Luca [2021]
The rare animated film with good cinematography, Luca tells the story of a sea creature who longs for more. Upon meeting a new friend or two, he learns that the world is wider, scarier, more wonderful, and more fantastic than he could have ever imagined.
As an entire piece, Luca was good. It tells a fairly typical story of “small town character wants to see the wider world and meets someone who thinks they know everything but turns out is a little short sighted as well”. We had an opportunity with Luca to tell a more meaningful tale, but got lost (again) in telling something safe and marketable. Luca had some good laughs, gave decent feelings, and I enjoyed it, but I won't be watching it again.
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Luca meets Alberto, a Creature like him, who's father is "mostly never home" so he "gets to do whatever he wants". Alberto shows Luca the land and teaches him all sorts of wonderful things that Luca could only have dreamed about before.
This is the first of the two major beats the story misses. It never goes anywhere. We never learn what happened to Alberto's father, his mother is never mentioned, and nothing is even implied about them. The little town of Portorosso is a fishing village with a particular disdain for Creatures, but the film never really implies that this is what happened to Alberto's parents. They just simply aren't present and we get very little in the way of growth from Alberto because of it. We'll come back to this though.
The second is with our other main character, Giulia. She's a headstrong, determined girl who is hellbent on beating the local bully at the annual triathlon of sorts. She’s the daughter of a fisherman who she stays with during the summers, but resides in the larger town nearby with her mother during the school year. Luca and Alberto meet her and learn that if the three team up and win the race, they will have enough money to buy a Vespa and fulfill their dream of traveling the world.
There’s nothing wrong with the plot of this film, just the execution.
Luca and Alberto are fast friends and quickly decide to get in on the race with Giulia but, through spending more time together, Giulia begins to teach Luca more about the world as it truly is, not the fanciful way Alberto tells it. This sparks in him a lust for knowledge and the desire to go to school, which causes Alberto to become jealous of Giulia and drives the trio apart -- somewhat predictably.
Ultimately they get back together, win the race, and get the Vespa. Alberto expresses his acceptance of both Giulia and Luca’s wishes soon thereafter and sells the Vespa for a train ticket in order for Luca to go and live with Giulia and her mom, so he can go to school and learn about the world. Giulia’s dad takes Alberto on as his protégé so he finally has a father figure, and everyone lives happily ever after…
So, we get a very typical story of “outsider meets former outsider who thinks they understand the world. Outsiders both befriend insider who shows one the true nature of things and it drives them apart, then the three come back together and all is well for everyone”. Additionally we get the typical story of “boy meets girl and girl makes his dreams come true”. These are where the film really missed some potentially important beats.
Alberto and Giulia’s roles should have been switched. Giulia should have been the Creature that brings Luca out from the ocean and shows him land. This way, we begin with the typical story of “boy meets girl” but then, when they meet Alberto, it turns into “boy shows boy the world and who he really wants to be''. This drives Giulia and Alberto apart (two people who matter very much to Luca) but ultimately Giulia comes around and realizes that Luca needs to go with Alberto and see the world. Instead, the film sticks to very traditional gender roles of boys being friends (albeit a little closer emotionally than typical) but boy ultimately ends up staying with girl who fulfills him.
Additionally, all of the men in the small town of Portorosso seem to run the show. It’s a fishing town and all the fishermen are… Well, men. So, if we swap Alberto and Giulia, in the end, Giulia gets a father figure in Alberto’s dad and grows into the town’s lead fisher-woman leading the way for others to do the same.
Small changes that just add representation without changing the plot.
Had we also gotten any sort of explanation as to what happened to Alberto’s (or in my switch, Giulia’s) father, we could have had some more interesting character development than just “I’m jealous my new friend likes you as well and you’re smarter than me, but eventually I’ll get over it”. Had there been implications that the town killed Alberto’s father, we could have had both the story of the town getting over their irrational fear of Creatures and Alberto getting past his prejudice of them for it.
Alternatively, we could have had a story where Alberto and his family didn’t feel at home in the sea, so took to land, where they were then persecuted and ostracized as well. Ultimately they split, one parent to the sea and one to land, where both were driven away despite their attempt at reconciliation with either group, forcing them to abandon Alberto for his own safety. This would also owe itself to more growth for Alberto as he doesn’t really belong in either world but, in the end, belongs to both.
As a third story option: One of Alberto’s parents was Land and one was Sea, having a similar feel to the “not belonging to either place'' idea before. Finally, Alberto could have been kidnapped by some crazy fisherman as an infant and raised to fear both people and creatures alike in this tower on the coast. Alberto then would have been forced to learn to accept that not all humans are wacky and that Creatures aren’t monsters as he was told. Regardless of what option is chosen, they’re all more interesting than the one told in Luca.
We also get a very minor (but interesting) character interaction with Luca’s creepy deep-sea uncle that… doesn’t go anywhere and doesn't matter. This character could have been used for some end film “how do you do, fellow kids” comedy at the very least, but was ultimately meaningless.
This was a fine movie, it just wasn’t great and with some small changes really could have been something special.
