The director of Luca, Enrico Casarosa, reveals how legendary Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki served as inspiration for Pixar's latest animated feature film. The story of Luca is set in the Italian Riviera and follows Luca Paguro, a young sea monster boy with the ability to assume human form while on land. He explores the town of Portorosso with his new best friend, Alberto Scorfano, and undergoes a life-changing summer adventure.
Luca's voice cast includes Jacob Tremblay and Jack Dylan Glazer, who voiced Luca and Alberto, respectively. They were joined by Emma Berman, Saverio Raimondo, Marco Barricelli, Maya Rudolph, Jim Gaffigan, and Sacha Baron Cohen, to mention a few. The film has garnered positive reviews from critics with particular praise for its visuals and holds a strong Rotten Tomatoes score of 91%. It was originally slated for a theatrical release, but due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it debuted directly to streaming on Disney+ on June 18, 2021.
When speaking to Variety about the inspirations behind Luca, Casarosa revealed how he was influenced by Japanese animation at a very young age, including those from the celebrated filmmaker and Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki. He stated that some of Miyazaki's work is the reason he "started looking differently at animation," giving special mention to 1986's Castle in the Sky, and he also described his movies as "playful" and "wonderful." Read what he had to say below:
“When I was young, I fell in love with cartoons on TV, especially Japanese animation. I loved it, but I never made the connection to ‘I want to be an animator.’ It led me to seeing Miyazaki’s movies. I realized with animation, your drawing comes to life. I started looking differently at animation, like Disney movies and then Miyazaki’s ‘Castle in the Sky.’ His movies are playful and so wonderful.”
Hayao Miyazaki is responsible for directing some of the most iconic animated films of all time, featuring the likes of 1988's My Neighbor Totoro, 1997's Princess Mononoke, and 2001's Spirited Away, which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. His methods primarily involve the use of intricate watercolors and acrylic 2D animation with bright colors to enrich the visuals onscreen. The result that audiences are treated to in Luca pays homage to Ghibli films in the best way possible as it perfectly blends some common themes from Miyazaki's films and his traditional hand-drawn animation techniques with Pixar's modern 3D animation technology.
Miyazaki has frequently been cited as an inspiration for several animators, directors, and writers around the world, including Wes Anderson, Steven Spielberg, and John Lasseter, to name a few. The fact that his influence has reached such an international scale speaks volumes of his masterful achievements. The acclaimed filmmaker was recently pictured in the studio working on his next animated feature film How Do You Live?, which is intended to be his last. Even though his career is coming to an end, it's clear that Miyazaki's films will leave a lasting impression on audiences for years to come as in the case with Luca's director.
Source: Variety