BELOW THE SURFACE (LUCA)

 

In normal circumstances, Disney Pixar's Italian animated tale 'Luca' would be swimming for box office gold in cinemas.

Yet here it is on Disney+ instead of movie houses, thanks to an about turn by the studio - although not because executives feared it wasn't good enough.

No. Disney Pixar pulled plans to release it in US and European multiplexes in June because of the Covid-19 pandemic, only releasing it in cinemas in territories where Disney+ is not available.

The feature length debut of Italy's Enrico Casarosa, who gave us the charming Oscar nominated short 'La Luna' in 2012, it is a tale rooted in Italian folklore about the existence of sea dragons.

But it is also a highly cine literate family film, with Casarosa drawing inspiration from the Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, the stop motion work of Wes Anderson, the great Italian director Federico Fellini and Disney Pixar's 'Finding Nemo'.

'Luca' begins like 'La Luna' with a moonlight trek in the sea off the Italian Riviera. 

A fishing boat gets disturbed when the two fishermen on board think they spy a mythical sea monster.

The boat is rocked, with a gramophone, glass, a playing card, an alarm clock and a wrench falling into the sea.

Below the surface on the sea bed, Jacob Tremblay's sea dragon Luca Paguro herds small fish for his family and hides under rocks from humans and their boats.

His over protective mother, Maya Rudolph's Daniela is anxious about him exploring the world above the waves, warning him not to risk it.

Luca's father, Jim Gaffigan's Lorenzo is well meaning but too fixated about rearing prize winning crabs to pay attention to what Luca is up to.

Sandy Martin's Grandma Paguro is more relaxed about them exploring what lies above the waves, much to Daniela's annoyance.

While performing his shepherding duties, Luca stumbles upon the objects that have tumbled into the sea from the fishing boat.

This brings him into contact with Jack Dylan Grazer's sea dragon Alberto who hoards any human artefacts he finds and is comfortable entering and exiting the sea.

Alberto encourages Luca to pluck up the courage to go ashore and he is stunned to learn once he sets foot outside the sea, he turns into a boy.

After learning how to walk, Luca is taken by Alberto to a tower where he has hoarded all the objects he has found.

Impressed by Alberto's den, Luca becomes a regular visitor and falling in love with a photo of a Vespa, the boys start to get fixated about building one.

Once they do that, they want to acquire a real one but that will involve heading off to the nearby fishing village of Portorosso.

That means mixing with humans who are fearful of the sea dragons and want to capture them.

During one visit to Alberto's den, Luca accidentally sleeps in the tower where his teenage friend likes to lie under the stars.

Slipping back under the waves, Luca hopes his parents haven't noticed how late he is returning home but is confronted when he gets back by a furious Daniela and Lorenzo.

Daniela summons Lorenzo's slobbish brother, Sacha Baron Cohen's Uncle Ugo to take Luca to the depths of the ocean and live with him instead.

Appalled by this prospect, Luca runs away with Alberto to the human world, going to Portorosso in the hope of acquiring a Vespa and touring the world.

However while roaming the streets of the fishing village the boys must avoid getting soaked, lest their true identity as sea dragons be revealed causing the humans to catch them and possibly kill them 

As they explore Portorosso, Alberio and Luca learn there is an annual triathlon comprising of swimming, eating pasta and a bike race which Saverio Raimondo's vain, cocky local bully Ercole Visconti has won five years in a row.

They stumble across Ercole and his henchmen, Peter Sohn and Lorenzo Crisci's Ciccio and Guido and marvel at his Vespa.

Ercole is amused that they believe him to be Mr Vespa who can provide them with the scooter of their dreams.

While they engage him, they are interrupted by a fish merchant's daughter Emma Burman's sassy Giulia Marcovaldo whose father, Marco Barricelli's Massimo only has one arm.

Giulia is Ercole's biggest rival and vows to defeat him in the triathlon again but she has a tendency to get sick during the arduous bike race.

Realising there is a cash prize, Luca and Alberto team up with Giulia to take part in the triathlon and defeat Ercole, Ciccio and Guido, making them the new enemies of the village bully.

As they integrate in human society, the boys are careful to avoid getting damp and have a number of close calls in avoiding being exposed.

However when Daniela and Lorenzo venture out of the water to track down Luca, he must also identify them in their human forms and evade capture.

With its vibrant colours and wide eyed computer animated characters, 'Luca' is high on the cute factor.

But like all the best Disney Pixar films, you also know there is a lot more going on thematically.

Some viewers have detected a LGBTQ coming out parable in Casarosa's movie, with Alberto and Luca fearful in a hostile world of revealing their true selves.

While Casarosa has denied sexuality is at play in what he describes as a touching story about friendship, the theory is nevertheless convincing and it is easy to understand why some people would read it that way.

However it could also be interpreted as a riposte to xenophobia, an immigrant tale at a time when some people in the US and parts of Europe are hostile to asylum seekers and insistent they must assimilate.

Alberto and Luca are desperate to fit into a world that will not permit them to be themselves and where humans are fearful of difference, reacting violently.

The film's plea for acceptance is also underscored by Massimo's disability which is barely remarked upon.

Regardless of how you interpret 'Luca,' there is no doubt that it engages the heart in a huge way as well as the head.

At its core is a touching, uplifting message about people overcoming that inner voice that often holds them back from having new, fulfilling experiences and achieving their goals 

Casarosa's film is tightly scripted, is expertly told with loads of well executed visual gags and is very effective in engaging our sympathies.

The computer generated animation is vivacious, with Casarosa and his team of animators brilliantly recreating an Italian Riviera village in the 1950s.

There's some nice Disney Easter eggs in the film as usual - with references to Pizza Planet from 'Toy Story,' to 'Pinocchio' and Donald Duck.

Avid viewers will spot movie posters in the town for Richard Fleischer's '20,000 Leagues Under The Sea', William Wyler's 'Roman Holiday' and Fellini's 'La Strada'.

Meanwhile Tremblay, Grazer and Burman make charming heroes, while Rainondo relishes the chance to play an obnoxious, arrogant bully.

Rudolph and Gaffigan provide sturdy support as Luca's parents, while Baron Cohen enjoys a brief cameo as Ugo.

Martin joins Disney Pixar's burgeoning list of actors voicing charming elderly characters, while Barricelli's Massimo will remind some of James Caan's quiet hulk of a man, Tim Lockwood in the 'Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs' movies.

While it is a shame 'Luca' did not get a chance to test itself at the box office, it is possible it might have gotten pushed aside amid the deluge of films hitting cinemas this year and nervousness among some audiences in the Covid world.

By being given star billing on Disney's streaming service, Casarosa's beguiling animated tale might just find the mass audience it deserves.

('Luca' wax released on the Disney+ streaming service in the US, UK and Ireland on June 18, 2021)