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Pixar’s “Luca,” an Italian-set animated fairy tale concerning two young sea monsters exploring an unknown human world, offers the studio's hallmark visual splendor, yet fails to venture outside of safe waters. After story artist credits on big-time Pixar titles like “ Ratatouille ” and “ Coco ,” “Luca” serves as Enrico Casarosa ’s first time in the director’s chair. Borrowing elements from “ Finding Nemo ” and “ The Little Mermaid ,” Casarosa’s film follows two young Italian sea “monsters,” Luca ( Jacob Tremblay ) and Alberto ( Jack Dylan Grazer ). The former spends his days shepherding the little fish populating his seabed village away from fishing boats. But at night, as he lies awake in his seaweed bed, he dreams of living on the surface.

Looming against his desires are his mother ( Maya Rudolph ) and father’s ( Jim Gaffigan ) fear from living by a human, sea-monster-hunting oceanfront village. Nevertheless, dry world affectations fall to the ocean floor: an alarm clock, a playing card, and a wrench. These items draw Luca closer to the surface. As does Alberto, an older, confident amphibian boy who now lives alone in a crumbling castle tower by the beach, and claims his father is temporarily traveling.

If you’re wondering how these creatures with fins, scales, and tails can could live on among humans without being discovered, writers Jesse Andrews (“ Me and Earl and the Dying Girl ”) and Mike Jones (“ Soul ”) have a tidy solution for that. Rather than an evil witch granting him a human appearance, a la “The Little Mermaid,” the sea monsters here can naturally, magically turn mortal. Their ability isn’t controllable, however, as touching water reverts their skin back to their real scaly exterior. But for Luca, such power dangles greater temptation over him.

Once on dry land, Alberto and Luca form a quick bond. They dream of buying a vespa and traveling the globe together. Their plans nearly come to a halt, however, when Luca’s frightful parents threaten to make him live his oddball Uncle Ugo ( Sacha Baron Cohen , essentially using his Borat voice in a fish) in the trenches. Instead, Luca runs away with Alberto to the town of Portorosso. There, they come across Giulia ( Emma Berman ), a red-headed, independently minded tomboy with dreams of winning the Portorosso cup—a traditional Italian triathlon consisting of swimming, cycling, and eating pasta—and her one-armed, burly father Massimo ( Marco Barricelli ). In a bid to earn enough money to buy a Vespa, the boys pair with Giulia to win the cup away from the evil five-time champion Ercole Visconti ( Saverio Raimondo ) and his goons while an entire town lays a bounty for sea monsters on their heads.

The most distinct current coursing through “Luca” is freedom: that’s certainly what the Vespa represents, the ability to be unrestricted not just by sea, but by land too. The other thread winding around the folklorish narrative, however, is identity, or the people who truly are behind our public faces. The villainous Ercole is initially and seemingly well-loved, as though ripped from an Italian magazine. We soon discover that his love, somewhat like Gaston in “Beauty and the Beast” (another Disney flick attuned to true identities) actually rules through intimidation. The measured eroding of his care-free, buoyant persona into the narrative's real monster is predictable yet satisfying.

The premise of the film also literally disguises Luca and Alberto as humans amongst the fish hunting Portorosso community. But in a deeper sense, many secrets lurk within Alberto, from the whereabouts of his dad to his general knowledge. He portrays himself to Luca as a world-weary traveler, the kind of friend who swears they’ve been to a place a million times, but has only walked past it. He also tells the impressionable Luca how the stars are actually fish swimming in a vast black ocean, that school is unnecessary, and to ignore his “Bruno” (or the tiny scared voice inside your head). His outsized confidence papers over his clear insecurities, especially as Luca first grows closer to Giulia and later thinks for himself.

Similar to Ercole’s unsurprising turn to villainy, Alberto’s bubbling insecurities imbue the film's second half with an air of fait accompli and drag the initial animated delight to the deep depths of boredom. Why do another narrative about a girl stuck in the middle of two best friends? Why cast Giulia’s rich arc, a competitive girl pitched as an outsider, to the back seat? Without exploring her narrative, the primary story flows through the motions. And the ending, meant to recover some of her spark, only serves to tether her importance to the two boys. That is, the guys win, but really, we all win.

“Luca” certainly isn’t without its charms. A visual splendor of blue and orange lighting blankets over the seaside setting, giving the sense that if I were to merely hug the screen it would warm me for days. Minute bits also land, like the fish that make sheep sounds, and the hilarious ways Luca’s mother and father careen through the town trying to find their son, throwing random children in the water. And Dan Rohmer’s propulsive, waltzy score recalls the fairytale vibes he breathed in “ Beasts of the Southern Wild ” on tracks like “ Once There Was A Hushpuppy .” But “Luca” retreads too much well-cultivated ground and reworks so many achingly familiar tropes as its best qualities sink to a murky bottom. While some material may hit with younger audiences, “Luca” makes for Pixar’s least enchanting, least special film yet.

Available on June 18 on Disney+.

Robert Daniels

Robert Daniels is an Associate Editor at RogerEbert.com. Based in Chicago, he is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association (CFCA) and Critics Choice Association (CCA) and regularly contributes to the New York Times , IndieWire , and Screen Daily . He has covered film festivals ranging from Cannes to Sundance to Toronto. He has also written for the Criterion Collection, the Los Angeles Times , and Rolling Stone about Black American pop culture and issues of representation.

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Film credits.

Luca (2021)

Rated PG for rude humor, language, some thematic elements and brief violence.

Jacob Tremblay as Luca Paguro (voice)

Jack Dylan Grazer as Alberto Scorfano (voice)

Emma Berman as Giulia Marcovaldo (voice)

Maya Rudolph as Daniela Paguro (voice)

Jim Gaffigan as Lorenzo Paguro (voice)

Marco Barricelli as Massimo Marcovaldo (voice)

Saverio Raimondo as Ercole Visconti (voice)

Sandy Martin as Grandma Paguro (voice)

Enrico Casarosa
Jesse Andrews

Cinematographer

David Juan Bianchi
Jason Hudak
Catherine Apple

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‘Luca’ Review: Calamari by Your Name

Pixar takes a trip to the Italian coast in this breezy, charming sea-monster story.

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By A.O. Scott

A lot of movies can be described as fish-out-of-water stories, but few quite as literally as “Luca.” The title character, voiced by Jacob Tremblay, is an aquatic creature who lives with his family off the Mediterranean coast of Italy. The undersea equivalent of a shepherd, tending an amusing flock of sheeplike fish, Luca has a natural curiosity that is piqued by his mother’s warnings about the dangers that await on dry land.

Like many a Disney protagonist before him — Ariel, Nemo and Moana all come to mind — he defies parental authority in the name of adventure. (His mom and dad are voiced, in perfect sitcom disharmony, by Maya Rudolph and Jim Gaffigan.) According to the film’s fantastical version of marine biology, sea monsters turn human on terra firma, though their fins and gills re-emerge quickly on contact with water. Luca is a bit like a mermaid and a little like Pinocchio, a being with folkloric roots and a modern pop-culture-friendly personality.

On a rocky island near his home, he meets Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer), a fellow changeling and a wild, parentless Huck Finn to Luca’s more cautious Tom Sawyer. After a season of idyllic, reckless antics, mostly spent building scooters out of scraps and wrecking them in the surf, the friends make their way to a nearby Ligurian fishing village, where more serious peril — and more complicated fun — awaits.

“Luca” was directed by Enrico Casarosa, whose warm, whimsical aesthetic also infused “La Luna” (2012), his Oscar-nominated short . Unlike some other recent Pixar features, this one aims to be charming rather than mind-blowing. Instead of philosophical and cinematic ambition, there is a diverting, somewhat familiar story about friendship, loyalty and competition set against a picturesque animated backdrop.

So not a masterpiece, in other words. But also not a pandering, obnoxious bit of throwaway family entertainment. The visual craft is lovely and subtle — the orange glow of Mediterranean sunsets; the narrow streets and craggy escarpments; the evocations of Italy and Italian movies. If you look closely, you’ll catch a glimpse of Marcello Mastroianni and Giulietta Masina. The friendship between Alberto and Luca, built around the fantasy of owning a Vespa and threatened by a desperate act of betrayal, carries a faint but detectable echo of “Shoeshine,” Vittorio De Sica’s neorealist fable about two Roman street urchins who dream of buying a horse.

That’s one of the saddest movies ever. “Luca” has a few notes of gentle melancholy, but it isn’t the kind of Pixar movie that will turn adult viewers into bawling, trembling wrecks. Luca and Alberto’s bond is complemented and complicated by Giulia (Emma Berman), a fellow misfit (though not a sea monster) who brings the boys home to her fisherman father (Marco Barricelli) and recruits them to become her teammates in the town’s annual triathlon. (The three legs of the contest are swimming, cycling and pasta eating. Viva l’Italia!)

Their nemesis is Ercole (Saverio Raimondo), a preening bully with two nasty sidekicks, who threatens Luca and Alberto with humiliation and, worse, exposure to the harpoons of the sea-monster-hating townsfolk. At the same time, Luca is increasingly drawn to Giulia and the human world she represents, which makes Alberto jealous.

But the movie is too busy with its many plots — and too enchanted by its summery, touristic mood — to linger over bad feelings or grim possibilities. It’s about the sometimes risky discovery of pleasure, and it’s a pleasure to discover.

Luca Rated PG. Harpoons and hurt feelings. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. Watch on Disney+ .

