Film

Luca

Pixar's smallest, sweetest film: a sea monster named Luca sprouts legs on a Ligurian beach and falls for the freedom of being human, mostly through his reckless new best friend Alberto. It trades cosmic stakes for one perfect summer — bicycles, gelato, a Vespa dream — and lands somewhere tender about first friendships, otherness, and the fear of being found out. Gorgeous, gentle, made for kids but built to ambush grown-ups.

TMDb rating7.8

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Coco2017

Another Pixar family adventure built around a hidden world and the ache of belonging somewhere you're told you shouldn't — the same warmth, colour, and a gut-punch ending that earns its tears.

But The Land of the Dead is louder and more plot-heavy than Luca's quiet seaside summer.

Coco poster

Turning Red2022

Same studio, same theme of a kid hiding a secret self from a loving but frightened family, except the metaphor is a giant red panda instead of a fish tail — chaotic and joyful.

But It's louder, brasher, and more overtly about puberty than Luca's soft-focus nostalgia.

Turning Red poster

Ponyo2008

Miyazaki's own sea-creature-becomes-human story, drenched in watercolour and childhood logic, with the same sense that love and curiosity beat any rule about staying in your world.

But Ghibli's dream-logic pacing can feel meandering if you want a tidy Pixar arc.

Ponyo poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Call Me by Your Name2017

Same Italian coastline, same intoxicating first summer, same story of two boys whose closeness terrifies them into secrecy — Luca with the volume turned up and the metaphor removed.

It's the film Luca keeps getting compared to by critics who clocked the subtext — a shimmering, sun-struck portrait of first love and the fear of being truly seen.

But It's an adult drama with explicit content and real heartbreak, nothing like a family film.

Call Me by Your Name poster
More like this (8)

My Neighbor Totoro1988

The gold standard for gentle, low-stakes childhood wonder — no villain, just kids, a strange creature, and a rural world drawn with total tenderness.

But Almost nothing happens by conventional standards; some viewers want more story.

My Neighbor Totoro poster

The Little Mermaid1989

The original sea-creature-wants-legs story, with the same longing to cross into a forbidden world and the same parental terror about it.

But It's a full-blown musical romance, not a friendship story, and its gender politics show its age.

The Little Mermaid poster

Ratatouille2007

Another Pixar tale of a small creature who doesn't belong sneaking into a glamorous human world it loves, set in gorgeous, sun-warmed old-world streets.

But It's a rat, not a monster, and the stakes are about cooking rather than identity.

Ratatouille poster

Encanto2021

A big, colourful family fantasy about a magical secret threatening to unravel a close-knit household, with the same warmth around love complicating honesty.

But It's a full musical with a sprawling ensemble, much busier than Luca's tight two-hander.

Encanto poster

Onward2020no page yet

Pixar's underrated ode to brotherhood and growing up scared of the world outside your front door, with real tenderness under the quest-comedy surface.

But The fantasy-quest plotting is more conventional and less visually distinct than Luca's.

Soul2020

Pixar again, this time asking bigger questions about what makes a life worth living — good if Luca left you wanting something more philosophical.

But It's aimed squarely at adults wrestling with purpose, a big tonal jump from Luca's sunny simplicity.

Soul poster

My Octopus Teacher2020

A true story about a man who befriends a creature from another world just beneath the sea's surface — the exact wonder Luca imagines, but real, filmed, and unbearably moving.

One of the most beautiful nature documentaries ever made, about trust between two entirely different kinds of being, off a coastline as gorgeous as Luca's.

But It's slow, meditative, and ends in real grief — nothing like a Pixar bounce.

My Octopus Teacher poster

Splash1984

A sea creature falls for a human, grows legs, and tries to pass as one of them for a stolen stretch of time — Luca's premise played for adult comedy instead of childhood friendship.

A charming, very 80s rom-com about a mermaid learning to be human, funnier and sweeter than its poster suggests, and it clearly shares Luca's DNA.

But The effects and gender dynamics are dated, and it's a grown-up love story, not a coming-of-age tale.

Splash poster

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