Luca
Year: 2021
Rating: PG
Length: 95 minutes / 1.58 hours
It’s interesting how computers continue to become more powerful, just so they can make 3D CGI look more like traditional 2-D animation. Granted, this usually applies to the characters, as textures and settings are becoming so realistic as to be nearly indistinguishable from the real thing. While I’m sure we could probably jump the uncanny valley by now, Pixar chooses to play to its more “cartoony” roots in perhaps the most charming way possible. Their latest film, Luca (2021), oozes charm in a way that a small story like this can only achieve.
Set in what appears to be early to mid-1960s (at least by the movie posters hung on the town’s walls), Luca is another coming-of-age tale like Onward (2020) but with less emphasis on family bonds and more emphasis on personal independence. And while I appreciated the “big brother” narrative of Onward, I think Luca‘s format worked a little better since not everyone will have the blood relation they can look up to. Still, most everyone has that close older friend they idolize. At the very least, Luca is charming in its message and clear in its characters’ motives.
As always, Pixar blows me away with the realism of their visuals. At this point, I don’t even care if they haven’t focused on the plot and story as much as they did in their formative years. I’ll still sit down to watch their films to see how much closer they are to simulating the real world. Even if the fact that they still need to appeal to families means the characters will always have that cartoon feel to them, then it’ll be interesting to see how far they can take that aesthetic to break away from the standard “Disney look” of the CGI characters and create something unique each time.
A visually dazzling and cute coming-of-age story, I give Luca 4.0 stars out of 5.
