Pixar Animation is about one of the surest bets around when it comes to delivering solid entertainment. And I don’t mean only in animated titles, but in just great movies in general. While I used to get a bit concerned because Pixar trailers used to seem so generic and uninteresting—always fearing, “Well, this is the one where Pixar finally misses the mark”—I’ve come to realize the company just doesn’t produce great trailers, often because their stories are so layered you can’t really hope to encapsulate the whole spirit in a one-to-two-minute spot. 

So, even though I wasn’t overly excited by the trailers for Luca, the studio’s 24th film, which premiered on Disney+ this past Thursday (June 18), I wasn’t overly concerned. But, I’m sad to say, I think this might be the company’s weakest film to date, certainly rivaling 2015’s The Good Dinosaur, which is widely considered the worst film in the company’s canon. 

It’s not that Luca is bad by any means; in fact, it might even be a good movie. It’s just that it’s not a great one, and that is the nearly impossible situation Pixar has placed on itself after delivering one great film after another that anything less than a home run is considered disappointing. 

The letdown is even more compounded by the fact that Luca follows Soul, the studio’s most adult and ambitious title to date that was so full of, well, soul. Soul took on incredibly complex and heavy issues and had such fantastic depth that the light and saccharine sweetness of Luca just seems all the emptier because of it.

Luca is just . . . simple. It’s hard to really care too deeply about its characters because the story doesn’t give us enough to care about them. Sure, there are tons of metaphors and parallels you can draw. The characters’ goal is to win a race that will give them enough money to buy a Vespa, which the film literally tells us is freedom—the freedom to get out and see the world beyond your four walls, which is especially exciting for Luca Paguro (voiced by Jacob Tremblay), who has lived a very sheltered and protected life. (“I never go anywhere. Just dream about it.”) The characters are also hiding the secret about what they really are (sea monsters), looking to fit in and gain acceptance from the small Italian city of Portorosso which hates/fears what they really are. And if you want to draw a parallel to the LGBTQ community here, well, it doesn’t take much of a stretch. 

The film takes place around the ‘50s and ‘60s on the Italian Riviera, where sea monster Luca spends his days herding fish like a shepherd. One day while out swimming, he meets Alberto Scorfano (Jack Dylan Grazer), who shows him that when dry on land, they transform into human form. Alberto pushes Luca beyond his comfort zone until one day Luca’s parents (voiced by Maya Rudolph and Jim Gaffigan) discover what he’s been doing and threaten to send him away to the deep to live with his bizarre—and semi-translucent—Uncle Ugo (Sacha Baron Cohen). 

Luca and Alberto swim over to the city of Portorusso, where they attempt to blend in with the “land monsters” and fulfill their dream of getting a Vespa. They befriend Giulia (Emma Berman) whose dad Massimo (Marco Barricelli) happens to be a major fisherman and sea-monster hunter. The film builds to the Portorusso Cup Triathlon, a race where the winner gets a trophy and prize money, with the boys in constant fear of getting wet and revealing their secret.

One thing you can’t fault Pixar on is the technical presentation, as Luca just looks gorgeous. I watched it the first time on my 4K projector in HDR10 and then again on a new Sony OLED in Dolby Vision and the colors are just straight-up eye candy throughout. The animation is definitely more cartoony, not having that hyper-realistic look found in some of Pixar’s other films (e.g.., the jazz-club scene in Soul). Even still, the colors burst off the screen and this make your video display pop.

Water is notoriously difficult to animate and render, but here it looks fantastic. Also, even through Disney+ streaming (via my Apple TV), I didn’t notice any banding issues as the sunlight filtered from the surface down through various layers, colors, and shades of the ocean— something that looked especially natural on the OLED with Dolby Vision. One scene had water crashing into a rocky shoreline with clear and individual detail to each rock, with the foam, froth, and bubbles in the water incredibly detailed. There are also subtle details like the different shades of color in the sand as water laps in and out. And there’s super-fine detail in clothing, letting you clearly see the differences in fabric texture, patterns, and weaves worn by characters.

Much of Luca takes place in daytime in the town of Portorosso, with brilliant sun shining in piercing blue skies; bright, emerald grasses; and multi-colored buildings, or the warm, golden-orange hues as the sun sets. It all looks gorgeous. 

Kind of like the story itself, Luca’s audio mix was just satisfactory. Dialogue is well rendered primarily in the center channel (though it does occasionally follow characters as they move off screen), making it clear and intelligible, but even though it’s a Dolby Atmos mix, it was very subtle and reserved.

Italian songs of the era are sprinkled throughout, and they get some room across the front channels and a bit up into the overheads, but the rest of the effects are pretty sparse. There were some instances of the sounds of boats passing overhead or a harpoon thrown that passes by but I didn’t find the mix dynamic at all. (Again, whether this was a streaming issue or an Apple TV issue, I can’t say.) 

I did notice that the soundfield opened up a bit as Luca left the water and went onto dry land. It wasn’t through a big use of audio, but rather just the sonic sense that the room had expanded with sounds of gentle wind, rustling leaves, and birds that let you know you are up in the human world.

Is Luca worth seeing? For Disney+ subscribers, I’d say definitely. If nothing else, it’s beautiful to look at. And, it’s not that it’s a bad film. In fact, you could easily say that while Soul was a Pixar title made for adults, Luca sets its sights squarely on a younger audience, with a coming-of-age story about friendship, acceptance, childhood dreams, and overcoming fears that never gets too deep or strays too far from safety and cuteness that kids will be drawn to. And if it came from any other studio (well, with the exception of Disney Animation, Pixar’s parent company), it would likely be heralded as a triumph. It’s just that Pixar has come to make us expect so much more.