Review: In Pixar's 'Luca,' young life as a stolen adventure

A brisk and bright sun-dappled fable of above-ground adventure and below-the-surface identity, Enrico Casarosa’s “Luca” is one of Pixar’s most pure and condensed enchantments — a summery, shimmering fish-out-of-water fairy tale

A brisk and bright sun-dappled fable of above-ground adventure and below-the-surface identity, Enrico Casarosa's “Luca” — a summery, shimmering fish-out-of-water fairy tale — is one of Pixar's most pure and condensed enchantments. Pixar has plunged into the sea before, of course, in the aquatic “Finding Nemo” and “Finding Dory.” Lushly detailed waters have been sprinkled through many of the studio's films, from the rushing river of “The Good Dinosaur” to the frothy seaside surf of “Piper.” One personal favorite: how, after the frantic Paris chase in “Ratatouille,” the diminutive Chef Skinner bobs furiously in the Seine. But in “Luca,” we're in the ocean to look longingly upon another world, which happens to be our own. Luca Paguro (Jacob Tremblay) is a 13-year-old sea monster who lives off the coast of the Italian Riviera. He's a farm boy, like many protagonists before him, with dreams of another, forbidden realm — only Luca shepherds goatfish, instead of goats, on rolling underwater pastures. To him, the surface is a magical, unknowable place that he's only heard rumors of from his grandmother (Sandy Martin), who's quickly shushed by his protective parents (Maya Rudolph, Jim Gaffigan). But curiosity and the urgings of another, more land-accustomed sea monster, Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer), compel Luca to swim up to a beach and stride ashore. He watches Alberto do it first. When Luca gets up the nerve, the transformation is immediate. Fin turns to foot. Tail disappears. And a very sea-legged boy steps forward, swiftly falling on his face and flopping on the ground like a fish.