The latest from Pixar, and the feature directing debut of Enrico Casarosa, Luca is a gentle pleasure about friendship and not quite fitting in. Luca, voiced by Room’s Jacob Tremblay, is a sea monster who longs to explore the world beyond the reef. He knows that once on land he will assume human form, but good kids like Luca don’t break the rules.
Then he meets Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer), an adolescent sea monster-turned-boy who has made a life on land. There’s kinship here with Finding Nemo and with Studio Ghibli’s Ponyo, both in the marine setting and in the fact that it plays to the younger end of the audience spectrum. But while Luca might lack some of the dizzying inventiveness that marks out top-tier Pixar, it’s packed to the gills with charm.