A.O. Scott is a critic at large and the co-chief film critic. He joined The Times in 2000 and has written for the Book Review and The New York Times Magazine. He is also the author of “Better Living Through Criticism.” More about A.O. Scott

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Common sense media reviewers.

Sweet fish-out-of-water story about friendship, adventure.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Viewers will learn a bit about the deep, dark bott

It's easy to be scared of things you don't underst

Luca is curious, intelligent, kind, and empathetic

Central message is about accepting differences, in

Kids run away from home, go against rules, and put

Language is largely of the insult variety: "stinki

A Vespa scooter is central to the story and is pre

Educational Value

Viewers will learn a bit about the deep, dark bottom of the ocean, as well as gravity and different astronomical facts. Reading books and trying new things are encouraged as ways to learn about the world.

Positive Messages

It's easy to be scared of things you don't understand, but don't judge others based on their differences. You don't have to keep aspects of yourself hidden to be accepted—find those who love you for who you are. Curiosity, empathy, perseverance, and teamwork are great character strengths. It's important to have dreams and goals, as well as a plan to make them come true. Friendships and loyalty are important, as is making sacrifices for those you love. Be curious and learn as much as possible about the world.

Positive Role Models

Luca is curious, intelligent, kind, and empathetic. He wants to learn as much as he can about the surface and beyond. He lies to his parents and puts himself in dangerous situations but atones for his mistakes. Alberto is courageous, as well as a bit reckless, but he's loyal to Luca. He doesn't follow rules, but he doesn't have a parental figure to set any guidance, either. Giulia is clever and shows great perseverance. She also stands up for herself and others and isn't afraid to be herself, even if she doesn't fit in. The three work together as a team to overcome obstacles.

Diverse Representations

Central message is about accepting differences, in this case mostly between species. All human characters are White/Italian; movie is set on the Italian Riviera. Giulia's father, Massimo, is separated from her mother and shares custody. The arrangement is seen to be smooth and happy, and he's supportive and caring toward Giulia. Massimo is also a positive representation of limb difference, having been born with one arm. His character isn't defined by the difference, but by his great skill in fishing and cooking and his kindness toward the kids. Alberto's father isn't shown on-screen but is reported to have abandoned him, and Alberto often behaves recklessly and can feel intensely let down by others as a result. But the idea of chosen family and developing new family structures is shown when Alberto is taken in by Massimo. Giulia is a strong female character who's not restricted by gender stereotypes. She shows a thirst for adventure and has the courage to stand up for herself and her friends. That said, Italian stereotypes are used, particularly with the villain Ercole, who has slicked-back dark hair and a neatly clipped mustache, and arrogantly sits astride his Vespa, gesturing exuberantly and saying "Mamma Mia!"

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Violence & Scariness

Kids run away from home, go against rules, and put themselves in dangerous situations. Physical comedy includes characters lightly hurting themselves as they jump off cliffs, fall off bicycles (with stars shown above head as though dizzy), and get attacked by a suspicious cat. Physical scuffles include pushing, punching, biting, and slapping. In one sequence, a villager repeatedly throws a spear at Alberto and Luca; others threaten them, and they're the target of mean behavior, with verbal bullying including words like "jerk" and "trash." Characters have heated arguments, raising their voices. A kid has to punch his uncle in the heart to get it started again, and his organs are seen through his skin briefly.

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Language is largely of the insult variety: "stinking," "stupido," "jerk," "idioti," "trash," "loser," "shut up," "pathetic," "what's wrong with you," and "bottom feeder," as well as the swearing stand-in "aw, sharks." The Italian word "mannaggia" is also used, meaning "damn." "Oh God," as an exclamation.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

A Vespa scooter is central to the story and is presented as very aspirational/glamorous. Like all Disney films, there's plenty of off-screen merchandise, including apparel, toys, games, and more.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Luca is Pixar's film about two sea creatures who leave their watery homes to discover the wonders of the surface in a small village on the Italian Riviera. It's a sweet coming-of-age story about courage, curiosity, empathy, perseverance, teamwork, and friendship—specifically, that of Luca (voiced by Jacob Tremblay ) and Alberto ( Jack Dylan Grazer ). There's a bit of silly body humor (nose- and ear-picking), as well as occasional insults in both English and easily understandable Italian, like "trash," "stupido," "idioti," and "jerk." Kids run away from home, lie to parents, and don't follow rules, putting themselves in dangerous situations. Physical comedy includes injuries from stunts like jumping off of cliffs and trees, riding a bike too fast down a hill, and getting in tussles. Scared villagers wield spears and harpoons, and one throws his at the main characters. Another character likes to use his big knife to chop up fish, much to Luca and Alberto's dismay. Parents and kids who watch together will be able to discuss the movie's appealing setting and its themes, particularly the importance of evaluating others for who they are, not because of their differences, background, or heritage. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

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Based on 60 parent reviews

First Pixar Disappointment

Teaches kids to lie and do dangerous stuff, what's the story.

LUCA takes place at the Italian seaside, where the titular character is the son in a family of sea creatures. Luca (voiced by Jacob Tremblay ) follows his parents' ( Maya Rudolph and Jim Gaffigan ) rules not to go near the dangerous surface, until he comes across a stranger collecting treasures. Luca follows the boy, Alberto ( Jack Dylan Grazer ), to the shore, where they both transform into humans. Luca and Alberto become fast friends, sharing dreams and plans that involve what Alberto claims is the best prize among humans: the Vespa scooter. When Luca's family catches on that he's been hanging out above water, they threaten to send him to the depths of the ocean with his angler-fish Uncle Ugo ( Sacha Baron Cohen ). Frightened, Luca and Alberto run away to the nearest human town, Porto Rosso, where they meet outgoing Giulia ( Emma Berman ), who tells them that they could buy a Vespa with the cash prize from the town's annual race: a triathlon involving swimming, cycling, and eating pasta. The boys team up with Giulia—who's come in second several years in a row to an overconfident, rude villager named Ercole (Saverio Raimondo)—and move in with her and her intimidating fisherman father (Marco Barricelli). They must also do everything they can to keep from getting wet, lest the sea-monster-fearing villagers try to spear them.

Is It Any Good?

This heartfelt, gorgeously animated adventure is a short and sweet reminder of sun-filled summer days with new friends. The setting of Luca is so vivid that audiences may well want to book a flight to the Italian Riviera for some amazing pasta, clear seas, and the charm of winding cobblestone streets, marble fountains, and quirky townsfolk. Tremblay is a wonderfully expressive voice performer, making Luca's intellectual curiosity and general awe come to life. Grazer's Alberto is a confident and impetuous counterbalance to Luca's thoughtful and initially hesitant personality. Berman also impresses as Giulia, who really wants to win the race but is even more excited to make new friends. The supporting Italian cast is strong, as are Rudolph and Gaffigan, who at this point are almost default choices as funny parents. And audiences will laugh aloud at Baron Cohen's brief but hilarious role as Luca's uncle from the deep.

Luca 's themes are reminiscent of those in Finding Nemo and Finding Dory , The Little Mermaid , and even Onward . The boys turn into friends who are more like brothers, discovering both the joys and the dangers of the human world, and their adventure is filled with memorable views under the sea. Tender, sweet, and also funny, with silly physical comedy and an amusingly suspicious cat (Giulia's kitty looks just like her dad, right down to what looks like a mustache), the movie is full of warmth and has a few moments that tug at the heartstrings. It's also lovely to see a single father who belies his intimidating appearance by cooking delicious meals, teaching the boys the skills needed to fish, and supporting his daughter in her dream to compete in Porto Rosso's big annual race. Families with kids of all ages will enjoy this adorable addition to Pixar's excellent list of films.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Luca 's message about family and friendship. What does Luca learn about what makes a family? Kids: Who do you consider to be part of your family?

How do characters' actions demonstrate curiosity , empathy , teamwork , and perseverance ? Why are those important character strengths ?

Discuss how the movie portrays Giulia's father's limb difference. Does it impact his character? Why is it important to see people with disabilities represented in popular culture? Can you think of other examples?

Did you find any parts of the movie scary or upsetting? If so, why? What bothers you more: danger/action, or conflict between characters?

A central theme of the movie is difference and accepting others for who they are. Why is this an important message? What differences might it extend to in the real world?

Movie Details

On DVD or streaming : June 18, 2021
Cast : Jacob Tremblay , Jack Dylan Grazer , Emma Berman
Director : Enrico Casarosa
Studios : Pixar Animation Studios , Walt Disney Pictures
Genre : Family and Kids
Topics : Magic and Fantasy , Friendship
Character Strengths : Curiosity , Empathy , Perseverance , Teamwork
Run time : 95 minutes
MPAA rating : PG
MPAA explanation : rude humor, language, some thematic elements and brief violence
Award : Common Sense Selection
Last updated : January 31, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Review: ‘Luca’ is Pixar, Italian style — and one of the studio’s loveliest movies in years

Luca (Jacob Tremblay) and Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer) in a scene from the Pixar movie "Luca."

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The Times is committed to reviewing theatrical film releases during the COVID-19 pandemic . Because moviegoing carries risks during this time, we remind readers to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local health officials .

The key theme of “Luca,” Pixar’s funny and enchanting new feature, is the acquisition of knowledge — and the realization of how liberating, if painful, that knowledge can be. The charming insight of this movie, directed by Enrico Casarosa from a script by Jesse Andrews and Mike Jones, is that nearly everyone has something to learn. Luca (Jacob Tremblay), a kid who finds himself in a strange new land, must master its mystifying rules and traditions to survive. He has an impetuous friend, Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer), whose know-it-all swagger is something of a put-on: Like Luca, he’s lonely and adrift in a world that turns out to be bigger, scarier and more wondrous than either of them could have imagined.

