The Little Merboy

Two young sea monsters go ashore to chase their dream of owning a Vespa in 2021's Luca. What is it with Disney and Vespas lately? Anyway, its a sweet little movie about how friends support each other with their contrasting personalities.

This a Pixar movie, the first one I've watched since Wall-E, if you can believe it. Maybe when I've finished going though the Disney Animation Studios canon I'll start on Pixar because this wasn't bad.

You'd expect this movie to be influenced by The Little Mermaid, and it is, though the director doesn't own up to it in any of the quotes from him on the Wikipedia page. He talks instead about Miyazaki and Fellini. Miyazaki I can see, particularly in the human town, which looks like something out of Kiki's Delivery Service, but the sea monster community looks more like something from Sponge Bob.

Fellini I don't see at all, despite the Italian setting. There's a lot of Italian language peppered into the English dialogue which made me kind of wish the whole movie was simply recorded in Italian. But I suppose it would've never gotten to be the number one streaming movie of 2021 that way.

Luca (Jacob Temblay) is the smart, timid boy while Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer) is the dumb, brave boy. Alberto teaches Luca to go out of his comfort zone while Luca teaches Alberto to be a little more contemplative. Then a human girl, Giulia (Emma Berman), is thrown into the mix and of course causes tension. But these kids are too young for a romantic plot.

The dialogue is funny and always follows the action and the characters nicely. Only in the end does Alberto start talking out of character to explain the moral of the story to Luca, but it's sweet and insightful so I didn't mind it so much.

Luca is available on Disney+.

Twitter Sonnet #1516

The hat of corn was popped to prime the house.
The flickered man was agent z to eight.
A billion bees construct a metal louse.
Beyond the clock we count it soon to sate.
The waves of fiction bathe the babe of fact.
Computer birds were pretty, far from land.
To wear the office armour begs some tact.
Abated storms were naught but painful sand.
The second armour now is called the first.
The busy players part beyond the field.
She finished work before the salmon burst.
At night, the picture raised another shield.
The little bike resumed its colour course.
A motor leaps beyond the fastest horse.