Luca

Following Soul, Pixar’s latest follows the young boy Luca on adventure by the seaside Italian Riviera—the catch being that Luca and his friend transform into sea monsters whenever they are exposed to water. Directed by Academy Award nominee Enrico Casaros, the voice talent includes John Ratzenberger and Drake Bell.

The editors have erred on the side of simple but effective for this teaser trailer, dressing a commonly known folk lullaby in a new arrangement to effectively balance a track that is at once refreshingly novel while comfortingly familiar. Production Music has arranged an Italian-language (and -instrumentation) version of “You Are My Sunshine” for this shorter trailer. One might argue there is a narrative connection to the lyrics: just as sunshine is presented as a condition to happiness in the lyrics, the boys’ exposure to the sun—and the maintenance of their human form—appears to be a condition for their acceptance in society.

The music rolls along rather easily with regular reminders of Pixar’s pedigree though logos of previous triumphs (Toy Story; Inside Out; Coco), only ending at 0:45 as the boys’ bike careens off the ramp and into the ocean. The sound of seagulls is a nice touch to emphasize the dropping out of the music, only for one last chord timed with their plunge into the sea.

At 0:59, we get a comedic pastiche of the infamous strings from the murder scene in Psycho, paired with the drawings explaining the public’s willingness to murder sea monsters. This only lasts a few seconds, however; “You Are My Sunshine” (in Italian) resumes promptly thereafter.

That being said, the final note synchs with a butcher’s knife cleanly halving a fish, with Luca looking clearly distraught—it ends on a darkly humorous tone. Much like its setting, the trailer is swift and breezy, unlabored in its transitions and tonally cohesive, sticking largely to a single continuous track that returns later to cap it off.

Luca is due for release in Summer 2021–back towards a timeframe that had probably led Disney to be once again noncommittal about its release strategy.

— Curtis Perry