For their part, the animators at Pixar have imagined that world with customary ingenuity and bright-hued splendor, which makes it something of a shame that most audiences will have to watch the movie on Disney+. (It’s playing an exclusive June 18-24 engagement at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood.) The filmmakers’ most exquisite visual creation here is Portorosso, a fictional village on the Italian Riviera presumably not far from Genoa, Casarosa’s birth city, which inspired his 2011 Pixar short, “La Luna.” In the director’s hands, Portorosso plays host to a parade of well-worn but lovingly deployed cultural clichés. The townsfolk navigate the sloped, cobblestoned streets on bicycles and Vespas and enjoy a diet of gelato, pasta and seafood. And speaking of seafood: The fishermen who trawl the surrounding waters always do so with harpoons at the ready, lest they encounter one of the fearsome sea monsters rumored to dwell just offshore.

The movie confirms and debunks those rumors in the opening minutes, plunging beneath the surface and into a neighborhood of underwater dwellers whose webbed and scaly humanoid bodies might well seem fearsome at first glance. But within seconds of meeting Luca — whose natural curiosity spurs varying degrees of protectiveness from his worried mom (Maya Rudolph), absent-minded dad (Jim Gaffigan) and slyly antiauthorian grandma (Sandy Martin) — it’s clear that there’s nothing remotely monstrous about him or the mildly cloying, sometimes hilarious family sitcom he initially seems to be inhabiting.

Alberto and Luca explore a cave in the Pixar movie "Luca."

Fortunately, “Luca” enters brighter, bolder territory at precisely the moment Luca himself does. In a scene that brings to mind Pinocchio experiencing his first moments of sentience or Ariel testing out her new legs, Luca swims to the surface and discovers a world of wonderment, including the wonderment of his own body. Outside his aquatic habitat, his scales, fins and tail magically vanish and he takes on human form. Every sea creature like him possesses these adaptive powers of disguise, including his new buddy, Alberto, who’s been living above the surface for a while and gives Luca a crash course on ambulatory movement, direct sunlight and other dry-land phenomena.

That makes “Luca” a fish-out-of-water comedy in the most literal sense, governed in the classic Pixar tradition by whimsical yet rigorously observed ground rules. A splash of water will temporarily restore Luca and Alberto (or parts of them) to their underwater forms — a shapeshifting conceit that allows for a lot of deftly timed, seamlessly visualized slapstick mischief. Early on, at least, the two friends have little to fear as they run around a deserted isle, basking in the sunshine and dreaming of future adventures on the open road. Only when their curiosity gets the better of them do they muster the courage to sneak into Portorosso, risking exposure and even death at the hands of locals who are more sea-fearing than seafaring.

Various farcical complications ensue, some of them cutely contrived but all of them deftly worked out, and enacted by a winning array of supporting players. These include a gruff but hospitable fisherman, Massimo (Marco Barricelli), and his plucky young daughter, Giulia (Emma Berman), who persuades Luca and Alberto to join her team in the local triathlon. That contest, whose events include swimming, biking and (of course) pasta eating, provides “Luca” with a conventionally sturdy narrative structure and an eminently hissable villain named Ercole (Saverio Raimondo).

Ercole’s last name is Visconti, one of countless movie allusions the filmmakers have tucked into the margins of the frame, most of which — the town’s sly nod to Hayao Miyazaki’s “Porco Rosso” aside — will prove catnip for lovers of Italian cinema in particular. There’s a boat named Gelsomina , a likeness of Marcello Mastroianni and a whole subplot devoted to fetishizing the Vespa, burnishing a vehicular-cinematic legacy that already includes “Roman Holiday” and “La Dolce Vita.” And those are just the explicit, deliberate references. When the trailer for “Luca” dropped months ago, more than a few wondered if Pixar had made a stealth PG-rated riff on “Call Me by Your Name,” Luca (!) Guadagnino’s drama about the pleasures of first love and the lush Italian countryside.

Luca and Alberto visit a town on the Italian Riviera in the movie "Luca."

They have and they haven’t. Like most kid-centric studio animation, “Luca” has little time for romance and no room for sexuality. Luca and Alberto’s bond, though full of intense feeling and subject to darker undercurrents of jealousy and betrayal, is as platonic (if not quite as memorably cheeky) as the odd-couple pairings of Buzz and Woody, Marlin and Dory. And yet the specific implications of Luca and Alberto’s journey, which forces them to hide their true identities from a world that fears and condemns any kind of otherness, are as clear as water — too clear, really, even to be classified as subtext. “Luca” is about the thrill and the difficulty of living transparently — and the consolations that friendship, kindness and decency can provide against the forces of ignorance and violence.

Liberating oneself from those forces is a matter of individual and collective responsibility, and “Luca” is nuanced enough to understand that everyone shoulders that responsibility differently. Luca’s mom and dad, voiced by Rudolph and Gaffigan as lovably bumbling helicopter parents, must let go and loosen up, but their instinctive caution is hardly misplaced. Alberto’s stubborn devil-may-care attitude offers an admirable corrective, but that fearlessness is shown to mask a deeper sort of denial, an insularity that refuses to consider the full scope of the world’s possibilities. What makes Luca this story’s namesake hero is that he’s able to absorb the best of what his friends and family pour into him; though small and lean (and sometimes blue and green), he stands at the point where their best instincts and deepest desires converge.

By the same token, “Luca” the movie may look slight or modest compared with its more extravagant Pixar forebears; certainly it lacks the grand metaphysical ambitions of the Oscar-winning “Soul” (whose director, Pete Docter, is an executive producer here). But that may explain why it ultimately feels like the defter, more surefooted film, and one whose subtle depths and lingering emotions belie the diminished platform to which it’s essentially been relegated. “Luca” is big in all the ways that count; it’s the screens that got small.

Rated: PG, for rude humor, language, some thematic elements and brief violence Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes Playing: Starts June 18, El Capitan, Hollywood; also on Disney+

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Luca review: Pixar film is a sweet Italian passport

Luca (streaming on Disney+ today) is small-fry Pixar, a sunny Mediterranean trifle set in a postcard Italian village by the sea. But it's a winning one, too: the tenderhearted tale of a blue-gilled fish-boy who dreams of dry land, and all the things that human boys there get to do. (Ride Vespas, eat gelato, go to school.)

All his young life, Luca (voiced by Good Boys ' Jacob Tremblay ) has been taught by his wary parents (Maya Rudolph and Jim Gaffigan) to fear the tail-less, two-legged beasts who live above the surface. But curiosity keeps pulling him toward the shore — and a bold fellow fish-boy named Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer) gladly drags him the rest of the way. Alberto is a classic Huck Finn type, a freckled swashbuckler and cheerful fount of misinformation. (What are those twinkling lights in the sky? Anchovies! How does gravity work? Walk off that cliff and find out!)

Both boys are entranced by motorbike ads torn from magazines, and soon their attempts to build their own lead them into the nearest town, where the preening local bully (Giacomo Gianniotti) scoffs at their desire to win the annual Portorosso Cup — an extremely Italian triathlon involving a swim race, a pasta-eating contest, and a bicycle route. But the pair find at least a temporary home when a scrappy little girl named Giulia (Emma Berman), who lives nearby with her kindly fisherman father, takes them both in as de facto foster brothers and fellow teammates in the race.

While the boys happily plunge into their new lives above the waterline, they also have to caution against getting wet: Every passing rainstorm or backsplash from a boat means exposing their true fishy nature to the townspeople — including Giulia's boulder-sized dad — who have learned to fear and loathe the sea monsters they've always suspected are lurking offshore, even if they've never found conclusive proof.

Luca's parents, too, won't let their son go lightly; they'll take human form to find him if they have to, and their plan is to send him down to the safety of his uncle (a great, way-too-brief Sacha Baron Cohen cameo) in the deepest trenches of the ocean, where's there's nothing to do but passively inhale whale carcass all day. If they can catch up to him before the race, there will be no Vespa, no land friends, no more learning about astronomy and cats and pesto.

That's truly about all there is to the plot, but Italian-born director Enrico Casarosa, a longtime staffer at Pixar, infuses every frame with a pure kind of love for his home country (he's pretty much the best tourism-board proxy since Luca Guadagnino exported Call Me By Your Name ). The story's bright swirl of Pixar pixie dust, jangle soundtrack, and gentle lessons on accepting otherness and learning to move past fear feel like a temporary passport: a sweetly soulful all-ages dip in la dolce vita. Grade: B+

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Luca Reviews

Although this is a Pixar film it is not a Pixar film.

Full Review | Aug 22, 2023

It was a small, sweet and enjoyable effort from Pixar, which has not only taught us that it's okay to be different from the rest but the importance of it.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 6, 2023

Different than anything PIXAR has done before story wise. Small in scale as A coming of age story that brings the messages of discovery & acceptance!

Full Review | Jul 26, 2023

From the detailed animation that makes the Italian coast look realistically astonishing to Dan Romer's rich score that hits all the right notes, without forgetting the outstanding voice work, every Pixar's trademark technical attribute is present.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jul 25, 2023

Pixar made another movie about friendship. But it’s also so much more than that: It’s about how to love life, how to ignore what other people might think of you, and how to accept each other regardless of what or who we really are.

Full Review | Jul 21, 2023

Even with Luca’s dynamic premise and grand visual splendor, it is not special. Perhaps Pixar’s magic is dimming slowly.

