PhantomKnight
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Post by PhantomKnight on Jul 1, 2021 12:17:23 GMT -5
 With the one-two punch of Soul and now Luca being moved from theaters straight to a Disney+ release, I wouldn't blame people at Pixar for feeling disheartened right now. As a lifelong movie fan myself, I do regret being robbed of the chance of seeing the two latest films from one of today's biggest movie studios on the big screen. That being said, though...and with any other certain undertones aside...I can honestly kind of see why Disney shifted Luca to streaming. Because it's a bad movie? Absolutely not -- it's good, sweet and charming. But it IS undeniably lesser, or rather mid-tier Pixar. Not that there's anything wrong with that; mid-tier Pixar is still a lot better than most average mid-tier films, but Luca still feels like a pretty basic and surface-level (no pun intended) film for the studio. You know, it's funny though -- I actually ended up watching the movie twice over its release weekend, and I think that ultimately helped strengthen my opinion of it overall because my initial reaction the first time through was pretty much, "...That's it?", but after I watched it a second time knowing the movie's M.O. better, I appreciated it more for what it is rather than what it isn't. And what it is is a sweet little movie about friendship. That's really where the focus is, and that's where the movie sings. The bond that forms between Luca (Jacob Tremblay), Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer) and eventually Giulia (Emma Berman) provides the movie its heart, and that feels satisfying. Kind of like how the MCU movies tend to focus their efforts mostly on developing their heroes and relationships, the same can be said of Luca. The characters themselves are very charming and likable and you just enjoy spending time with them, even if the rest of the movie around them is very basically developed and without much depth (again, no pun intended). Actually, I think one could easily that the central friendship definitely has a certain undertone to it, but it's just further proof how the relationships drive the movie more so than the plot, and that's okay because the relationships are so endearing. The early scenes showing Luca and Alberto bonding over trying to build a Vespa really work because there's a genuineness to them that doesn't feel forced, and that genuineness bolsters the second half once the boys enter the coastal town of Portorosso. But another thing this movie does well is create a fun, lively and nice-looking environment in this town itself. As a film, Luca does a good job of replicating that sort of relaxed, carefree attitude kids typically have over the summer and even though that may contribute to the movie feeling more slight within Pixar's filmography, that's perfectly fine because the film still fulfills its one true purpose: championing the value of friendship. Yeah, that sounds kind of cheesy and the movie honestly is, too, while lacking that certain Pixar polish on a story level. But Luca still does enough right and warmly reminds us that sometimes, there can be a certain beauty in simplicity.
***/****
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1godzillafan
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Post by 1godzillafan on Jul 1, 2021 16:04:28 GMT -5
It was fine.
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Dracula
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Post by Dracula on Sept 26, 2021 19:16:41 GMT -5
Luca(8/19/2021)
It was pretty shocking when it was announced that the newest Pixar movie Luca was going to be released direct to Disney+ without even a “premiere access” window. That move made sense in the case of Soul given that they needed it to come back before the end of the year to compete for Oscars and theaters were in no position to host it, but that wasn’t the case here. Frankly it suggested that the movie was going to be sub-par, but having finally seen it I don’t think that’s the case at all… frankly I think Disney did this movie dirty as it’s definitely among the best movies Pixar has made since their heyday and was more than worthy of theatrical release. The film looks at a pair of sea monsters who operate on the mermaid rules of “become human upon coming to land” running away from their families and coming to the surface where they try to ingratiate themselves into town and make friends with a local girl at a seaside Italian town in the 60s. That setting reeks of nostalgia even if its nostalgia for a time and place that none of the film’s makers likely had any experience with and they render this town with a really nice sense of detail. The animation and art style here looks different but not too different from a lot of Pixar’s other movies with the characters being designed in a knowingly stylized way but not because they’re trying to avoid the uncanny valley like they were early on. The kids here feel more like actual kids than they do in a lot of animated movies these days (not 100% authentic by any means, but a little more) and I generally found most of the film’s humor a lot more charming than I often do with Pixar movies
Now, ever since this movie came out there has been a lot of debate about whether the film is meant to be a coded homosexual coming of age film. When I first heard this I was skeptical because there are sections of the internet that seem to exist to find gay coding in anything and everything, but having seen the movie… yeah I think the subtext is there, and despite the protestations of Disney and the film’s makers, I think it’s probably intentional. The film centers on a very close friendship between these two adolescent male protagonists on the run together and the two do not really interact like normal platonic friends. There’s clearly jealousy in the air when one or the other become too close to the girl in the movie to the exclusion of the other. That’s not to say that this is meant to be a metaphor for an actual romantic relationship between the two, more it kind of seems like these are some very young kids with feelings for each other they don’t fully understand and aren’t about to act on. On top of that, the fact that they’re sea monsters living among humans and having to hide their true identities can pretty easily be read as a metaphor for the closet, at least when combined with the other queer undertones that aren’t too hard to sense. I’m not saying this should be viewed as true “representation” but it feels like a smart way to touch on this type of thing without touching on it in a movie like this.
But whether you want to pick up on those themes or not, it is a testament to how well drawn the characters are here for a cartoon like this and it’s that character based intimacy that makes the film feel special… and is also probably why Disney chickened out and set it to streaming instead of putting it in theaters. As refreshing as I found it to get a Pixar movie that didn’t involve some sort of epic adventure across a continent, I think the powers that be are trying to push a narrative that theaters are for explosions and smaller scale stories are for home viewing even when they’re realized in as rich a way as they are here and that is a toxic and dumb approach to distribution.
**** out of Five
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