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Luca (2021 film)

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Luca
Official release poster
Directed byEnrico Casarosa
Screenplay by
Produced byAndrea Warren
Starring
CinematographyDavid Juan Bianchi
Kim White
Edited byCatherine Apple
Jason Hudak
Music byDan Romer
Production
companies
Distributed byWalt Disney Studios
Motion Pictures
Release date
  • June 18, 2021 (2021-06-18) (United States)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Luca is an upcoming American computer-animated coming-of-age fantasy comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The film is directed by Enrico Casarosa in his feature-length directorial debut. It was written by Mike Jones and Jesse Andrews, and produced by Andrea Warren. It features the voices of Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer, Emma Berman, Marco Barricelli, Saverio Raimondo, Maya Rudolph, and Jim Gaffigan. The film will be dedicated to Italian musician Ennio Morricone, who was originally considered to compose the soundtrack, but died before he was asked to do so.[1]

Originally set to be theatrically released in the United States on June 18, 2021,[2] Luca is scheduled to stream on Disney+ in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.[3]

Premise

In Portorosso, a seaside town on the Italian Riviera, a young boy named Luca shares adventures with his new best friend Alberto.[4] But Luca and Alberto are hiding a secret: they are both sea monsters from a world below the water's surface.[5][6][7]

Voice cast

  • Jacob Tremblay as Luca Paguro, a 13-year-old sea monster curious about the world above the sea.[8]
  • Jack Dylan Grazer as Alberto Scorfano, a teenage sea monster and Luca's best friend who is enthusiastic to explore the human world.[8]
  • Emma Berman as Giulia Marcovaldo, an Italian girl who befriends Luca and Alberto.[8]
  • Marco Barricelli as Massimo Marcovaldo, Giulia's cook father.[8]
  • Saverio Raimondo as Ercole Visconti, the local bully of Portorosso.[9]
  • Maya Rudolph as Daniela Paguro, a sea monster and Luca's mother.[8]
  • Jim Gaffigan as Lorenzo Paguro, a sea monster and Luca's father.[8]
  • Sandy Martin as a sea monster and Luca's grandmother.[10]

Production

Development

Director Enrico Casarosa stated the film was inspired by his own childhood.

On July 30, 2020, Pixar announced a new film titled Luca as a "Italy-set coming-of-age story", with Casarosa directing and Warren producing.[11] It is the feature-length directorial debut of Casarosa, who has previously directed the 2011 Academy Award-nominated short film La Luna.[12]

Casarosa has described Luca as a "deeply personal story", being inspired by his childhood in Genoa, Italy, with the title character based on himself and Alberto on his best friend of the same name.[13] Casarosa has stated: "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."[14]

He also declared that the film's core is a celebration of friendship:

"Childhood friendships often set the course of who we want to become, and it is those bonds that are at the heart of our story in Luca. So, in addition to the beauty and charm of the Italian seaside, our film will feature an unforgettable summer adventure that will fundamentally change Luca".[5]

According to Casarosa, the result is a film that "pays homage to Federico Fellini and other classic Italian filmmakers, with a dash of Miyazaki in the mix too".[14] In addition of Fellini and Miyazaki's works, the films La Terra Trema (1948), Stromboli (1950) and Stand by Me (1986) were also cited as source of inspiration,[15] and Aardman Animations and Wes Anderson's stop-motion movies influenced Casarosa's artistic sensibilities.[16]

Pixar's artists embarked on research trips to the Italian Riviera to prepare the setting of the film (Vernazza pictured).

To prepare for the film, Pixar sent several of the film's artists to the Italian Riviera for a research trip, during which they took photos of the area's landscape and peoples.[17] The film is rooted in the 50s and 60s, that Casarosa has described as a "golden age that feels timeless", with the music and designs inspired from that period "to capture a little bit of this timelessness of summer."[13]

The sea monsters featured in the film were pulled from regional folklore,[9] and from local "little legends about sea dragons, creatures that either come to help or get into trouble".[18] Casarosa said: "I always found the old sea monsters on maps really fascinating. The mystery of the sea was so represented in the weird creatures that we used to draw. And that area has a lot of wonderful myths".[9] He also stated that the sea monster is a "metaphor for feeling different".[18]

Disney filed for copyright register the names "Portorosso" and "Isola del mare" ("Sea island").[19] The DisInsider initially reported that Portorosso, a reference and wordplay to Miyazaki's film Porco Rosso (1992), was going to be the title character's surname.[19] In the final film, Luca's surname is Paguro (Italian for "Hermit crab"), while Portorosso is the name of the village in which the film is set.

