Maybe Pixar is stuck in a pattern of great movie followed by mediocre movie, repeat. Currently, it would go: Coco, Incredibles 2, Toy Story 4, Onward, Soul and Luca. If I chose to go back farther, my hypothesis would have more interruptions of stinkers (aka Cars #, Finding Dory, Monsters University and the boring The Good Dinosaur). My opinions on Incredibles 2 has changed, it isn’t as re-watchable as its predecessor and Brave was better than I remembered.
The reason why Luca gets trashed is mainly for its lack of originality. Disney already made The Little Mermaid 30 years ago, we don’t need an Italian version. It’s also just empty and I didn’t feel anything. I know it wasn’t due to seeing it on a TV versus a movie screen because Soul nailed it. Remember, we loved Pixar’s past work due to their ability to pull on our emotions at key moments:
- The first act of Up
- The incinerator in Toy Story 3
- Riley running away in Inside/Out
The others I loved were strong in timing, humor, plot and tech. When Pixar fails, I’ve written it before and I’ll write it again, they make something Dreamworks would be proud of. Except when it comes to the Cars dreck, they’ve made a long Wal-Mart commercial. Maybe they’re feeling pressure from all the crap Disney acquired via Fox’s animated catalog which is mostly Ice Age sequels. The Evil Mouse needs them to crank out anything to fill up Disney+ so all of America’s minivans will be mobile ADHD machines.
Another weakness was the casting. I love Maya Ruldoph’s voice work yet she’s getting overexposed alongside Chris Pratt with the same character, an overbearing mother. The difference, she’s talented and not married to a shithead from the Kennedy family. Jim Gaffigan wasn’t put to much good use either. Hell, they didn’t bother to get people of Italian heritage for the leads as they did with Spanish speakers in Coco. It’s mostly kids doing their best Chico Marx impressions.
There were a couple good elements Luca did have. Massimo’s missing arm had nothing to do with “the sea monsters,” it was at birth. The villain Ercole is just an asshole. His behavior has nothing to do with “the sea monsters” or Giulia. It bucked the trend in Hollywood to make everything together to explain the characters’ motivations. This is how they ruined James Bond via SPECTRE or a spoiler I saw about Cruella.
Lastly, the people going on about the gay crush between Luca and Alberto are overthinking the movie. There’s obviously visible jealousy from Alberto when Giulia takes over Luca’s attention. This is more often a normal reaction with kids their age. It certainly wasn’t Luca thinking, “I feel funny around Giulia unlike when I hang around with Alberto.” Nobody likes to feel left out of the fun plus there’s the expression, three’s a crowd. So Alberto is feeling hurt and ditched as Luca becomes more interested in Giulia’s passions and forgetting about the original plan, buying a Vespa to tour the world. However, everyone is entitled to their interpretation. One day I do hope Pixar makes a movie with same-sex leads and I will gladly see it. Pixar just needs to uphold it to the storytelling standards they established from 1995-2010.