Full Review | Jul 20, 2023

It's beautiful seeing two kids just be authentically themselves and have fun with each other...

Full Review | Jul 19, 2023

Luca will be utterly endearing for kids but may be a bit hit and miss for everyone else.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Jan 16, 2023

Luca is a charming film with a more relaxed Pixar style that’s made for the dreamers in all of us.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 9, 2022

Luca is Pixar at its most emotionally powerful, returning to the resonant storytelling that made the studio such a success to begin with and displaying some of its most arresting animation to date.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Sep 1, 2022

Luca conveys the feeling of that who goes to school for the first time and those who see that human-in-the-making going to school for the first time. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Jul 26, 2022

"Luca" is pure joy. It's lighter than most Pixar movies, but it's bursting with energy and life. "Luca" will have you smiling from ear to ear.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | May 20, 2022

LUCA may not have the wow factor of other Pixar films, but in its smaller, lighthearted story it is still so pure and loving that the emotions are really big again in the end.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Apr 8, 2022

A light, enjoyable movie that would look much better coming from any other studio. However, with the weight of history that comes with the Pixar name, many will be expecting more.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 2, 2022

It is a film that is both incredibly charming yet venomous in its emotions that can sneak up on the audience with their power and presence.

Full Review | Feb 22, 2022

Luca is an absolutely charming animated feature that takes audiences to an unforgettably touching trip to Italy.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Feb 16, 2022

Read on surfaces alone, Luca presents a familiar coming-of-age fable about friendship, albeit impeccably animated and confidently told.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 12, 2022

Luca very much wants to be among the big boys, but it cannot find a unique way to go about it.

Luca is a sweet and lighthearted delight that will bring you back to the days of summer vacation and childhood friendship.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 12, 2022

This sweet animation - firmly aimed towards the younger end of the market - is warm and nostalgic as its Fifties Italian setting implies.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 15, 2022

Entertainment /

Pixar’s Luca is the perfect summer movie

Sun, swimming, and sea monsters.

By Andrew Webster , an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories.

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The best way to watch Luca , the latest feature from Pixar, is when you’re that very particular kind of tired that comes from a long day at the beach. I recommend pulling out a projector so you can watch it outside, preferably as the sun starts to set, and ideally with some gelato to accompany you. What I’m saying is: this is just about the perfect summer movie.

Okay, sorry, so what is Luca actually? At its most basic, it’s a coming-of-age story about sea creatures, directed by Enrico Casarosa (who previously directed Pixar’s 2011 short La Luna ). Luca (Jacob Tremblay) is a young monster who lives a sheltered life on a family farm under the sea, largely oblivious to the human world above him. Most of what he knows comes from his parents, who tell him that the “land monsters” are “here to do murders.” Still, despite — or perhaps because of — this sense of danger, he’s fascinated by the human world.

He collects random objects, like playing cards and alarm clocks, and dreams about what the world outside of the ocean is like. (He’d make fast friends with Ariel.) Then one day, he meets another young monster named Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer) who happens to live on the land. Luca’s budding obsession with the human world reaches its zenith when he spots a poster on Alberto’s wall that reads simply: “Vespa is freedom.” The two decide right then and there that they have to have a Vespa.

The big twist in Luca is that the sea monsters change into a human form when they’re out of the water. So Luca and Alberto are able to pretend to be human when they visit a nearby Italian seaside village in search of the scooter of their dreams. Eventually, they come up with a plan: with the help of a new human friend named Giulia they enter into a triathlon so that they can use the prize money to buy a Vespa. (In case you forgot the film takes place in Italy, one of the triathlon events is dedicated to eating pasta.)

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Alberto (voiced by Jack Dylan Grazer) and Luca (Jacob Tremblay) in Luca.

Luca review – gentle Pixar tale packed to the gills with charm

An unlikely friendship between two shape-shifting boys explores the joys and tribulations of not fitting in

T he latest from Pixar , and the feature directing debut of Enrico Casarosa, Luca is a gentle pleasure about friendship and not quite fitting in. Luca, voiced by Room ’s Jacob Tremblay, is a sea monster who longs to explore the world beyond the reef. He knows that once on land he will assume human form, but good kids like Luca don’t break the rules.

Then he meets Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer), an adolescent sea monster-turned-boy who has made a life on land. There’s kinship here with Finding Nemo and with Studio Ghibli’s Ponyo , both in the marine setting and in the fact that it plays to the younger end of the audience spectrum. But while Luca might lack some of the dizzying inventiveness that marks out top-tier Pixar, it’s packed to the gills with charm.

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Animation in film
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Pixar’s new movie Luca is understated brilliance

It’s a sweet coming-of-age story, with sea monsters

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Pixar’s newest movie is a fantasy about sea monsters coming onto land, but it’s rooted in authentic childhood memories. Director Enrico Casarosa (who previously made the Pixar short La Luna ) based Luca on his own childhood summers, and the result is a movie that brings in fantastical elements, but also evokes specific emotions tied to coming-of-age stories.

Luca doesn’t explore big, existential emotions like the Pixar films that made the company an industry leader, but it captures the fleeting halcyon days of summer in a sweet, understated way. Casarosa subverts the typical Pixar formula, not just in the movie’s visual stylings , but also in the way he weaves in the emotions, using smaller story moments.

[ Ed. note: This review contains slight spoilers for Luca .]

Luca follows two young sea monsters. The titular Luca (Jacob Tremblay) is curious, yet timid. His burgeoning interest in the human world has been squashed by overprotective parents. Fearless Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer), meanwhile, lives on land and encourages Luca to be more daring. The two run away to a human town, dreaming of buying a Vespa and seeing the world. With a chance to win enough money to buy their prized moped, the two join up with Giulia (Emma Berman), the fishmonger’s daughter, to compete in the annual Portorosso cup, a triathlon where instead of a running leg, competitors eat pasta.

In Luca , the magic is in the tiny details that flesh out the human world. The undersea setting is gorgeous, certainly, but the seaside town of Portorosso is what really shines. Through Luca and Alberto’s eyes, it makes sense that the human setting should be so lovingly augmented. All the little details — the laundry hanging between the streets, the uneven cobblestones, the posters on the walls — create a gorgeous rendition of the real world. It isn’t photorealistic, but it makes the town a little warmer, a little brighter, and a little more golden, almost like a rosy-tinged memory. The stylization bolsters this blissful summer shared by three friends.

Each of the characters has a very distinct design that’s more cartoonish than usual Pixar fare. With exaggerated expressions and movements, all of the characters (not just the kids) have a very deliberate physicality. There is a thought to them that extends to the voice acting, with the clear difference between the more hesitant Tremblay as Luca, who slowly gains confidence, and brash Grazer as Alberto, who gets in touch with his more vulnerable side. Particularly memorable, however, is Giulia’s father, a large stoic man with an impressive mustache (and a cat with similar facial markings), who isn’t particularly forthcoming, but eventually opens his heart up to these two misfit kids.

Luca ’s central plot is pretty straightforward, with the three kids competing in a race, while Luca and Alberto hide their identities. But that just allows the relationships between the characters to take center stage. What starts out as a simple friendship between Luca and Alberto grows into something more complicated when Giulia enters the picture. It isn’t a romantic quandary at all . Instead, Luca plays with the idea that anyone can have different emotionally satisfying relationships with different people, while acknowledging how hard that can be to accept.

Pixar is known for emotional movies, and at first glance, Luca seems like an outlier. It doesn’t operate like Soul or Inside Out , which each build up to a big emotional catharsis. Instead, that overwhelming Pixar emotion is of a different caliber, one that sinks in after the credits roll. The movie’s emotional arc isn’t defined by one or two big moments. Instead, the best bits are actually interspersed between the more archetypical climatic moments. From Luca and Alberto trying gelato for the first time to Luca and Giulia bonding over a telescope, the comparatively ordinary interactions weave together to create an evocative coming-of-age tale.

Luca ’s story is simple, but it works so beautifully. Much as Casarosa pushed the bounds of Pixar’s in-house style, he also played with the storytelling format that the studio has done time after time, to varying degrees of effectiveness. Luca isn’t trying to make people cry, the way some Pixar movies now feel obligated to do, but it still rings as a bittersweet experience. Instead of a tearjerker, it’s a fond memory, a soft sigh after a recollection of a time gone by.

Luca is available on June 18 on Disney Plus for all users.

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Pixar’s Luca Is a Literal Fish-Out-of-Water Fantasy Intent on Saying Something

Portorosso, the fictional setting of the new Pixar movie, Luca, is a bright daydream of Italy. Cobblestoned streets wind their way up hills; residents pepper their speech with ejaculations like “ Santa Mozzarella! ”; and each year the kids compete in a triathlon of swimming, cycling, and pasta eating. The pastoral charm doesn’t stop at the shoreline. Underwater, sea monsters live in a community that’s just as quaint, herding sheeplike fish and cultivating rows of kelp. They keep out of sight of the “land monsters,” who have an alarming habit of hoisting harpoons and decorating their plaza with images of fishermen defeating oceanic menaces. But how could anything dark happen in an animated world so mild?

When Luca (Jacob Tremblay), the movie’s young sea-monster protagonist, first gets yanked out onto the sand by his friend Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer), the moment thrums only with a sense of undefinable possibility. Alberto looks on, unimpressed, while Luca sputters and gasps and transforms into a human boy as the water dries off his body. “First time?” Alberto asks. “Of course it is!” Luca retorts. “I’m a good kid!”

