(Since, like Darryl Hannah in Splash, the boys’ true nature is revealed any time they get wet, this is an ever-present danger.) Massimo is a fisherman, and his taciturn manner, missing right arm, and alarming facility with knives and cleavers are understandably intimidating to Luca and Alberto, who are sure he would slice them into antipasti if he knew their true nature. With his barrel-like build, thick mustache, and heavy eyebrows, he strikingly resembles the father in first-time feature director Enrico Casarosa’s delightful short La Luna. Happily, Luca does have a winsome if gruff parental figure, Giulia’s father, the aptly named Massimo Marcovaldo (Marco Barricelli). But the pattern is unmistakable, from the protagonists’ wise, grounded fathers in My Neighbor Totoro and Arrietty to Kiki’s sweet parents and supportive mentors Osono and Ursula ( Kiki’s Delivery Service) and Sosuke and Ponyo’s formidable mothers ( Ponyo). There are exceptions, of course, most strikingly Chihiro’s insensitive, venal parents in Spirited Away. Most exasperatingly of all, Luca offers yet another rehash of that most moribund of family-film chestnuts, a Junior Knows Best tale of narrow-minded parents with irrational rules and salutary youthful rebellion leading eventually to parental and social enlightenment. How intolerant? Welcome to Portorosso, the town obsessed with killing sea monsters (should they exist). (See, e.g., Zootopia, Frozen II, and Raya and the Last Dragon.)
(See especially Kiki’s Delivery Service and My Neighbor Totoro as well as Ponyo.)īy contrast, alas, Disney/Pixar can’t help casting the relationship between humans and sea monsters as one of mutual fear, hatred, and mistrust, turning Luca into (groan) yet another parable of intolerance, giving way in the end, of course, to enlightened acceptance. And the brief scooter rides are nearly all one kind or another of make-believe.įor all their professed veneration for Studio Ghibli, has no one at Disney/Pixar noticed how often Miyazaki and his colleagues surround the young protagonists of coming-of-age stories with enlightened, competent parents and mentors from whom the (often callow) lead characters typically have a lot to learn?Ĭrucially, Miyazaki would have depicted a world in which humans, whether generally aware of the existence of sea monsters or not, would at any rate see nothing alarming or upsetting about their existence, and would probably be at most pleasantly surprised to run into one on the street or to hear that their child had encountered one. There’s pasta, but mostly in connection with (I swear I’m not making this up) a competitive-eating leg in a local triathlon, the Portorosso Cup, which dominates the plot. Our heroes are barely allowed to enjoy a gulp of gelato (the word itself is never even spoken). While the production notes for Luca promise “an unforgettable summer filled with gelato, pasta and endless scooter rides,” which actually sounds like a Miyazakian idyll, the reality is less, well, idyllic. The Pixar film focuses on timorous Luca (Jacob Tremblay), whose relationship with brash, older Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer) is a bit reminiscent of Onward’s meek Tom Holland and overbearing Chris Pratt as elven brothers - though the addition of a strong-willed human girl, Giulia (Emma Berman), mixes up things considerably. If Miyazaki were to tell such a story with two boy sea-children and a human girl, probably the protagonist would be the human, since, unlike Pixar, the Studio Ghibli co-founder has always gravitated toward female leads.
(In homage to Porco Rosso, the coastal town in Luca is named Portorosso, and vistas of puffy clouds floating in immense blue skies and crumbling stucco over ancient stonework are evocative of the Japanese master’s work.) The milieu, a small mid-20th century town on the Italian Riviera, isn’t so far removed from that of Miyazaki’s Porco Rosso, which was set in and around the Adriatic, including Italy, during the Great Depression.
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