If you feel in need of a good cry and can’t get it out, I highly recommend Luca. Released in Canada on Disney+ June 18th, 2021, this Pixar animated film sparked a lot of Queer TikTok discourse sparking mainstream media to take an interest as well.
The discussion circles the queer allegory that Luca’s “coming out” story element provides. Two young sea monster boys, Luca (voiced by Jacob Tremblay) and Alberto (voiced by Jack Dylan Grazer), find friendship with a young land monster girl, Giulia (voiced by Emma Berman), in a small Italian land monster village. The village hunts sea monsters, which shapes the hostile environment Luca and Alberto must hide their true selves in by avoiding water on land to retain their human form. Of course, they can’t do that forever.
The queer allegory does not stop at the two boys’ experience on land, it spreads into Luca’s parents’ experiences as well. Luca’s mother (voiced by Maya Rudolph) and father (voiced by Jim Gaffigan) venture onto land searching for Luca after he runs away from sea with Alberto. Their fear is for Luca’s safety above water in the company of people who hate and hunt sea monsters like them.
The three friends prepare for a community lead triathlon whose cash prize will get the boys enough money to purchase an old Vespa they’ll travel on. While training, Luca becomes more interested in Giulia’s books and what she learns from school than travelling around with Alberto.
Once again, Luca’s eyes and ears perk up with curiosity. First, it was merely the land that he found interesting and the adventures he and Alberto went on. Now, Luca strives for more innovation and knowledge, where Alberto craves something else.
Luca’s need to get out and learn most likely stems from feeling suffocated by his protective parents, whereas Alberto’s father left him at a young age. At first glance, Alberto just wants adventure and independence as a way of proving he can go it alone. However, underneath that exterior, what he really needs is stability in companionship and perhaps routine.
From frustration seeing Luca slip away from their original dream, Alberto outs himself as a sea monster to Giulia with the intention of outing Luca too. Instead, Luca acts scared of Alberto. Heartbreaking. The animation portrays the betrayal and fear in Alberto beautifully. The waterworks started then and persisted when Giulia spritz water on Luca back at her house while confronting him for being so reckless as to come into a town that hates sea monsters.
Now we see the obstacle is not that Giulia fears Luca or Alberto, it’s that she fears for them. It’s similar for Luca’s parents, they’re terrified for Luca’s safety above water. Interestingly enough, their love for Luca does not come with a desire to change the opinion of sea monsters on land but an instinct to hide. Giulia is also all about hide and stay safe rather than fight to be accepted.
A moment bound to fruition, Alberto and Luca are exposed by the rain at the triathlon; no one can hide forever. It is not until a sea monster hunter, Giulia’s father Massimo (voiced by Marco Barricelli), recognizes Luca and Alberto in their sea monster form that the village finally accepts all sea monsters. The message: True acceptance of difference is learning there is no difference at all.
The journey reads very queer. The whole time the boys knew they were sea monsters but out of fear hide that from the world, not out of shame. The learning curve was not about accepting themselves; it was about learning who they are and what they want outside of what they already know is true. When they fully understand who they are, that’s when the world sees them for who they are, sea monsters and humans.
The other queer likeness is the sense of found family for Alberto. He’s abandoned by his father but finds Luca, a friend and brother. Then meets Giulia, a friend and sister. She introduces him to her father Massimo, a man who by the end of the film, wholeheartedly steps in as a father figure for Alberto when Giulia and Luca leave for school.
So not only is it a coming out and coming to allegory, it’s a found family story. So undeniably queer, and at that point does it really matter what the director says?