When Luca — which was directed by Enrico Casarosa (of the short La Luna ) and written by Jesse Andrews and Mike Jones — was announced, the internet was quick to call out parallels between this film and Call Me by Your Name. Although no one would expect to get anything like the peach scene in a PG-rated Pixar movie, Luca does seem to deliberately invite comparison with director Luca Guadagnino’s romance, right down to a protagonist who shares his first name. Like Call Me by Your Name, Luca is the story of two boys taking a journey into the intoxicatingly forbidden during a summer in Northern Italy. It also involves a lot of frolicking around in shorts, riding scooters, and expressing jealousy when one of the pair starts spending more time with Giulia (Emma Berman), the spunky local girl Alberto and Luca join up with for the big race. That those boys happen to be sea monsters who revert to their scaly form whenever they touch liquid doesn’t discount the undercurrents.

Luca is not, ultimately, a love story. But it is a story that’s explicitly about otherness and self-discovery. The symbolism lends itself to interpretations of queerness, or as an allegory of assimilation. Alberto and Luca run away to live in Portorosso after Luca’s loving but overprotective parents (Maya Rudolph and Jim Gaffigan) attempt to send him to live with his deep-sea-dwelling Uncle Ugo (Sacha Baron Cohen). The kids have to pass in a community they expect would react with hostility if they were ever perceived as they wholly are. Alberto harbors a fantasy of perpetual escape in which he and Luca will use the prize money from the race to buy a Vespa and go on a never-ending road trip, while Luca, to Alberto’s dismay, starts to wonder if there’s a place where he can learn from and live among the humans — even though there are some, like town bully Ercole Visconti (Saverio Raimondo), who wear their intolerance proudly. “What happens when she sees you? When anyone sees you?” Alberto demands when Luca starts talking about following Giulia to school.

Luca is so intent on meaning something that it only ever halfway inhabits the delightfully colorful world it lays out. We never get a deeper understanding of the history between the sea monsters and the humans beyond some hints that there has been far more interaction than Luca was raised to believe. We never find out why Luca’s mother thinks the world is so dangerous; the narrative just needs her to be paranoid, and so she is. Alberto’s wayward dad remains an offscreen squiggle, a means of bolstering the surrogate-parent relationship Alberto begins to develop with Giulia’s father, a stern but kind fisherman whose bushy eyebrows are identical to his bushy mustache. Luca falls in love with astronomy after Giulia shows him the heavens through a telescope, but his burgeoning desire to study exists in contrast to nothing in particular, because there’s no sense of what future would have been available to him had he stayed underwater.

One of the side effects of children’s films becoming more progressive, aware, and careful is that they can lose some of the dimensionality they had before, when they were awash with subtext that didn’t always feel coherent or intended. Luca collects artifacts from the world above — much like a certain Disney mermaid with whom he shares a corporate umbrella — while never encountering anyone as defiantly memorable as Ursula, a villain based on the drag queen Divine. The film would rather evoke Guadagnino and Hayao Miyazaki, especially the latter’s Porco Rosso ; the 1992 movie is an obvious touch point. But Luca doesn’t have the lived-in texture of a Studio Ghibli production, either, that palpable sense of a universe extending beyond each animated frame. What it does have are some groovy Italian pop songs and a setting as pleasant as a summer afternoon. The light glimmers off the surface of the ocean without any worry of going too deep.

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Screen Rant

Luca review: pixar's animation brings a lot of heart & adventure to its story.

With Luca, Pixar recaptures a lot of the magic and heart that its animations are known for while providing a lovely, heartwarming character journey.

Pixar's Luca joins Soul in heading straight to streaming on Disney+. Unlike Cruella , Mulan , and Raya and the Last Dragon , which all got the Premier Access option, the latest Pixar animation will be available to stream without an additional fee. Luca, directed by Enrico Casarosa from a screenplay by Jesse Andrews and Mike Jones, is heartwarming, beautifully told, and would have been well worth seeing on the big screen. With Luca , Pixar recaptures a lot of the magic and heart that its animations are known for while providing a lovely, heartwarming character journey.

Luca Paguro (Jacob Tremblay) is a sea creature who can transform into a human when on land. In the sea, he spends his days tending to a school of fish like a shepherd while often growing bored from the daily monotony. Luca’s overprotective mother, Daniela (Maya Rudolph), is adamant about her son staying in the ocean; she knows that humans fear them and their first instinct is to kill what they perceive as dangerous sea monsters. However, when Luca meets Alberto Scorfano (Jack Dylan Grazer), he’s introduced to a whole new world. Wanting to avoid being sent away to the deeper end of the ocean, Luca and Alberto head to the local town of Portorosso where they meet Giulia (Emma Berman) and join her in the competition in a bid to win a vespa and leave the sea behind for good.

Related: Pixar's Luca Interview: Daniela Strijleva

The film, similar to Finding Nemo , explores the parent-child relationship between Luca and his mother, whose claims of wanting to protect her son don’t hide the fact that it’s her own fear that prevents her from letting Luca go. The film does a great job of showing how parental fear, along with the anxiety of being out in the world, can affect children growing up. The audience sees as much with Luca’s hesitancy about coming to the surface and, later, when he holds back from riding a bike down a trail with Alberto. It’s through Luca’s own growth and realizations that he is able to find a balance between his gripping fear and simply being cautious, which makes for a multilayered and emotionally moving story that is rooted in friendship.

Luca and his mother’s fears are juxtaposed to the fear the townspeople feel about the sea monsters; they’re quick to grab their spears and get all riled up for no reason. Fear can warp perception, keeping people guarded, and it is something Luca works to unravel at every turn, especially as it sees the world through the eyes of its titular character who doesn’t fully understand what all the fuss is about. Luca also captures the immense joy of being out in the world and getting to explore new things. Luca, Alberto, and Giulia make a great trio and their adventures are full of optimism and wide-eyed excitement that will resonate with younger and adult members of the audience.

The film is set on the Italian Riviera and its characters get to speak a few words and phrases in Italian, which is also a lovely reminder of the culture and language the film is showcasing in Portorosso rather than have it be a nameless, blank town. Luca dreams of not only being on land, but of learning new things and gaining knowledge born of curiosity. That the animation explores his desire for expanding his mind is lovely and pivotal to his character development. Luca’s overprotective, yet very loving parents, are also a stark contrast to Alberto’s lack of parental guidance. The main characters’ personalities and behaviors differ because of this, and Luca handles both narratives with warmth and an abundance of heart.

While there are certain aspects of the film’s story that could have been expanded upon and a somewhat frustrating antagonist in Ercole Visconti (Saverio Raimondo), who is much older than the core trio to be as petty as he is about a competition, Luca is a wonderful coming of age story with a nice message that balances deep emotions and a lot of adventurous fun.

Next: Pixar's Luca Interview: Enrico Casarosa And Andrea Warren

Luca is available to stream on Disney+ on Friday, June 18. The film is 95 minutes long and is rated PG for rude humor, language, some thematic elements and brief violence.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comments!

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Luca Review

There is a superb character in Luca : a deranged, bulbous, cheerful creature from the darkest depths of the ocean, with a mania for rotting fish-flesh and a peculiar speech pattern. “If you leave the mouth open, the whale carcass go in,” this see-through abomination, Uncle Ugo ( Sacha Baron Cohen ), enthuses of his favourite pastime. “It’s good. I recommend it.” Ugo is hilarious, and eccentric, and unexpected. Unfortunately, he’s only on screen for a fleeting few minutes, and in his absence those three qualities are somewhat lacking. Pixar ’s latest is amiable and as bright as a scoop of gelato, easy to like in the moment. But like gelato it also feels a little disposable, short of the spectacle, emotional power and big laughs we’ve come to expect from the studio.

Where The Little Mermaid saw the tuna-y teen give up her tail in order to be with her human love, Luca has a somewhat different twist on the formula. In it, the titular red-eyed, slithery sea monster (voiced by Jacob Tremblay — also, incidentally, in the upcoming reboot of The Little Mermaid ) heads to the surface, upon discovering that he takes on the appearance of a human upon becoming dry, in order to pursue his passion for Vespas. Yes, Vespas, the Italian motorised scooter immortalised by the poster for Roman Holiday and, to a lesser extent, Larry Crowne .

What stops the film short of greatness is a pervading generic quality.

Luca and his new pal Alberto ( Jack Dylan Grazer ) are obsessed by the things, chattering about them, drawing them and even making their own DIY version. And it is refreshing, at least at first, to have the plot pootle along like, well, an Italian motorised scooter, driven by two kids’ sun-baked daydreams. There’s no big villain and no grand quest, despite the movie establishing a race of guppy-ish, fish-herding aquatic beings and a nightmarish-sounding oceanic abyss (never seen on screen). Instead, it’s all about pasta-eating (linguine-animation techniques have come on in leaps and bounds) and beach-based bonding, as the two pretend-humans make friends with a local girl (Emma Berman).

There is quite a bit to like. Brought to life in pastel colours, the town of Portorosso (a nod to Studio Ghibli classic Porco Rosso ) is charming and cosy, like a memory of a holiday you went on when you were eight. There are some pleasing character designs, like the hulking, one-armed fisherman with a belt stuffed full of stabbing implements, or his cat, Machiavelli, both of whom rock impressive moustaches. The odd fantasy sequence, meanwhile, draws winningly on Italian pop-culture and history: a bit with Da Vinci’s flying machine is like Hudson Hawk , but good.

