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szdaily -> Culture -> 
Luca
    2021-08-18  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

Pixar’s “Luca,” an Italian-set animated fairy tale, tells about two young sea monsters exploring an unknown human world. Directed by Enrico Casarosa, the film borrows elements from “Finding Nemo” and “The Little Mermaid.” It follows two young sea “monsters,” Luca (Jacob Tremblay) and Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer). Luca spends his days shepherding the little fish populating his seabed village away from fishing boats. But at night, as he lies awake in his seaweed bed, he dreams of living on the surface.

Looming against his desires are his mother (Maya Rudolph) and father’s (Jim Gaffigan) fear from living by a human, sea-monster-hunting oceanfront village.

When Luca starts finding objects lost from fishing boats — an alarm clock, a playing card, a gramophone — his eagerness to explore above the surface gets the better of him. As does Alberto, an older, confident amphibian boy who now lives alone in a crumbling castle tower by the beach, and claims his father is temporarily traveling.

If you’re wondering how these creatures with fins, scales, and tails could live on among humans without being discovered, writers Jesse Andrews and Mike Jones have a tidy solution for that. Rather than an evil witch granting him a human appearance, a la “The Little Mermaid,” the sea monsters can naturally, magically turn mortal. Their ability isn’t controllable, however, as touching water reverts their skin back to their real scaly exterior.

Once on dry land, Alberto and Luca form a quick bond. They dream of buying a vespa and traveling around the world together. Their plans nearly come to a stop, however, when Luca’s parents threaten to make him live with his oddball Uncle Ugo (Sacha Baron Cohen) in the trenches. Instead, Luca runs away with Alberto to the town of Portorosso. There, they come across Giulia (Emma Berman), a red-headed, independently minded tomboy with dreams of winning the Portorosso cup — a traditional Italian triathlon consisting of swimming, cycling, and eating pasta — and her one-armed, burly father Massimo (Marco Barricelli). In a bid to earn enough money to buy a Vespa, the boys pair with Giulia to win the cup away from the evil five-time champion Ercole Visconti (Saverio Raimondo) and his goons while an entire town lays a bounty for sea monsters on their heads.

While Luca’s worried parents venture onto land to track down their runaway son, Giulia’s fisherman dad more or less adopts them after they prove unexpectedly savvy in finding the best spot to fish.

Luca’s quaint sea-creature interpretation of the night sky prompts Giulia to introduce him to a telescope and her school textbook on the universe, which feeds his hunger for knowledge. The story’s outcome — when the boys’ inevitable exposure as feared sea monsters makes them vulnerable to Ercole’s harpoon — serves as a gratifying teaching moment for kids about being open to otherness rather than rejecting it based on old prejudices and superstitions. And Luca’s display of loyalty and courage fills his parents with a pride they perhaps have never before shown.

The most distinct current coursing through “Luca” is freedom: That’s certainly what the Vespa represents, the ability to be unrestricted not just by sea, but by land too. The other thread winding around the folklorish narrative is identity, or the people who truly are behind their public faces. The villainous Ercole is initially and seemingly well-loved. But we soon discover that his love rules through intimidation.

The real magic of “Luca” is its visuals. The character designs are appealing both in the marine world and on land, and the richness of the settings in both realms is a constant source of pleasure.

(SD-Agencies)

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