JP Nunez
As you can probably tell from my last name, I’m Hispanic. Nunez is a common enough Spanish name, so that’s no big secret. But what you can’t tell is that I’m only half Hispanic. The other half of me is Italian, so when I saw the trailer for the upcoming Pixar film Luca, I absolutely loved it.
This movie is about two young boys who spend a summer in a small town on the Italian Riviera, and they experience everything the culture there has to offer. They eat the pasta, they enjoy the gelato, and they ride their scooters all day long. However, there’s more to these kids than meets the eye. They’re both sea monsters disguised as humans, and the town they’re staying in has a history of hostility towards their kind.
Before this trailer came out, I knew Luca was set in Italy, but I didn’t realize how authentic it would be. From the very first shot of the coast, there’s no doubt about where this story takes place, and when I saw that little town close up, it immediately reminded me of the town in Naples where my grandfather came from. Everything in it from the arrangement of the houses to the random villagers playing scopa (an Italian card game that my family plays) brought me back there and reminded me of how much I love my heritage and my family, so I was instantly hooked.
However, as amazing as all that is, it can’t carry an entire movie by itself. Luca needs a great story to match its superb portrayal of Italian culture, and the trailer doesn’t disappoint in that regard either. For one, I love fantasy, so the sea monster angle is right up my alley. Secondly, the trailer also makes me really interested to see how the movie is going to use its unique premise. It gives the impression that the film is going to be about diversity and tolerance, but Pixar movies often pull the thematic rug out from under us and end up going in a completely different direction than we expected. I’m sure this one is going to do the same thing and blindside us with a lesson we never saw coming, and I can’t wait to find out what that is.
Luca is currently scheduled to come out in theaters on June 18, so we still have to wait a few months to find out if it lives up to the promise of its trailer. In the meantime, let’s keep our fingers crossed that it can stick to its release date so we won’t have to wait a minute longer to finally see it!
So what do you think of the trailer for Luca? Do you agree with JP that it promises a great story brimming with authentic Italian culture? Let us know in the comments! And if you’re looking for horror trailers we’ve got you covered!