What stops the film short of greatness is a pervading generic quality, particularly disappointing given the filmmakers have cited Fellini and Visconti as influences. Several characters yak in American accents, despite their Italian names. The fish monsters (Ugo aside) lack detail and personality. And while kids might spend the end credits trying to persuade their parents to buy them Vespas, there’s just not that much for grown-ups to latch onto. The big race sequence, when it arrives, has zips and twists in store, but the movie as a whole is oddly sleepy, rolling along pleasantly rather than blazing a trail.

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‘Luca’: Pixar’s Modest, Mondo Italiano ‘Little Mermaid’ is Minor — and Still Breaks Your Heart

By David Fear

“Minor Pixar ” — a bit of a loaded phrase, right? The company that’s been responsible for giving animated movies several shoves up the evolutionary scale, and setting the bar for formal heights and emotional depth in ‘toon storytelling over the last quarter century, has created its share of masterpieces. (Pixar has also put out the Cars movies, a reminder that nobody is perfect and the concept of a just, merciful God is a myth.) In the spirit of something like a public service announcement, we’ll state upfront that Luca, the company’s latest endeavor, is not one of them. A Mondo Italiano Little Mermaid that embraces its 20th century Mediterranean archetypes with a that’s-ah-spicy-meat-ah-ball fervor, it does not have the oversized imagination of an Inside Out, the end-of-innocence heft of the Toy Story films, or the pathos and wit of a Finding Nemo. It’s a much more modest affair, a tale of friendship that’s a very personal project for filmmaker Enrico Casarosa, yet one that’s capable of resembling a summer afternoon lounging by the shoreline. That two-word appraisal up top? You will likely hear that a lot in regards to this updated fairy tale.

To dismiss this joyful celebration of youth, and yearning for knowledge beyond your reach, and the giddy thrill of riding a Vespa down cobblestone backstreets after gorging on homemade tagliatelle, simply because it’s a second-tier outing for the animation juggernaut would be a mistake. There’s a wistfulness embedded in the abundance of whimsy here — the same ache for something out of the past that you find at the center of all great Pixar movies — that thrums right beneath the bright, postcard-ready backgrounds and competing plotlines. And you don’t need to have grown up like Luca ( Room ‘s Jacob Tremblay), living under the eyes of his overly protective parents (voiced by Maya Rudolph and Jim Gaffigan , because of course they are!), to connect with that feeling of longing when it surfaces. You don’t need to have had a summer that changed your life, or met an older kid who mentored you, or suffered torment from a bully with the ripe moniker Ercole Visconti. You don’t even need to be a sea monster to relate.

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Yes, Luca is a sea monster, part of a community of scaly fish-folk who live underwater right off the coast of an Italian fishing town. The land-dwellers have occasionally seen glimpses of these creatures swimming past their boats, and several carry harpoons with them should they encounter one face to face. Still, like his America cousin Ariel, Luca wants to be part of their world. He happens to notice one of his fellow young mermen swimming toward land one day … and then, suddenly, jumping out of the ocean and miraculously morphing into a human teen once he’s on dry land. Call him by his name: Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer). Luca realizes that he too can pull a Pinocchio and turn into a real boy once he crosses the threshold. Even better, this big-brother surrogate is going to show the lad the ropes on how to be a Homo sapien, as well as the joy of riding homemade scooters down rickety hills and jumping off of cliffs. Soon, the duo head off to nearby Portorosso, in the hopes of winning a race that will allow them to realize Alberto’s dream: owning a real Vespa.

If you’re an animation fanatic, the name of this Cinque Terra-type town may bring to mind Hayao Mizayaki’s 1992 movie Porco Rosso, and even if you haven’t felt like you’ve been huffing Ponyo ‘s fumes in some of the you-know-what-outta-water sequences, the shadow of Studio Ghibli hovers over Luca. (The boys’ wide-eyed, moon-faced sea monster versions could be dropped into any number of anime features and fit right in.) The mixture of the fantastic and the sublime that’s constitutes the Ghibli house tone is very much what Casarosa & co. aiming for, though the many, many bits of business onscreen suggests a homecooked meal of Disney/Pixar leftovers. There’s that race, and the bully, and a young woman named Giulia (Emma Berman) who inspires a love of learning in Luca, which will eventually cause his path and Alberto’s path to diverge. Luca’s parents take on a human form and search for their son. Sacha Baron Cohen has a cameo. Giulia’s dad is a one-armed fisherman who’s face is 90 percent bushy eyebrows and Tom-Selleck-on-steroids mustache; he’s the village’s No. 1 sea monster hunter, but being born without a limb makes him sympathetic to being different. Any exposure to water — via fountains, rain storms, morning dew — threatens to out the kids.

With so many of these elements colliding into each other, and so many pleas for tolerance and touristy shout-outs to the region jockeying for space, it’s easy for the movie to occasionally get tangled its in own macro- and micro-narrative nets. Yet when Luca gets back to that central relationship between these two boys-to-mermen, all of that peripheral stuff drops away. Allowed to concentrate on the moments shared between these two youngsters, and how their bond is destined to be fleeting, the film becomes singularly focused on the heart of this story and, as a result, quietly breaks yours. Its ephemeral charm and its growing-pain sorrow are finally allowed to shine through.

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Luca First Reviews: Decidedly Small-Scale Pixar, but a Triumph Nonetheless

Critics say pixar's latest plays it safer than usual, but it still boasts the spectacular visuals, moving story, and important themes we've come to expect..

TAGGED AS: Disney , Disney Plus , Film , films , movies , Pixar

Pixar is such a quality brand that even its “lesser” products prove to be essential for fans of their animated output. The studio’s latest feature, Luca , is arguably on that lower tier, according to critics — not among Pixar’s best but still better than most alternatives — hence the high Tomatometer score we’ve come to expect, even if there isn’t quite as much of the excitement we usually find in the reviews themselves. Some critics think that it’s too basic, while others believe its lack of complexity is a good thing. And some critics trust that there’s more to the movie than what’s on the surface and it requires repeat viewings to properly appreciate it. Fortunately for anyone hoping to find out, Luca can be watched over and over on Disney+ starting this Friday, June 18.

Here’s what critics are saying about Pixar’s Luca :

How does it compare to other Pixar movies?

Luca leans far lighter in tone and effect, but it’s no less memorable. – Rob Hunter, Film School Rejects

Luca is easily Pixar’s most intimate and laidback effort since Ratatouille. – Keith Watson, Slant Magazine

The last fifteen minutes of Luca might go down as one of the best endings Pixar has ever produced. – Ryan McQuade, Awards Watch

This might be Pixar’s most childlike and cartoony offering. – Brian Roan, The Film Stage

More of The Good Dinosaur or Onward level for me, Luca doesn’t quite reach the potential that I have grown to expect from Pixar. – Christie Cronan, Raising Whasians

While some material may hit with younger audiences, Luca makes for Pixar’s least enchanting, least special film yet. – Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com

(Photo by Pixar)

Is it just a simpler Pixar movie than we’re used to?

Luca is nowhere near as complex or deep as other Pixar fare and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. – Doug Jamieson, The Jam Report

All the more satisfying for its simplicity… the rare Pixar movie that doesn’t feel like it’s been thought to death. – David Ehrlich, IndieWire

It is rigorously unphilosophical in a way that proves to be its greatest strength. – Clarisse Loughrey, Independent

By going back to basics, we get a real connection with these characters. – Ryan McQuade, Awards Watch

Luca has the look and feel of a more disposable flick, but that’s just on the surface. Beneath, it has the beating heart of a classic family tale in the making. – Joey Magidson, Awards Radar

Luca never quite rises beyond being adorable — and hey, these days, adorable is fine —there’s something that just isn’t there. – Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times

How are the visuals?

The real magic of Luca is its visuals… The richness of the settings in both realms is a constant source of pleasure. – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

Looking like a hand-drawn fairy tale book come to animated life, Luca has a captivating visual style with every detail popping. – Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times

The gorgeous animation of Luca … is unlike other Pixar movies you’ve seen. – Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

It’s been a while since they’ve done anything visually distinct and felt vastly different from the rest of their fare. Thankfully, Luca is that breath of fresh air. – Rendy Jones, Rendy Reviews

Pixar’s Luca is proof once again that cartoon movies keep getting better and better with the technology. – Christie Cronan, Raising Whasians

(Photo by )

Does it bring on the usual waterworks?

For much of this film, you’ll be thinking Luca will be one of the rare Pixar movies not to make you cry. But… [it] may just leave you in a puddle of tears. – Doug Jamieson, The Jam Report

Yeah, it’s cliched to say “I got misty-eyed in a Pixar movie,” but damn by the way they invest you with the friendship, it’s difficult not to find yourself feeling all warm and fuzzy. – Rendy Jones, Rendy Reviews

Happy tears at how lovely it all is, fortunately, we’re not talking Toy Story 3 or Inside Out trauma here. – Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

I watched twice and no Inside Out or Up equivalent eye watering… Luca misses the Pixar emotional pull for me. – Christie Cronan, Raising Whasians

Are the characters memorable ?

Giulia’s lovable father Massimo, who instantly goes into the all-time list for best animated dads. – Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

A translucent anglerfish who Sacha Baron Cohen turns into one of Pixar’s funniest characters in less than two minutes of screen time. – David Ehrlich, IndieWire

As always, the Pixar magicians create a wonderfully populated world: I particularly enjoyed the cat character, who stares fixedly as only cats can. – Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times

How is the screenplay?

