New Look at the Friendships in Luca

Today Pixar released a brand new look at the film, a ‘Friendship Featurette.’ It’s an exciting early peek at more of Luca’s story which celebrates key moments of childhood and the enduring bonds of friendship.

Like many Pixar stories, Luca was sparked from real life experience and memory. In the featurette, director Enrico Casarosa mentions how influential the bond between him and real life best friend Alberto has been to his life story. The friendship didn’t just inspire this particular film, but also was instrumental in pushing Casarosa towards his dreams of working in animation.

The featurette has voice actors Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer, Emma Berman, Maya Rudolph, and Jim Gaffigan sharing their thoughts on innocence, summer, and friendship as well. We get to see several new clips of the trio bonding, with the boys wondering at Giulia’s human style of swimming and a few bike rides around the town. Speaking of the town, here are new shots of the gorgeous Portorosso:

There are a few moments too where we catch Luca’s vivid imagination coming to life and Giulia coming along for a glide:

Friendships featuring a pair of opposites are a Pixar staple: Woody-Buzz, Marlin-Dory, Mike-Sulley, Lightning McQueen-Mater — the list goes on. However, exploring the formative friendships between children is new territory for Pixar. Hesitant and cautious Luca and bursting with confidence Alberto’s dynamic is an immediate heart-warmer.

But it’s also fun to see how this time, we have a trio of friends. There’s more Giulia in the featurette and her synergy with the boys is incredibly wholesome. It will be exciting to see her how she figures in Luca’s journey to embrace adventure.

It’s hard to believe we got our first ever look at Luca almost a year ago. When the project was first announced, director Enrico Casarosa stated, “at the core of this film is a celebration of friendship.” Coming of age stories oftentimes focus on romance or dramatic life events. It’s refreshing to see this story focus on the seemingly ordinary friendships in youth that radically change your life for the better. Luckily, it won’t be long now until we all finally get to join Luca, Alberto, and Giulia on their summer adventure!

Luca will be available and free to stream for all subscribers only on Disney+ June 18^th.