Is Luca Pixar’s first gay movie? How the Disney+ film’s ‘deeper story’ and animation design came together, with a little help from Renaissance maps and sea iguanas
- Set on the Italian Riviera, Luca is a coming-of-age story inspired by director Enrico Casarosa’s childhood – but viewers wonder if it’s about identity too
- Sacha Baron Cohen brought the bizarre Uncle Ugo to life while Jack Dylan Grazer and Jacob Tremblay voiced protagonists Alberto and Luca
The search for Pixar’s perfect Luca sea monster started with ancient maps.
When director Enrico Casarosa formulated the coming-of-age story, inspired by his childhood on the Italian Riviera, he zeroed in on the fearsome sea serpents on the edges of Renaissance maps waiting to gobble up ships that ventured too far.
Then Casarosa ventured to the wildly colourful to make his teenage sea monsters for Luca (now streaming on Disney+).
“The point of the story is the two factions, humans and sea monsters, think of the others as monsters, not themselves,” says Casarosa. “We knew there had to be a certain beauty and brought the iridescence.”
Here’s what you need to know about the shimmery monster stars, Alberto and Luca (voiced by Jack Dylan Grazer and Jacob Tremblay).
Sea iguanas were key to monster sea movement
With limbs added to the ancient sea serpent concept, the Pixar animating team found movement inspiration in sea iguanas. “Iguanas are pretty fascinating, the way that they use their tail from side to side, tucking away the limbs,” says Casarosa.
That required watching as much iguana swimming footage as possible, and much trial and error. “We kept on honing in and found what felt right with the iguana reference,” says Casarosa. “We really had to invent it as animators.”
No to creepy squid hair, yes to shimmering paddles