Casting

On February 25, 2021, with the release of the teaser trailer and poster, Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer, Emma Berman, Maya Rudolph, Marco Barricelli, Saverio Raimondo (it) and Jim Gaffigan were announced as part of the cast.[9]

Tremblay voices the title character; Casarosa stated that working with him was "such a pleasure",[13] and "I love how earnest and innocent he is naturally. And he's playful and he's not afraid to try stuff so it was so much fun to improvise with him ... he's actually one of the few actors we had time to work with before the pandemic, so there it was so much fun."[13] According to Tremblay: "[Luca] really wants to explore the world and I can really relate to that, especially now. I really want to get back out there and just learn about different cultures, just like Luca. He really wants to go to this town in Italy and learn about their culture and become part of it."[20]

Casarosa stated that Grazer, who voiced Alberto, brings "a natural confidence and vulnerability" to the character, "who's a free-spirited teen sea monster with unbridled enthusiasm for the human world."[20] Giulia, an "outsider, misfit girl", is voiced by newcomer Berman.[20] Rudolph and Gaffigan, playing Daniela and Lorenzo, did get the chance to improv, with Casarosa highlighting the depth and warmth they bring to the roles: "She's a stern mother. She's a difficult and very controlling mother, but there's this other warmth to her that balances it."[20] Luca supporting cast includes actual Italian actors: stand-up comedian Raimondo voices Ercole, and theater actor and director Barricelli, who has a "booming voice", voices Massimo.[9][20]

Tremblay stated that the relationship between Luca and Alberto "is gonna bring back a lot of memories when people watch this and I'm hoping that when people watch this, they'll be able to forget about COVID [...] It's so cool I get to be part of someone else's childhood. I think especially now the story is really special because, for me, I haven't really been able to see my friends because of COVID, of course, and this movie is all about friendship. So, when people see it in theaters, I hope they'll be able to remember hanging out with friends during summer vacation and just having a blast."[9][20]

Writing

On July 30, 2020, Jones announced that he would co-write the screenplay with Andrews, and that he was proud of it.[21]

It is the first Pixar film to involve Andrews, while Jones had previously co-written Soul (2020) and is also credited as a Senior Story and Creative Artist at Pixar.[22]

Animation

To prepare for the film, Pixar sent several of the film's artists to the Italian Riviera for a research trip, during which they took photos of the area's landscape and peoples.[17] During the research trip, Deanna Marsigliese, the film's art director, noted that they were watched by curious onlookers and chose to incorporate that into the character designs. A clay figure of sea monster Luca was sculpted to assist with the design process for the character.[17]

Casarosa described the characters' transformation scenes as "a big effort" due to the many iterations done.[13] He also stated that another big effort was finding a different look: "So, you're using the same tools roughly and you're not completely reinventing, but you're trying to bring some warmth, some texture, some imperfection. The computer naturally kind of wants to be a little bit realistic and perfect. So, for me, it was like, why don't we bring some painterly vibes to our pictures? How do we bring texture so that it’s a little more imperfect? And watercolor paper. I love to draw and I love to see the hand of the artist showing through and being a little bit expressive - in the world, because we were also wanting to take people to [see] Italy in this wonderfully enhanced and stylized way, but also in performances and the characters, wanting to make them feel a little bit handmade".[13]

Animation supervisor Mike Venturini stated: "Enrico, as a director and as an artist, was inspired in his youth largely by Miyazaki's film library, starting with one of his first projects … Future Boy Conan. That was one of Enrico's favorite things as a kid. So, initially, we watched a lot of episodes of that show. And they use a multi-limb style; it's boys being silly with a really broad physicality. He really liked that and hoped we could be influenced by that in some way. Then we kind of expanded our universe into the rest of Miyazaki's film library, which a lot of the animators on the show were already familiar with. So, on a larger feature film scale, we were looking at what were some of Miyazaki’s characteristics. That's what inspired us to try things."[16] In addition of Miyazaki's works, Casarosa stated that Aardman Animations and Wes Anderson's stop-motion movies also influenced his artistic sensibilities: "Some of that ends up in my drawings, that sketchy and expressive style. We wanted to bring that to the film because it felt like this is a kid's world. This is a playful world. And it felt true to the story to go in that direction. I love the immersion of 3D, but I sometimes I feel it can go towards coldness. So, I wanted to bring the warmth of imperfection. That's why some of the silly drawings made us laugh when we started boarding them and then put them on a screen."[16]

