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.
If you liked this
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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

People
Cast
Jacob TremblayLuca Paguro (voice)
Jack Dylan GrazerAlberto Scorfano (voice)
Emma BermanGiulia Marcovaldo (voice)- Saverio RaimondoErcole Visconti (voice)
Maya RudolphDaniela Paguro (voice)
Marco BarricelliMassimo Marcovaldo (voice)
Jim GaffiganLorenzo Paguro (voice)
Peter SohnCiccio (voice)- Lorenzo CrisciGuido (voice)
Marina MassironiSignora Marsigliese (voice)
Gino La MonicaTomasso (Old Fisherman) (voice)
Sandy MartinGrandma Paguro (voice)
Directing
- Enrico CasarosaDirector
- Seong-Young KimLayout
- Kelly BonbrightScript Supervisor
- Rayna HelgensScript Supervisor
Writing
- Jesse AndrewsScreenplay
- Mike JonesScreenplay
- Enrico CasarosaStory
- Jesse AndrewsStory
- Simon StephensonStory
- James S. BakerStory Artist
- Julie LynnStory Consultant
- Randall GreenStory Consultant
- John HoffmanStory Supervisor
Production
- Terri DouglasADR Voice Casting
- Kevin ReherCasting
- Natalie LyonCasting
- Kate Hansen-BirnbaumCasting Associate
- Kiri HartExecutive Producer
- Pete DocterExecutive Producer
- Peter SohnExecutive Producer
- JD OhlerkingFinance
- Andrea WarrenProducer
- Kristian KobePublicist
- Daniela KristonResearcher
Recommended by
Turning Red, Encanto, A Room with a View, Finding Nemo, Forgotten Island