With all of its wit and perfectly interwoven story threads and running gags, [the script] bears all the hallmarks of the best of Pixar’s story trust. – Brian Roan, The Film Stage

The script… like all the best Pixar movies, laces touching life lessons and delicate helpings of sentiment into what’s essentially a caper. – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

Why do another narrative about a girl stuck in the middle of two best friends?… The primary story flows through the motions. – Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com

Unfortunately, there’s also an episodic, shaggy-dog quality to the plotting that undercuts Luca’ s emotional beats. – Keith Watson, Slant Magazine

Are its themes up for interpretation ?

This really is a metaphorical film. The sea monsters could be any of us who feel different. Maybe they’re a metaphor for the LGBTQ community. – Danielle Solzman, Solzy at the Movies

It’s the kind of metaphor that could be applied to a hundred different situations, but there’s an inherently queer subtext bubbling beneath the surface. – Doug Jamieson, The Jam Report

Very relatable for anyone who is within the LGBTQ+ community… [and also] works for a universal audience who may not identify as LGBTQ+ but can relate to someone who is. – Ryan McQuade, Awards Watch

[It] serves as a kind of all-purpose allegory, where audiences are free to narrow in on its queer subtext, its rebuke of xenophobia, or its triumph against any facet of small-mindedness. – Clarisse Loughrey, Independent

Its themes of coming-of-age resemble too much of Pixar’s existing catalog — and without a narrative that really makes these themes feel fresh. – Nicole Clark, IGN Movies

It never settles on exactly what it wants to say… It never makes a cohesive, powerful point. – Germain Lussier, io9.com

Who is Luca ultimately for?

While Disney and Pixar’s Luca is fun for the whole family, there are some very important messages for children laced throughout the film. – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

Luca is entertainment for all ages as its bright colors and fast-moving action will appeal to the kids while the humor and themes should speak to older viewers. – Rob Hunter, Film School Rejects

While there are a few moments that may be a little tense for younger kids… I recommend Pixar’s Luca for kids as young as 5-6 years old. – Christie Cronan, Raising Whasians

Will it remind us of any other films ?

Luca is the closest that Pixar has ever come to capturing the ineffable spirit of a Studio Ghibli film. – David Ehrlich, IndieWire

The smooth, rounded character designs are something more akin to the stop-motion work of Aardman Animations. – Doug Jamieson, The Jam Report

There are obvious shades of The Little Mermaid in this fairy tale-like story… but Luca plays like a deliberate inversion of that Disney classic. – Keith Watson, Slant Magazine

Luca is The Little Mermaid without the heart, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs without the laughs. – Roger Moore, Movie Nation

Is it rewatchable?

Expect to visit this destination more than once. – Rob Hunter, Film School Rejects

Since it’s so dense and layered, my guess is it’ll only improve, solidify and blossom with multiple viewings… I do want to watch it again. – Germain Lussier, io9.com

It’s also so fabulously summery that you shouldn’t be surprised if you return to it over and over for that sunny feeling. – Deirdre Molumby, entertainment.ie

Will Luca leave us hopeful for Pixar’s future ?

Luca should be the model going forward for Pixar, with character driving entertaining stories instead of big concepts that fail to execute and leave you feeling hollow by the end (looking at you Soul ). – Ryan McQuade, Awards Watch

[It] hopefully anticipates how the monolithic animation house will continue to create more intimate fare now that it can use Disney+ as a safety net. – David Ehrlich, IndieWire

Luca releases in theaters and streams on Disney+ on June 18, 2021.

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Jerry seinfeld says “the movie business is over” & “disorientation replaced” it, ‘challengers’ review: luca guadagnino’s zendaya-led dramedy about love and rivalry across the tennis court.

By Valerie Complex

Valerie Complex

Associate Editor/Film Writer

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Art and Patrick, best friends since their youth, find their bond tested not just by their competitive natures but also by their mutual affection for Tashi. At this juncture, she emerges as a formidable contender in the tennis arena, her prowess on the court both awe-inspiring and intimidating to Patrick and Art. Her singular dedication to the sport is conveyed with a mix of humor and stern dismissal as she rebuffs their awkward advances, making it abundantly clear that tennis is her only love. This initial interaction, played for laughs, foreshadows the complex dynamics that later unfold.

The narrative escalates when, under a guise of coercion, the duo persuades Tashi to join them in their hotel room, only for her to humorously misinterpret their intentions, asserting, “I’m not a homewrecker,” upon misconstruing their friendship as romance. Tashi, while maintaining a relationship with Patrick through college, faces a career-ending, pivotal moment that sees Art stepping in as her steadfast supporter. This incident deeply affects the trio, particularly altering the course of Patrick and Art’s friendship as they navigate the complications of love, loyalty and personal aspirations into their adult lives.

Zendaya’s Tashi is an intimidating presence, both on and off the court. She navigates her role with a compelling mix of strength and sophistication, and portraying Tashi as a catalyst in Art and Patrick’s lives giving her the role of attractor, antagonist and trickster. While she’s very good the character is nothing more than a plot device, where her existence mainly revolves around the two males. Because tennis is what she loves most, hearing more about her own personal wants and desires surrounding the sport would have served the character a bit more. I am not even sure if the character needed to exist in order for the story to still be intact. However, with what she is given, she molds the performance to be physically convincing and emotionally resonant, highlighting her character’s strategic mind and complex emotions to the lengths the script allows.

O’Connor and Faist bring a palpable chemistry that transcends simple rivalry, suggesting a deeper, almost symbiotic relationship shaped by years of friendship and competition. Their interactions encapsulate the film’s central premise that love and rivalry are not mutually exclusive but are instead two sides of the same coin.

Guadagnino pays homage to ’80s sports films through a stylistic execution that captures the era’s vibrant energy but occasionally feels misplaced in the context of the film’s more serious themes. The direction, while striking, is less confident than in his previous works, with an unsteady hand that sometimes falters in maintaining the tension. An aspect that does bode well in Challengers is the exploration of male vulnerability, a recurring theme in his filmography. He portrays his male characters with a poignant rawness, capturing their emotional and physical nakedness without sensationalism.

RELATED: ‘Challengers’ Clip: Zendaya Curves Advances From Josh O’Connor & Mike Faist In Latest Look At Luca Guadagnino’s Tennis Drama

Musically, Challengers hits a few flat notes. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ score, typically a highlight, feels oddly juxtaposed against the film’s visual and emotional landscape with its ’80s synth-pop elements. At times, it enhances the scenes’ emotional depth, but more often it distracts, undermining the subtlety of the performances and the intimacy of certain moments.

Challengers ambitiously attempts to weave complex threads through the metaphor of tennis, exploring themes of love, rivalry and personal growth. While it stumbles in its pacing and musical choices, the performances, particularly by Zendaya, and the chemistry between O’Connor and Faist keep the audience engaged. It’s a flawed but deeply human film that showcases Guadagnino’s persistent quest to probe the depths of emotional entanglements. It might not serve an ace with every shot, but it certainly keeps the viewer gripped until the game set match.

Title: Challengers Distributor: MGM Release date: April 26, 2024 Director: Luca Guadagnino Screenwriter: Justin Kuritzkes Cast: Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist Rating: R Running time: 2 hr 11 min

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‘Challengers’ Review: Luca Guadagnino and Zendaya Serve Up a Smart and Sexy Tennis Drama About Three Players in Search of the Perfect Match

David ehrlich.

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If, as Blanche Dubois once said, “The opposite of death is desire,” then Luca Guadagnino will live forever, and his latest film — a transcendently sweaty tennis love triangle so turned on by the heat of competition that its sex scenes feel like foreplay and its rallies feel like porn — is possibly the most unbridled portrait of resurrection since “The Passion of the Christ.”

That might sound like the set-up for a relatively straightforward — if refreshingly bi-curious — romantic comedy, but “ Challengers ” is a far cry from “ Wimbledon ,” and Guadagnino couldn’t give less of a shit about who comes out on top at the end. On the contrary, the “Call Me by Your Name” director was likely turned on by the sensual backspin of Justin Kuritzkes’ script, which subverts the typical stakes of each match in order to focus on the animating thrill of wanting something with every flooded sweat gland on your body.

Not that Tashi Duncan has ever bothered to look for it. The closest thing this movie’s love triangle has to a right angle, Tashi wasn’t always “just” the wife, coach, and branding partner of top-ranked superstar Art Donaldson ( “West Side Story” breakout Mike Faist , whose soft and classic Broadway charm befits his character’s old school name), she used to be a Coco Gauff-level phenom in her own right before a horrific knee injury forced her to retire.

In fact, Art and his chaotic neutral best friend/doubles partner Patrick Zweig — played by Josh O’Connor, who puts a slutty new spin on the humble wayward dirtbag schtick he first perfected in “La Chimera” — first encounter Tashi on the court, where their tongues both roll out of their heads at the sight of this perfect creature whose killer instinct seems that much deadlier in light of her innocence off the court.

This is back in the summer of 2006, the earliest point in the timeline of a movie that’s structured like a temporal pincer movement, Kuritzkes’ script constantly flipping between past and present like two players on the different sides of a tournament draw who are destined to meet in the finals. This is before Art and Patrick learn what it means to want something more than your opponent; before the duo once embarrassingly known as “Fire and Ice” are rebranded as “Tashi’s little white boys.”

Fresh off winning the junior doubles championships at the U.S. Open (a victory they celebrate by gobbling down a pair of hot dogs in a scene so hyper-charged with homoeroticism that it might seem like camp if not for the sincerity of Guadagnino’s staging), Patrick agrees to let Art win the singles match they’re scheduled to play against each other in the finals the next day. It’s what any rich dilettante with a weird serve would do for their scrappy, earnest, striver of a best friend who can’t afford to double fault.