Casarosa and the team began testing new animation concepts, hoping to bring playful silliness to the characters by taking away some of the typically large amount of detail.[16] Areas of immediate focus were using a more 2D pose style, wider mouths with rounded, rather than angled corners, and multi-limb motions that brought a sillier feel to character movement.[16] Referring to the multi-limb motion, Casarosa said: "It’s an old-fashion cartoon technique in some ways ... It came out of the drawings, the essence of someone running extremely fast. We wanted to use the multi-limb technique in areas of the film where the characters were doing extreme physicality, where it would add to the personality of the silliness of the moment. There were only so many chances to use it. I wish there were more. But it was so much fun to use it when we could."[16]

Music

Originally, Casarosa wanted popular Italian film composer Ennio Morricone to score the film, but he died on July 6, 2020 before he could ask him to do so. The film will be dedicated in his memory.[23]

On April 1, 2021, Dan Romer was revealed to be the film's new composer.[24]

Release

Luca was originally set to be theatrically released in the United States on June 18, 2021 by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.[5] However, on March 23, 2021, Disney announced the cancellation of the film's theatrical release, and that it will instead stream worldwide on Disney+ in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.[3] In international markets where Disney+ is not available, it will be released theatrically, with release dates yet to be announced.[3]

In November 2020, some concept arts of the film and the clay figure of sea monster Luca were shown in the second episode of Inside Pixar.[17] In December 2020, an early look to the film was screened at Disney Investor Day, and the clips and some screenshots were later leaked online.[25] On January 18, 2021, the first official image from the film was released by Empire.[26] On January 19, a promotional still was released on the cover of Italian magazine Il Venerdì di Repubblica, featuring Luca, Alberto and Giulia on a Vespa in one of the scenic backdrops from the film.[27]

Some have seen Luca and Alberto hiding their true sea monster identities as an allegory for people who are members of the LGBTQ+ community, feeling as though they need to hide their true selves in order to be accepted.[28] Similarities and parallels to director Luca Guadagnino's film Call Me by Your Name, which centers on a romantic relationship between two boys in Italy, were also pointed out.[29] These prompted the question whether Luca and Alberto are gay.[28] However, Casarosa, who has defined the sea monsters as a "metaphor for feeling different",[18] said that the characters were just friends and that the parallels to Guadagnino's film were only a coincidence, stating: "I love Luca's movies and he's such a talent, but it truly goes without saying that we really willfully went for a pre-pubescent story ... This is all about platonic friendships."[15]

Merchandising

On March 2021, it was announced that a series of books based on the film would be published on May 14:

  • Luca Little Golden Book[30]
  • Luca Deluxe Junior Novelization[30]
  • Luca Read-Along Storybook with CD;[30]
  • Luca Movie Theater Book and Projector storybook with discs and hand-held projector;[30]
  • Step into Reading series: A Sea Monster Story and Friends are Forever[30]
  • How to be a Land Monster[30]
  • Luca Junior Novelization[30]
  • Luca: Silenzio, Bruno!: When in Doubt, Shout It Out!'[30]

A The Art of... book and a Ultimate Sticker Book will be also released on May 18 and June 15, 2021 respectively.[30]

Funko produced a line of Funko Pop based on the characters of the film.[31]

