It's close now: June 18th on Disney+. Here's a new clip.

The earlier trailers made it seem like it was just the fact he cooked fish was what had the kids worried which I found odd since what would they have been eating? But this sneak peak makes it clear that they're scared of him because he's personally gunning for their true forms, which is much more reasonable.

I haven't noticed until now, but the father has only one arm. I wonder if he lost it in a fight with a sea monster, giving him a personal reason to hate them beyond Fantastic Racism.

Wow, pros to the voice actors, many of those Italian words sounds very good and I can barely hear the American accent! (When the video began with "hey, papà", I thought it was the Italian dub). I also like they put "Le nozze di Figaro" in the background

Watching this now. It's definitely really fun so far. It gets started really quick, but I'm more or less used to that with animated movies these days: begins very quickly, probably ends very quickly, and loads of meat in the center.

It's also yet another -

"I wanna explore, parent!"

"You can't explore, child!"

"I wanna explore, so I shall run away!"

Your post is so hilarious and on point lol.

Man it's really bad for me, especially coming off from Wish Dragon. I absolutely hate the cast outside for Giulia. The villain is a lame manchild who isn't even compelling or fun.

Ehh I disagree. Triton has more development and there's more to Ariel and him going in TLM than this film.

Edited by Ookamikun on Jun 19th 2021 at 1:38:11 AM

It's interesting, because this movie seems to be an attempt by Pixar to go back to their older template of character growth stories. The stakes aren't high - even at their highest, they're not particularly harrowing - and the story is based pretty much entirely on these particular moments in the relationship between the main characters. It's a movie that's solely interested in animating the realization that the world isn't as small as we think.

It feels a lot like something akin to Sandlot, where it all about kids screwing around and eventually learning a thing or two about themselves.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Jun 18th 2021 at 10:39:58 AM

Just watched it. As usual, Pixar: right in the heart. It's nice to see a low stakes, day in the life sort of conflict.

Boy, Maya Rudolph really likes to play the “mom” character in these family films, huh.

Intertextuality helps in this case. The creators know that you've seen The Little Mermaid, and probably The Shape of Water and Call Me by Your Name if you're older. So they can afford to hit the ground running without having to spend a lot of time on establishing the setting.

Anyway, I really loved the song in the end credits.

Is that even a good thing? That's a mantra those terrible live action remakes used.

Luca isn’t a remake of a previous Disney movie so it worked out

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Jun 20th 2021 at 6:09:01 AM

That's not really what I mean. I'm not talking about taking time to establish the setting, I'm talking about the beginning of the film where the characters and the status quo is set up before everything changes.

The plot of this one starts very quickly - we don't get a lot of time to meet Luca and get more of a soundbite of his personality and what his life is like before the plot is already getting into full gear. This is something that happens here and there with animated movies these days: with the idea being that instead of establishing the characters before the inciting incident like traditional films, you would instead expand them more in the middle.

Overall its fine, it's just something that's really easy to notice once you start noticing it. Here, it works fairly well with Luca himself, but imo it actually does kind of negatively impact some of the other characters, Alberto in particular. I think the one big thing the film has too little of development of Alberto's arc (which mostly happens offscreen) alongside Luca's arc, despite him being the deuteragonist.

I like our three main protagonists. They really do play off on each other to the point I can see a One True Threesome here.

Also, John Ratzenberger has absolutely zero presence here. Like, from what I understand, no visual cameo or line.

Okay so I'm saying this as someone who loves this film

It's so good and I cried so much watching it

It's a really bad look to have two out of three of the protagonists be snow white, the third one being only slightly darker, and the "villain", or the closest thing to a villain, is this swarthy, hook-nosed dude with greasy black hair

I know those looks are all common in Italy, I just think that really adds a layer of colorism to an otherwise incredibly sweet story.

Wooow! As a person from Liguria, I loved this movie! The characters are all likable (except Ercole, of course) and the friendship between the main three is adorable! But what I really liked is how accurate they presented Cinque Terre, when they eat trenette al pesto (with potatoes and green beans)^note  I prefer trofie al pesto though or when they present some of the types of pasta, when they drink coffee made with moka pot, Giulia's swearing with "santa/o [cheese name]". Alberto's tower strongly resembles one I visited (it was in a promontory as well, though these kind of buildings are pretty common in Liguria) and there are many other things I liked that I can't list or I would make a too long post

The only thing I was slightly disappointed was the lack of Ligurian dialect in the dub or someone saying "belin" (but is a very minor niptick, cuz the dub was amazing as usual)

Wait, is swearing with cheese names an actual thing in Liguria?

I feel like it's one of the weaker Pixar entries primarily because it's not really thoroughly engaging, but at least I'd argue at worst it's plain. It's not Monsters University, Cars 2, or good god The Good Dinosaur bad.

No, but I found it funny

Watching the film again, I like the touch in the goodbye scene between Luca and Alberto, Alberto goes into the scene expecting to have to pep talk Luca through it and is thus ready with some advice, but once Luca turns it around and reveals he's actually worried about taking care of Alberto his confidence breaks and he instantly goes into tears.

It's a nice little reflection of their relationship.

I think I would really enjoy a tv show about these characters. Luca's further adventures at school, more shenanigans around Porto Rosso, etc.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Jun 29th 2021 at 6:27:47 AM

I love the end credits where they lovingly write to each other, Luca and guilia see the moon landing, Alberto becomes a lifeguard, and Machiavelli gets a girlfriend and is the kitty daddy.

Edited by GlitterCat on Jun 29th 2021 at 3:30:46 AM

Maybe I'm a weird guy, but despite being the most popular couple, it never seemed to me that there was a romantic connotation between the two friends.

As an experienced male homosexual, I can see how the boys' relationship can stop at friendship. Luca is enamored with Alberto because he grew up repressed and Alberto is free (though he learns it came with a price) and it doesn't really go into romance. The director even says so...

...so it's weird that, to me, there's just so much...subtext. Why even have the "sea monsters that have to hide who they are" aspect if the story is so low concept? Did the director/Pixar think they need to add an extra layer of depth so that the story could be interpreted in that aspect? Hmm.

Going by the Trivia page, an interview by the director Casarosa indicated that the plot of a shy, reserved kid who befriends a nonconformist type who pushes him into becoming more open is directly based on his own experiences as a child.

Dunno where sea monsters factored into things. XD