A new look at the main characters of Pixar’s latest film Luca has been released. The film will follow two young boys in Italy, director Enrico Casarosa’s home country, and explore the friendship they share over a summer. But here’s the thing: the titular character Luca’s best friend Alberto is actually a sea monster. It will be Casarosa’s first feature film, following his Academy Award-nominated short film La Luna which was released in 2011 alongside Brave.
Per Empire, the new image shows two happy boys talking in the middle of an Italian city center, standing next to a fountain that depicts a warrior fighting what seems to be a tentacled sea creature. The two boys, Luca and Alberto, are dressed in their summer best: shorts, rolled-up sleeves, a tank top, and bare feet. The image shows a vibrant Italian area, filled with grandmothers sitting and talking outside their homes, local shops with drying laundry hanging above their signs, and stone walkways instead of paved paths. This also may be the city that Soul had an easter egg for, which was admittedly easy to miss.
On the heels of Pixar’s original and inspiring Soul, Luca already feels like a type of film that has not yet been created by the animation studio, feeling more akin to the slow-paced and beautifully rendered Studio Ghibli films. Focusing more on friendship, Pixar may be exploring complex emotions and themes that are easy to digest for children while still entertaining and moving for adults. Luca is set to release on June 18, 2021.
Source: Empire