References

  1. ^ "Luca, il primo film Pixar diretto da un italiano (e ambientato alle Cinque Terre)". Quotidiano (in Italian). 25 February 2021.
  2. ^ "Luca Image: New Look At Main Characters In Pixar's Next Original Film". ScreenRant. January 19, 2021. Archived from the original on January 23, 2021. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
  3. ^ a b c Anthony D'Alessandro (23 March 2021). "Disney Shifts 'Black Widow' & 'Cruella' To Day & Date Release In Theaters And Disney+, Jarring Summer Box Office". Deadline.
  4. ^ The Walt Disney Company [@Disney] (December 10, 2020). "Pixar's next feature film is Luca. It's a celebration of the friendship between a boy named Luca and his best friend Alberto during their unforgettable summer. You won't want to miss Luca, diving into theaters June 2021" (Tweet). Archived from the original on December 11, 2020. Retrieved December 16, 2020 – via Twitter.
  5. ^ a b c Rubin, Rebecca (July 30, 2020). "Pixar Shares Details About Next Original Film 'Luca'". Variety. Archived from the original on August 18, 2020. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
  6. ^ Romano, Nick (July 30, 2020). "Pixar sets coming-of-age sea monster movie Luca as next title: See a first look". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on August 1, 2020. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
  7. ^ "Upcoming". Pixar. Archived from the original on January 30, 2021. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Evans, Greg (February 25, 2021). "'Luca' Teaser: Disney And Pixar Announce Voice Cast, Unveil Trailer For Upcoming Animated Feature". Variety. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
  9. ^ a b c d e f "Pixar's Luca teaser trailer gives Jacob Tremblay a sun-soaked Italian summer with sea monsters". Entertainment Weekly. February 25, 2021. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
  10. ^ Chitwood, Adam (April 28, 2021). "New Trailer for 'Luca' Further Reveals Pixar's Sea Monster Adventure Movie". Collider. Archived from the original on April 28, 2021. Retrieved April 29, 2021.
  11. ^ Grater, Tom (July 30, 2020). "Pixar Unveils Italy-Set Coming Of Age Story 'Luca' From 'La Luna' Director & 'Lava' Producer". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on August 18, 2020. Retrieved July 30, 2020.
  12. ^ "Nominees for the 84th Academy Awards". The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. January 24, 2012. Retrieved January 28, 2012.
  13. ^ a b c d e f Perri Nemiroff (25 February 2021). "What Do Pixar Sea Monsters Look Like? 'Luca' Director Enrico Casarosa Explained". Collider.
  14. ^ a b Travis, Ben (January 18, 2021). "Luca: The Inspiration Behind Pixar's Mythical Coming-Of-Age Adventure - Exclusive Image". Empire. Archived from the original on February 10, 2021. Retrieved February 11, 2021.
  15. ^ a b Kevin Polowy (25 February 2021). "Pixar's 'Luca' debuts trailer: Director says coming-of-age adventure influenced by Miyazaki, Fellini and 'Stand by Me'". Yahoo.
  16. ^ a b c d e f "Creating the Stylized, 2D-Inspired Fun of Pixar's 'Luca'". awn.com.
  17. ^ a b c d "Inspired: Deanna Marsigliese, The Art of the Pivot ", Inside Pixar, season 1, episode 2, Disney, 2021.
  18. ^ a b c Bill Desowitz (25 February 2021). "'Luca' First Trailer: Pixar's Italian Coming-of-Age Sea Monster Feature Is Quirky and Inclusionary". IndieWire.
  19. ^ a b Skyler Shuler. "Pixar 'Luca' Main Character Reportedly Pays Homage to a Studio Ghibli Classic". The DisInsider.
  20. ^ a b c d e f Perri Nemiroff (25 February 2021). "'Luca' Director Unveils Voice Cast Including Jacob Tremblay and the Villain of His Pixar Film". Collider.
  21. ^ Jones, Mike [@whereisjones] (July 30, 2020). "Proud to write this with @_jesse_andrews_" (Tweet). Archived from the original on July 30, 2020. Retrieved December 16, 2020 – via Twitter.
  22. ^ George Chrysostomou (9 March 2021). "Luca: 10 Exciting Things We Already Know About The Latest Pixar Movie". ScreenRant.
  23. ^ "Luca (2021)". ComingSoon (in Italian).
  24. ^ "Dan Romer Scoring Pixar's 'Luca'". Film Music Reporter. 1 April 2021.
  25. ^ Daniel Gillespie (11 December 2020). "Luca Images Give First Look At Pixar's 2021 Theatrical Movie". ScreenRant.
  26. ^ Ben Travis (18 January 2021). "Inspiration Behind Pixar's Mythical Coming-Of-Age Adventure – Exclusive Image". Empire.
  27. ^ "New image for Pixar's 'Luca' revealed". AnimationXpress Team. February 19, 2021.
  28. ^ a b Abi Travis (25 February 2021). "Wait a Sec — Are the Main Characters in Pixar's 'Luca' Gay?". Distractify.
  29. ^ Josh Kurp (30 July 2020). "Pixar's New Movie Is Inspiring Peach Jokes And Comparisons To 'Call Me By Your Name'". Uproxx.
  30. ^ a b c d e f g h i "'Luca' Books Popping up on Amazon - Now Available to Order". Pixar Post. 18 March 2021.
  31. ^ Sean Fallon (27 April 2021). "New Disney Funko Pop Pre-Orders: Ultimate Princess, Small World, and Luca". comicbook.com.
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