My Book of RANDOMNESS: Book II [Blog]

Disney·Pixar's Luca - Spoiler Review

Mom? Do we have Little Mermaid and H20 at home? Yeah. This is the movie we're watching. *summons mermaid me from above your screen*

Hi! *excited shriek* I love mermaid things! And it would be a fun ditty to do a spoiler review for Disney·Pixar's Luca. (yes, this would be likely a follow up to the teaser review that I did last February)

And man, this movie made me reflect on the friendships that I had back then. But before I had spilled all the tea, as always, you may want to watch this movie on Disney+ or find whatever someone has this one. Let's dive into it.

A quick refreshment before I better start on this; The movie does take place in the Italian Riviera in Italy (the director's favoured hometown) and it stars a boy (Luca Paguro) who has a luscious neighborhood and two friends (aka Alberto and Guillia) who had their best of their lives as they basked in the Summer sun. But that will be fun and all then suddenly he discovers that he was half-merman alongside his other friend who was also half-merman and now it's up to the two to hide their secret before everyone will ever know the truth.

Yeah, you may already read that from the last chapter and I was wrong about it. The story itself and the theme for this movie, was soo deep. And coming from Enrico Casarosa's (the storyteller for this film) love letter to his best friend, who was also named Alberto, is so sublime. And I must say that...he'd pulled that story off very well.

Luca Paguro as a character? In the first few minutes, I literally saw myself in him. From being a sheltered kid who dreams about being a part of that world. And it was impressive. Watching him going from a shy kid to an adventurous kid was so amazing. I could even tell that was Enrico acting in this tale.

And Alberto Scorfano on the other hand, was indeedly a good character. Despite he has been quite abused by his father and he left him stranded on the island, makes me feel sorry for him. I always do thought about something would ever happen to him being 'his father had left out so then he'll became a care-free kid'. And needless to say that he was a good character.

Guillia was good too. She's always been so bubbly and her determination against the Cirque Terra Cup (referencing the real place rather than the fictional one), was so totally great. Despite that she's always been so snarky and always caring, she's a good side character though, especially through Luca's storyline.

The other characters were okay. And that mom from the Mitchells vs the Machines voiced the titular caring sea monster mom, Daniella, that one thing that I couldn't take away. And I hate that antagonist though (you'll understand his name).

The ending though....it was so profound that it made me reflect so hard on the friendships that I do pass on. I had admittedly jumped on the first time when Alberto had gave up on his Vespa for Luca's train ticket (and his school applications and stuff like that). And that was the sweetest thing that he had ever done to Luca. Their final goodbyes with Luca's parents and Alberto does make me feel sad and at the same time, felt happy for Luca that he'll finally be apart of that world beyond his reefs. The score for that (up above) it's a *chef's kiss* for me. And I think that ending which I could easily understand (edit: in my takeaway) is the moment when Enrico had his final goodbyes to Alberto as he pursues his passion of being a storyteller at Pixar.

(and it's ending was open, [besides the cute ending illustrations] so I'll might be planning a novel about that soon...)

*breathes out* Therefore, this movie is breathtaking and it's story is almost as amazing as Soul and Onward (which I watched before the Oscars) did. Soul may still be my favorite movie, but Luca was so magically exquisite that takes on the strong themes of perseverance, kindness and acceptance. And I would easily say that this is totally a Little Mermaid story with a modern twist (that wasn't involved romance or anything).

I hope you've enjoyed this review and I'll see you on the next one! ✨

P.S; Expect a plot breakdown in the next couple of weeks, cause I loved seeing the story come together and I had learned so much about screenwriting tropes and tricks, so I may be breaking down that while I had my second watch through! ;)