Pixar's new release "Luca", scheduled for 2021, will be set in the Italian riviera
An important #TW before you read on: this post deals with dark topics like death, family trauma, survivor pain, grief, and mourning. Proceed at your risk.
Wooohooo! It's been a long while since I was so hyped for a movie, but Pixar did it again. As of yesterday, it's official; the new 2021 Pixar release will be set in Italy. And not just any corner of Italy (which would already be cool in itself). Because if rumors have it - and it seems director Enrico Casarosa confirmed it - then the movie's going to be set in my own region, on the Ligurian seaside riviera.
Enrico Casarosa himself hails from my hometown of Genoa, so I'm positively looking forward to a movie (and not just any movie either!) set in places I'm familiar with. There's also some slight nostalgia factor - the last time Pixar featured anything remotely italian was in "Cars 2" (a movie I thoroughly enjoyed, despite the overall negative reactions it got online), and when "Cars 2" came out my mother was still alive, and we watched it together and were floored by all the awesome Porto Corsa shots, as well as by the world-wide homages (Japan, UK) featured in the movie. Now with "Luca" I'll be on my own, because my family died out since then - but it's just a bittersweet note on an otherwise glorious news. I really, really hope I can get some commissions in 2021 and put together enough money for the ticket, because this is a movie I'd very much like to see on its release!
"Luca", according to the first previews, is the story of an enchanted Italian summer. The protagonist (much like Casarosa and myself) is a young kid who has been raised among the beautiful Ligurian landscapes and who just wants to enjoy a carefree summer with his newly found best friend. Problem - this friend has a secret affinity with the sea that goes much farther than skin-deep, and when Luca finds out, it may change the course of his summer for good. Will their friendship sink through or resist the might of the abyss and somehow manage to stay afloat? (I'm having way, way too much fun with the water puns here!)
"Luca" won me over for a thousand of reasons - and then some. It's set in my region, which I love deeply, and one of its main characters hails from the deep sea, which also reasonates with me so well (water is my favorite element and the sea holds a special place in my heart, which is why I so enjoyed the "Finding Nemo" franchise). But "Luca" is also special in that it marks my "return" to my original love for Pixar; finally there IS a new Pixar movie I'm actually looking foward to... after a series of titles I don't really plan to watch anytime,
Now let me explain this last bit. As of recent, Pixar's latest releases have been too personal and hit too close to home for me to want to watch them.
It all started out with "Coco" which, centering around death and the remembrance of loved ones, hit more than a few nerves. Because let's consider: at the age of 7 I lost my father, and then some ten years later, I lost my grandmother, and in the last years I've lost my aunt, my mother and both my dogs, in addition to any other pet I've had in my life. As a result you can say I'm easily triggered when it comes to death - and especially when it comes to death of a family member. I can watch a murder mystery or a movie with one or two casualties just as well as anyone. But a movie centering about the remembrance of lost family and the love that unites... er, no, I possibly couldn't have watched "Coco" without breaking into tears so _bad_ I'd need a breathing mask and oxygen supply (way before Covid was a thing). Even just listening to the main song at the Oscar ceremony (which I had to cover for a copywriting commission) was heart-wrenching. So I sat "Coco" out, even though my then-friends kept gushing about how good it was.
"Incredibles 2" and "Toy Story 4" just did very little to engage me on terms of plot and my personal involvement. I loved "The Incredibles", and the first "Toy Story" trilogy is a masterpiece, but I didn't feel the burning need for a sequel of either (I'd have much rather welcome a sequel of "A Bug's Life", which is badly underrated, or "Brave" which left a bit too many loose ends for a one-shot). Nothing personal - just not my cup of tea. Plus I was not very happy at the thought of Woody and Bo Beep possibly breaking out (something that was suggested may happen, though the movie eventually plays out differently - I've read the synopsis) at a time when all my favorite ships in movies and RP seem to sink through (I'm particularly keen on the RP one, since I was so invested with it, and it was basically crushed right under my eyes and left my character a bereft depressed... but I'll get to this some other time, promise).
And then there's "Onward" which is just as I write premiering in Italian theaters after lockdown put even movie programming on hold. "Onward" isn't even a film I'm not planning to see; it's a concept I found deeply insulting and possibly the one and only Pixar film I dislike based on that alone.
As someone who's lost family over and over, the idea that it could be attempted to "bring the dead back" with magic is just where I draw the line. For me, in my experience, these kind of movies (much like "Fluke" and "Jack Frost") are disrespectful of the pain survivors feel when they lose a parent they're close to. Because believe me; there's been many, many times I went to sleep crying until I couldn't breath, praying with all my strength (I was brought up a Catholic, even though I had a falling out with religion in recent years) that "magically" a miracle would happen overnight and time would be rewind with me carrying no memory of it, just to go back to when my loved ones were with me. And wow, it didn't happen, because this is real life, but movies don't reflect real life so I'm supposed to watch a story where some supernatural occurrence manages (or even just attempts) to bring a dead parent back to life even if just for a last goodbye and not feel insulted, and hate the characters and the director for basically tearing my heart open and pouring salt on it? I hate these movies, and I hate "Onward", and I don't plan to see it. Period.
Someone who later turned out to be a bully criticized me last year for being a "snowflake" when I expressed my views on the matter when "Onward" was first announced. But I don't give a damn if I'm a "snowflake" - this kind of film hits all the wrong buttons for me as a viewer, so I prefer to tell myself it does not exist and skip watching for good.
And then there's the next Pixar which should come out, that's called "Soul". I swear, I groaned and rolled my eyes upon first reading the synopsis on Wikipedia. A guy who has a near-fatal accident and his soul separates from his body so "it" must find its way back before the body dies? Yeah, as someone who spent a whole night outside ICU waiting for news on my comatose mother, just to be told the next morning that her heart hadn't made it through - I'm definitely not going anywhere near the theater when this one's out even if I had the money (which is unlikely).
I don't know what's with Pixar and their "spree" of movies about life, death, soul, afterlife, spirituality, etc - but it's definitely a trend that was keeping me off like nothing. And for someone who never missed a Pixar movie when it came out, having to sit out three movies in a row (without counting the two sequels, which I skipped not out of personal involvement but because I didn't care so much about another movie in their franchise - I didn't watch Cars 3 either, but I enjoyed Monsters University mightily, so it's just a matter of personal preferences) was starting to feel a bit like... Pixar and I may have been drifting apart. Which is sad, because I've had so many people "drift apart" from me in the last year (after a particularly nasty bullying episode when most the people in our "common friends" group gave me the cold shoulder just because I asked respect for my triggers), and I totally wasn't looking foward to "lose" my love for Pixar which gifted me so much over the years.
Fortunately, it seems the tide's going to turn (yay for water puns) and "Luca" promises to have me swept over by incantation, beautiful marine landscapes, italian traditions, and a rich and complex storytelling. I'm positively looking foward to this film and can't wait for its release! :D
And what about you? Are you thrilled about Pixar's upcoming release? What do you expect from "Luca"?
🌹 Cri
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento