Why Luca Is Better Than You Think

this video is brought to you by squarespace when it comes to websites online stores etc there's no place to build a beautiful online presence like squarespace and also i have this little plushie now it's really cute you can get it in the link in the description you know i've been a bit of a negative nelly as of recent between being mean to the cruella de vil movie not liking andrew garfield's jake paul biopic and giving in the heights 2.5 on letterbox you know i've really been feeling like that guy these days but a new release that finally scratched that itch for me has finally hit screens and it's pixar's luca luca has had a very odd journey with pixar when it was initially announced like a year ago as this movie about two boys hanging out in the italian riviera i was like oh they're making call me by your name but animated the main boy even looks almost identical to timothy chalamet like okay not the most original idea in the world but i'll take that over cars 5 although i will say i'm secretly hoping that they make cars 10 so i can be like that's my name anyway luca feels like it kind of got swept under the rug right if you noticed earlier i said it hit screens not theaters because for whatever reason disney didn't give this the theatrical release it absolutely deserved which i know they did the same for seoul but things were different back then no i feel like now was the perfect time to drop this i seriously don't know what the logic was there from my knowledge besides crella there isn't anything they replaced this with i just i have no clue but this lack of care kind of seeps into the film too which you read the title i still really love this but man does it give off uh the good dinosaur vibes but better the good dinosaur if you remember it felt like a test rather than a fully fleshed out idea i guess it just feels like a pixar short film but in feature length form which is exactly how luca felt i want to get the bad out of the way before i praise this thing because i don't blame a lot of this on the film and that's just an irritating thing that's on my mind luca has pacing issues and usually when you talk about pacing issues you're referring to scenes being too long and ruining momentum but in luca things move just way too goddamn fast gags that would usually come with well any sense of care are replaced with time cards that are so beyond bland i mean i've seen spongebob episodes with more interesting graphics than this they're just scenes that really do nothing but strictly work as plot points pixar makes beautiful animation that they rightfully indulge in at times where certain scenes serve more as a flex than as a crucial plot point like i said none of us are really upset at that usually it looks really pretty and luca is gorgeous yes it's one of the main reasons i'm pissed it didn't get a theatrical release but they never feel like they take the time to let us soak in these images no pun intended and honestly that's about it as far as flaws go and i think these things only irritate me because well luca's a good ass movie i feel like right off the bat and this shouldn't come as a surprise i think the film looks and sounds phenomenal kind of like i mentioned before pixar knows how to always feel like they're upping their game with the animation and luca does not feel like an exception it's not playing with a ton of new character designs no but it does play with texture in a really cool way not to drift into that territory but like i do think they're working with a different kind of realism here the skin on the characters feels so detailed with lights shadows and textures like you can reach out and touch the skin you know i thought it looked great certainly wasn't reinventing the wheel by any means but definitely drew me in the water looked great the settings managed to capture the same dreamy scenery the other coming-of-age film in italy managed to capture and that score by dan romer was just gorgeous it was a lot more childlike than the shape of water but it shared the same aquatic sound that just feels good on the ears so yeah it's a pixar film that looks and sounds great what a shocker so luca isn't soul or inside out it's a very simple film for pixar and that's refreshing again no pun intended i'm sorry the biggest conflict is like these kids can't expose the fact that they're fishes because being a fish is frowned upon in this very conservative town to say the least they want to kill the fish right so i guess that's a pretty big conflict now i think about it it doesn't take a lot to put together the hidden message behind that like especially knowing how similar this is to call me by your name it's about two kids who are scared of being who they really are in front of others so it's not out of the realm of possibility for this to be about queerness also is it just me or is the grandmother also hinted at being this cool lesbian grandma who sometimes makes her way up into the human world is that a stretch i really got that vibe but that said the film's director did come forward that the film is not that saying i love lucas movies and he's such a talent but it truly goes without saying that we really willfully went for a pre-pubescent story this is all about platonic friendships which i guess i get what he's saying from a protective artistic standpoint i'd imagine if he flat out said it was a queer allegory then people would really hammer home that this is a direct rip-off of call me by your name but another part of me is like this is most likely disney telling him to say that to keep up this family friendly image while still coming off performatively woke or whatever and for as irritating as that is i do think this film may do with its open-ended message maybe it isn't about queerness some have theorized it being about an immigrant with the way it uses shores and new spaces i think at the root of it no matter what your reading is luca is a really solid film about identity whatever that means for the viewer it doesn't group anyone or anything into a box or feel like a corporate representation of what it means to be a certain something or someone i think it stands on coming out in both the fears and benefits of doing so are done really well for a movie that is apparently not about that this sense of self-discovery is all over the film from the way the characters place value and beauty onto certain objects to the way they take in and use their surroundings which if this is a strictly platonic story about adolescence also kind of works i feel childish and carefree watching luca but also when the emotional beats come through in the end i do care about those as well i almost cried one could say the real ocean was in my eyelids i think that these kinds of light on their feet films are important for pixar you guys know i loved soul and i also really liked some of their earlier films like ratatouille up and wally but some of my other favorite animated films are things like i don't know sean the sheep my neighbors the yamadas and the original jungle book these insanely simple overly wholesome almost non-existent plot movies i think there's a place in the world for animated films for all ages where the stakes are that low because yes there's a place for animated films that use every ounce of potential the medium has to offer to make something that is truly one of a kind but think about the kids dog i think it's equally as important to make stuff that welcomes you in with open arms and doesn't spoon feed what it wants to say to you especially for kids who are a lot smarter than a lot of people realize because for as great as soul is i feel like most kids will connect to something as simple as luca for a lot longer because of the ambiguity of its message so like i've been saying luca does not reinvent the wheel no but maybe that's a good thing maybe it's actually great that pixar for once is giving us an original movie that doesn't feel like a test doesn't feel like a continuation of another idea doesn't try to make us cry and doesn't feel like it's trying to be child friendly charlie kaufman movie maybe it is a little bit of a call me buyer name ripoff but nobody's perfect right i had a great time watching this i'm sure it's going to mean a lot to the tots out there and you know what i think that's all there is to say so thanks for watching go watch luca and form your own opinion and before you head out how's it going everybody i ripped my shirt apparently but that's besides the point i just wanted to give a quick thank you to this week's sponsor squarespace now squarespace if you didn't already know is a place where you can go online to progress your brand whether that be through an online store a blog a portfolio you name it thanks to their wide selection of award-winning designer templates whatever that website is it'll look fantastic and match your style no matter what it is if you have any problems and you're like i'm not that great at building websites don't worry they have 24-hour customer service to walk you through any issues you run into and if you go to squarespace.com carsten you can get 10 percent off of your first purchase if you've been looking for a time to make your own website now's the time and this is the place to go thanks so much for watching thanks again to squarespace for sponsoring this video i'm gonna go fix this shirt and i'll see you guys in the next one [Music] you

Channel: Karsten Runquist

Views: 193,037

Keywords: Luca, Pixar, Disney, Animation, Animated, Movie, Film, Filmmaking, CGI, 3D, Call me By Your Name, Remake, Review, Analysis, Video Essay, Explained, Good, Bad, Ending, Let Me Explain, Theory, LGBTQ, Oscars, Karsten Runquist, 2021, New, Timothee Chalamet

Id: D1DduFAsqJE

Length: 8min 12sec (492 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 25 2021