), a slightly older sea monster who encourages a more adventurous lifestyle. When Luca's parents (Maya Rudolph and Jim Gaffigan) plan to send him to live with his deep-sea uncle (Sacha Baron Cohen), he and Alberto decide to hide in the fictitious Italian coastal town of Portorosso, where it appears to be the late '50s. They'd love to get their hands on a Vespa motorscooter, and a possible way soon presents itself: win a local junior triathlon. Of course, the swimming segment won't be so easy when there's a longstanding tradition of spearing sea monsters on sight....
Personally, I don't mind the modern Disney/Pixar fad of surprise villains, but if you do, rest assured that Ercole (Saverio Raimondo) wastes little time in coming across as an arrogant bully. He's not popular like Gaston, just widely feared; he's even mean to his partners (both voiced by Peter Sohn). Lightning McQueen would analyze him as fearful, because why else would he bother to threaten novice opponents and shamelessly enter a race he's aged out of? And lest you think he's just a typical sports movie-type jerk, he's extra eager to collect a bounty on sea monsters.
One fortunate thing about Ercole is that having an enemy in common draws Giulia (Emma Berman) to the two new boys in town. She could use a team after her past solo failures, and she even persuades her dad, Massimo (Marco Barricelli), to let them stay for however many days. When they're not training athletically, Luca and Giulia bond over a craving for education, to the point that Luca might not want to join Alberto on a Vespa road trip after all. Alberto does not take this well at all, and he knows a simple way to drive a wedge....
Viewers of a certain mindset might read romantic feelings into Luca and Giulia and/or Luca and Alberto, but neither is unambiguous. This points to an emerging Disney trend: pairs who can easily be seen as a couple or not, thereby appealing to both camps.
One thing I've appreciated about the surprise villains is that unlike most Disney antagonists, they don't look especially ugly, deformed, or otherwise peculiar. I'm happy to say that only Ercole's expressions and actions detract from his potential handsomeness. I will note that Massimo is one-armed, but for all his presentation as a surly hulk who'd kill any number of sea monsters, he's basically a decent guy. And he's so skilled with that one arm that it took me a while to notice the other was missing.
Probably the best aspects of Luca are in the visuals. Portorosso and the nearby sea sure are pretty. No wonder the director credits inspiration from Hayao Miyazaki, as hinted by the name similarity to Porco Rosso. We also get tributes to La Strada, Big Deal on Madonna Street, and other Italian classics, some of which I hadn't heard of and might have to see someday.
The biggest weakness? Some would say limited originality by Pixar standards, but to my mind, it's the pacing. I understand that they didn't want to run much longer than 95 minutes, but at several points, especially in the third act, I thought, "Already?" I might have made a little more time by cutting parts that dragged just a bit. Luca's imagination sequences, for instance, feel superfluous in a blatantly whimsical story with beautiful graphics.
Luca didn't exactly wow me or my parents, nor did it stimulate my mind as much as, say, Soul did, but we all enjoyed it. The ending was sweet enough to tug at me. It stands a chance at a Best Animated Feature Oscar, but I won't hold my breath. Unless I go underwater.
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