Luca tells the story of two sea monsters who decide to explore the human world. These characters are Luca and Alberto, and the latter said a very peculiar Italian phrase at the end of the movie – but what does it mean? Pixar and Disney have become the powerhouses in the realm of animation, and they continue to bring charming stories that always include a message for the younger audience, though these movies are aimed at all ages. Its latest project, Luca, follows this tradition and also takes audiences to the depths of the Italian sea to meet two very special characters.
Set in the Italian Riviera, Luca introduces the audience to Luca Paguro (voiced by Jacob Tremblay), a teenage sea monster bored with his life at the sea and curious about what’s outside the ocean. One day he meets Alberto Scorfano (Jack Dylan Grazer), another sea monster with a huge desire to explore the human world, and when Luca’s parents threaten to send him away, he and Alberto venture into the human world thanks to them turning into humans when dry (and back to their real forms when wet). However, they have to keep their identities secret in order to survive, as the people in the town of Portorosso hate sea monsters. Throughout the movie, Alberto says a couple of phrases in Italian, but there’s one in particular that has caught the attention of the audience.
Luca and Alberto’s friendship goes through a rough patch when Alberto grows jealous of Luca’s friendship with Giulia (Emma Berman) and his desire to stay on land to go to school and have a different life, as Alberto believed he was going to abandon him as his father did. The boys eventually reconcile and they each find what they were looking for: Luca found freedom and Alberto a family with Giulia’s father, Massimo (Marco Barricelli). At the end of Luca, the title character leaves for Genoa with Giulia so he can attend school with her and he and Alberto embrace, with the latter telling him “Piacere, Girolamo Trombetta!”.
Director Enrico Casarosa confirmed the exact phrase on his Twitter account and explained why Alberto said it at the end of Luca and other moments as well. First off, the phrase can be roughly translated as “Nice to meet you, I’m Girolamo Trombetta!”, which obviously has nothing to do with Alberto nor Luca, and Casarosa explained the context of this peculiar phrase. According to him, it’s a thing kids used to say when he was young, and it’s “at its base a pun with a handshake that goes with it”. Casarosa added that when you “say your name you mimic the name in the handshake movement”, so in the end, it’s all a fun little game between Italian kids and doesn’t mean anything. Alberto wasn’t aware of that and only said it because it sounded fun, telling Luca at the end to “go find out for him” what it really meant.
Alberto saying this phrase when he met Luca and when they said goodbye adds more emotion to their relationship, more so as Alberto wanted to give his friend one last laugh before he left. Pixar is known for paying attention to even the smallest details, especially when it comes to exploring other cultures, as it did with Coco and Brave, and Luca had to have those small but important Italian details that add an extra touch to the story and which can also make the audience curious about a different culture.