Which isn’t to suggest that she’s just a prize to be won — the tallest and most stunning trophy in a sport that tends to award its champions silver chalices and shiny plates. No, Tashi is simply a person who knows what she wants, and what she wants is someone who’s capable of returning her serve. That’s why she begrudgingly appreciates the prissy racist girl she’s always playing in the finals, who matches her stroke for stroke (“It’s like we were in love,” Tashi coos after one of their showdowns, “or like we didn’t exist”), and why, after her injury, she’s drawn to Art when he agrees to let her be his coach. There are flames in her veins, and she would sooner die than be with someone who isn’t willing to kindle them. But which of the boys was “Fire,” and which of them was “Ice”? If only doubles partners always stuck to just one side of the court.

Going from the driest blockbuster of all time to a movie so moist with desire that a single one of its scenes could probably feed the people of Sietch Tabr for two years, Zendaya delivers a supernova-confirming performance that sees through the flinty scrim of the “Dune” star’s usual persona by thinning her armor until you can feel the hunger and frustration holding it all together. The intransigent Zoomer modernity of Zendaya’s screen image — a face that, because of “Euphoria,” will probably always seem to me as if it’s “seen an iPhone” — is the perfect foil for a role so rooted in pre-Code comedies like “Design for Living,” and she harnesses that disconnect in a way that allows Tashi to have this entire movie by the balls without ever foot-faulting into invulnerability.

Tashi is in almost every scene of this movie, and whenever she’s not onscreen the other characters are typically asking some version of “Where’s Tashi?” But the co-dependency that dynamic breeds tends to return “Challengers” to an idea that Tashi understands from a very young age: Tennis is a relationship, and she’s always needed someone who would make her work for every point. Someone who would make hitting a ball with a racket feel like a useful expression of her purpose in this world. Losing is one thing, but she refuses to waste her time on someone who doesn’t push themselves to win. Winning is nice, but it’s the wanting that keeps her alive.

If the sex scenes in “Challengers” would merit a PG-13 at best (in part because they’re all either interrupted or post-coital), the tennis scenes are the stuff of a rock-hard XXX. There isn’t an inch of nudity apart from some extras in the locker room showers, and yet Guadagnino shoots the climactic match with a stylistic vulgarity that suggests what sports might look like if Brazzers suddenly took over for ESPN. Slo-mo, Wong Kar-wai-esque step-printing, floor-angle shots from underneath the court, racket POV shots, ball POV shots … every point is defined by a different technique, each rally existing within its own self-contained universe in which sex doesn’t exist and tennis is the only form of human expression. The glaringly computer-generated tennis balls only serve to enhance the feeling that a racket is sometimes more than just a racket, while Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ pounding techno score is almost exclusively used to fill the silences between points, which is similar to how it’s used in the dialogue scenes throughout the film.

Amazon MGM Studios will release “Challengers” in theaters on Friday, April 26.

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‘Challengers’ Review: Zendaya and Company Smash the Sports-Movie Mold in Luca Guadagnino’s Tennis Scorcher

Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist compete for a fellow player’s heart in a steamy and stylish love triangle from the director of 'Call Me by Your Name.'

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Anyone who’s ever played tennis knows the game starts with love and escalates fast. In Luca Guadagnino ’s hip, sexy and ridiculously overheated “ Challengers ,” the rivals are former doubles partners Art Donaldson ( Mike Faist ) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor), best friends since the age of 12, who went their separate ways after both players fell for the same woman. Patrick got there first, but Art wound up marrying her — and their sense of competition has only intensified since.

Popular on Variety

“I’m no homewrecker,” Tashi teases Art and Patrick the night they meet her, 13 years earlier. Constructed like a tennis competition, Justin Kuritzkes’ screenplay ricochets back and forth through time, asking us to pivot our brains the way audiences do at the movie’s opening challenger match. (In pro tennis, challenger events are like the minor leagues, where second-tier talents prove themselves.) This one frames the film, as Tashi seems torn between her husband and his old partner.

Watching from the stands, their legs splayed indecently wide, the pair ogle Tashi as the wind whips her short skirt up in the air. None of this is accidental: not the way Jonathan Anderson (as in J.W. Anderson, switching from catwalks to costume design in his first feature credit) showcases Zendaya’s gazelle-like legs, not the way DP Sayombhu Mukdeeprom frames the boys’ crotches, and certainly not the moment Patrick squeezes his pal’s leg as Tashi shows them how, at its most beautiful, the game can be an ecstatic experience.

Later that night, at an Adidas-sponsored party for Tashi, the guys take turns trying to get her number. They’re motivated by hormones. She’s more strategic (the sheer control involved in Zendaya’s performance is astonishing, transforming this would-be trophy into the one who sets the rules). “You don’t know what tennis is,” Tashi challenges Patrick, going on to explain, “It’s a relationship.” Lines like this, which spell everything out in blinking neon lights, run throughout Kuritzkes’ script. But Guadagnino’s execution is all about subtext, calibrating things such that body language speaks volumes.

The same goes for what promises to be the year’s hottest scene, back in the boys’ hotel room, as Tashi sits on the bed between the two and coaxes — or coaches — them to make out. “Challengers” is not a gay film per se, but it leaves things ambiguous enough that one could read it like Lukas Dhont’s recent “Close,” about a friendship so tight, the boys’ peers tease them for it.

Over the course of 131 minutes, “Challengers” volleys between what amounts to a romantic rematch and intimate earlier vignettes. At all times, even off-screen, Tashi remains the fulcrum. In the present, Art — whose torso shows signs of multiple surgeries — has been on a cold streak, which betrays a loss of passion for the game. Passion’s no problem for Patrick, who’s more confident in both his swing and his sexuality.

The film calls for intensely physical performances from the two male actors, who both appear wobbly and exhausted by the end. Faist (a Broadway star whom “West Side Story” introduced to moviegoers) has a relatively traditional character arc, patiently waiting his turn and evolving as the timeline progresses. O’Connor (whose smoldering turn in gay indie “God’s Own Country” got him cast on “The Crown”) comes across as animalistic and immature by comparison, as his bad-boy character refuses to grow up or give up.

Another filmmaker might have subtracted himself in order to foreground the story, whereas Guadagnino goes big, leading with style (and a trendy score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross). In keeping with the athletic theme, he does all kinds of wild things with the camera, including a composition framed from the umpire’s perspective mid-court that zooms along the net to find Tashi in the crowd. Occasionally, she and other characters smack the fluorescent yellow balls directly at the screen, making us flinch in our seats. By the end, “Challengers” has assumed the ball’s POV — or maybe it’s the racket’s — as Guadagnino immerses audiences in the film’s climactic match.

Far from your typical sports movie, “Challengers” is less concerned with the final score than with the ever-shifting dynamic between the players. The pressure mounts and the perspiration pours, as the pair once known as “Fire and Ice” face off again. Whether audiences identify as Team Patrick or Team Art, Guadagnino pulls a risky yet inspired trick, effectively scoring the winning shot himself.

Reviewed at AMC Century City 15, Los Angeles, April 9, 2024. MPA Rating: R. Running time: 131 MIN.

Production: Amazon MGM presentation of a Why Are You Acting?, Frenesy Films, Pascal Pictures production. Producers: Amy Pascal, Luca Guadagnino, Zendaya, Rachel O’Connor. Executive producers: Bernard Bellew, Lorenzo Mieli, Kevin Ulrich.
Crew: Director: Luca Guadagnino. Camera: Sayonbhu Mukdeeprom. Editor: Marco Costa. Music: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross. Music supervisor: Robin Urdang.
With: Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist.

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Challengers

Tashi, a former tennis prodigy turned coach is married to a champion on a losing streak. Her strategy for her husband's redemption takes a surprising turn when he must face off against his f... Read all Tashi, a former tennis prodigy turned coach is married to a champion on a losing streak. Her strategy for her husband's redemption takes a surprising turn when he must face off against his former best friend and Tashi's former boyfriend. Tashi, a former tennis prodigy turned coach is married to a champion on a losing streak. Her strategy for her husband's redemption takes a surprising turn when he must face off against his former best friend and Tashi's former boyfriend.

Luca Guadagnino
Justin Kuritzkes
Josh O'Connor
13 User reviews
61 Critic reviews
88 Metascore
1 nomination

Tashi Donaldson

Art Donaldson

Patrick Zweig
Umpire (New Rochelle Final)

Art's Physiotherapist

Art's Security Guard
(as a different name)
Tashi's Mother
Line Judge (New Rochelle Final)
TV Sports Commentator (Atlanta 2019)

Leo Du Marier

Woman With Headset (Atlanta 2019)

Motel Front Desk Clerk
Motel Husband

New Rochelle Parking Lot Guard
USTA Official …
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Trivia To prepare for her role, Zendaya spent three months with pro tennis player-turned-coach, Brad Gilbert .

Tashi Donaldson : I'm taking care of all my little white boys.

Connections Referenced in OWV Updates: The Seventh OWV Awards - Last Update of 2022 (2022)

User reviews 13

steveinadelaide
Apr 21, 2024
When will Challengers be released? Powered by Alexa
April 26, 2024 (United States)
United States
Những Kẻ Thách Đấu
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Pascal Pictures
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Runtime 2 hours 11 minutes
Dolby Digital

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‘challengers’ review: zendaya, josh o’connor and mike faist make a sizzling trio in luca guadagnino’s sexy grand slam.

Complicated interpersonal history gets tangled with the competitive drive of pro tennis in this intense round of action on and off the court.

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