Pixar's Luca featurette shows off endless summer in the Italian Riviera
Disney provides the best look yet at the upcoming animated film.
- I've been covering technology and mobile for 12 years, first as a telecommunications reporter and assistant editor at ZDNet in Australia, then as CNET's West Coast head of breaking news, and now in the Thought Leadership team.
Pixar's Luca is coming to Disney Plus on June 18.
Pixar has released a featurette showing off the design of its new film Luca. The movie, which will be released on Disney Plus for free on June 18, follows two teenage sea monsters who transform into humans to enjoy summertime in the fictional Italian seaside town of Porto Rosso.
The featurette, released Friday, has commentary by voice actors including Jacob Tremblay and Maya Rudolph, as well as the film's producers and director.
Pixar says the film is set in the late '50s/early '60s, in a place where "summer isn't just a season, but a state of mind." Luca and Alberto befriend Giulia, a human girl who lives with her father in Porto Rosso and doesn't believe in sea monsters.
The design of the sea monsters was inspired by medieval maps showing sea monsters, while salt water iguanas inspired the way they move underwater.
"These sea monsters have the magical ability to transform into human form when they're dry," said director Enrico Casarosa, who grew up in a port city in the Italian Riviera. "Our inspiration was sea life like octopuses that are able to camouflage and change the way they look."
A new clip from Pixar's Luca also shows the two boys eating dinner with Giulia's father, who expresses a desire to kill "anything that swims," including the fabled sea monsters.
