What could be better on a warm summer afternoon than Pixar’s latest gelato scoop of a movie about two boys (who also happen to be sea monsters) having a little fun in the eternal Italian summer? While it’s not groundbreakingly original (compared to some past Pixar masterpieces), this enjoyable film really captures the warm, languid feeling of Italy, and the sunny mellowness of its seaside towns. The talented and ebullient young Canadian actor Jacob Tremblay voices the main character, Luca, who is a bit tired of his undersea life of fish-herding. In Ariel-like fashion, he longs for escape to the human world and becomes fast friends with another young sea monster (played by Shazam’s Jack Dylan Grazer), named Alberto. The brazen, free-spirited Alberto teaches cautious Luca about the sea monster’s curse/ability to appear human whenever they dry off, but also about the joys of riding a Vespa (its symbolic ability to take them anywhere quickly becomes both boys’ dream) and how to marshal one’s fear with the quick little catchphrase, “Silenzio, Bruno”. When Luca’s parents threaten him with a nightmarishly dull summer exiled to the lightless deep seas with his Uncle Ugo (a hilarious cameo by Sacha Baron Cohen), Luca and Alberto quickly make a dash for the mainland human town of Portorosso. There they enjoy a coming-of-age adventure which finds them making some friends with the locals, including spunky outsider Giuliana and her stolid father Massimo, and some enemies (namely, town bully Ercole) as they enter the town’s annual triathlon (which in this town consists of biking, swimming, and pasta-eating). All the while, the danger of discovery is ever-present as pretty much everyone in town is on the hunt for sea monsters.

I don’t know if I even need to say this anymore, but the animation is top-notch as always. The characters are all cute and fun-looking and the transformation between human and sea-monster forms is as smooth and fluid as the water that triggers it. The character style has a bit of Aardman about it (though there were no humanoid sheep in this film so it’s hard to do a head-to-head comparison) but I guess most of the Pixar films that depict actual human characters have a similar cartoonish style. My favourite is the one-armed Massimo, who (similar to my Pixar spirit-guide, Russell from Up) has an adorable rotundity that is just perfect.

On the other hand, as much as I love Italy as a backdrop (and generally as a travel destination), its use in this movie was a bit confusing and confused. First, the sea monsters all have Italian-sounding names, so they are presumably Italian. However, their voices (even when they are in human form) are all very American/Canadian sounding. Some of the townsfolk sound a bit more Italian (which is kind of worse because that only makes me wonder why the sea monsters sound less Italian. Is that part of the movie’s reality? Do the townsfolk hear an accent?) Occasionally, both types of characters inject actual Italian words into their speech (the townsfolk more so, but even the boys keep saying “Silenzio, Bruno”, which is obviously Italian). Are we not supposed to assume that their normal speech is actually Italian which we are hearing as English? So why are there words of Italian sprinkled in? (I wonder what happens to the Italian-language version of this movie.) If those words are truly Italian, then what language are they speaking the rest of the time? (Apologies if this nitpicking is spoiling things for you. It bothered me a bit as I watched, but it quickly gave way to easy enjoyment of the movie itself.) Despite the linguistic jumble, it was fun to see Luca and Alberto discover (since they are literally fish out of water) bits of Italian culture for the first time, including how to eat gelato or pasta, as they learned about the human world. It’s not quite as immersed in the cultural context as Ratatouille was of Paris, but it was enough to make me long for another visit to “il bel paese” when it’s safe to travel again.

Finally, a coming-of-age summer story would not be complete without some tween melodrama, and events conspire to put Luca and Alberto’s friendship to the test. There are some truths revealed and a bit of a betrayal. Nevertheless, they’re kids and it’s a kids film so the character drama is hardly complex or deep, but it adds some nice emotional weight and value to this movie, and can give you the feels as things (a bit too easily) wrap up nicely.

Some people have speculated that Pixar has been losing its golden touch (and the relegation of its latest films to Disney+ haven’t helped to change that opinion) but I think that there should always be a variety of styles of movies from any studio. Frankly, I didn’t love Soul, nor Incredibles 2, so who knows if the naysayers are correct? However, Luca is just the right blend of magic and innocence that should make it a cherished summer classic, and I hope they make more of these little gems. (4 out of 5)