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Funny, with likable characters, but otherwise thoroughly mediocre (of course, if you're in a position where you must watch a ton of kids films, mediocre is a favorable outcome). The animation is oddly second rate, considering Pixar has the tech to make this look great, but it really bland and cheap looking. The water looks dull and lifeless, which is mystifying given that Moana came out nearly five years ago. I'm not sure if this is how it works, but shouldn't they be able to use the same software program? Maybe it was just too expensive for what is clearly a second-tier release? If so, that might get at what is so frustrating about this: with every additional mediocre film, Pixar undermines it reputation and diminishes my expectations. **.5/*****
This coming right after Soul provides a fascinating comparison in scale. To me, that one stumbles during the last scene, since after the ambitious reach throughout the film in thematic and world-building scope, feeling like a film conceived from an adult worldview cloaked in colorful kid-friendly surface, the way it does an about-face feels too easy a resolution for that particular story.
Meanwhile, Luca has an "easy" resolution to its central conflict as well, but since the scope feels resolutely scaled-down as if from a child's point-of-view (a reason Ghibli is evoked often in reactions), that feels fitting and doesn't seem like a slight betrayal from what comes before. That child's point-of-view also provides a change of pace from Pixar's almost signature existential-crisis fares, evoking a breezy, vacational, borderline hang-out vibe in colorful locations.
Sticking to that scale -- and reserving the studio's most eye-popping, fantastical animation for dreams and imagined sequences -- mean there's nothing threatening to overcome the vivid, coming-of-age portrayal of male adolescent friendship. It often makes even smaller moments filled with childlike wonder of discovery too, like Luca's first venture into the village. And it gives tremendous resonance to that stirring ending, which feels like what this low-key, surpassingly lovely film has been building towards. 8/10
This was pretty a-okay, even if it felt a bit, I don't know, smaller in scope for a Pixar film. As previously mentioned, the characters are very likeable, the animation is gorgeous per usual.
Nice return to form after Soul. I think it's time to accept that post-Lasseter Pixar just isn't as good and still enjoy the movies for what they are.
Huh I dug this one a lot.