June 14th, 2021 
Jackson Murphy 
Pixar’s Luca debuts this Friday June 18th on Disney+. And if you’re in Hollywood, you can also see it on the big screen at the famous El Capitan Theatre. In my new, follow-up conversation with director Enrico Casarosa and producer Andrea Warren, we discuss the film’s casting, story challenges and most powerful moments.
Jackson Murphy: Enrico, what are your thoughts on Luca not only being on Disney+ but also at The El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood from June 18 – 24?!
Enrico Casarosa: That is exciting. We’ve dealt with some of the limitations the pandemic has thrown at us – making the movie and releasing the movie. There’s this little special opportunity to share it with people in the same room… experiencing the movie together. We’re excited to have these few little opportunities. We make these movies, of course, for the big screen, so we were a little sad to not have it be out there. But we’re excited for Disney+ too because you can re-watch it many times and notice those little details we put in there!
JM: Yes, there are so many little details. When we last spoke on April 1st, I had seen 30 minutes of the movie. Now I’ve seen the whole movie. And you’re right, those details and there are a lot of special moments, especially in the third act. But before we get into those, Andrea, let me get your thoughts as well on this El Capitan news. Not only is it a historic place for Disney but… were you surprised by this news considering the previous news of Disney+?
Andrea Warren: It was a fun surprise! Like Enrico said, we’re excited that we kind of get to do both. We get to kind of have our cake and eat it too. Obviously we care that it feels safe and good for people to go. Disney has taken so much thoughtful precaution about what makes sense. We’re glad that they’ve been able to create this space where it can feel good for families to go because of all of the ways they’ve prepared. It’s really wonderful to get to do both. With Disney+ it’s just amazing and really an honor to get to share our movie so widely – with the world – all in one day. It feels pretty cool.
JM: It’s quite an honor to have this experience. In watching the movie, I think people of all ages are going to feel something emotional. The main characters are Luca, Alberto and Giulia. They’re all very dynamic. Enrico, I know this story is very personal for you. Which of those three characters was the most unpredictable in terms of developing that character?
EC: I think Luca being the protagonist was always the one that was the interesting puzzle because we wanted to tell a story about an introvert and someone who’s insecure and a little timid. It’s a difficult balance to find between frustratingly timid and still someone you wanna see achieve what he wants. The key things for us with him were showing that he has an interior life – that he would LOVE to do these things but he’s not allowing himself. It was really important to find a way to get you behind this little kid and his curiosity and find a way to make it infectious. If you pitch me, “Let’s make a movie that’s all about going to school”, I don’t know how many kids are gonna be excited about that. We wanted to make sure that this is about the world. How do we make you feel how excited he is about knowing what’s out there and having adventures? It was really fun to find ways to portray this curiosity in this wonderfully imaginative… and emotional… [way]. The connection with Giulia is really where I felt it was palpable – where they’re just geeking out and seeing each other and really loving the idea of discovering things.
JM: Yeah. They’re geeking out about the planets and the stars, and it brought me back to “La Luna” a little bit, which was your Oscar nominated short – and your love of that. Jacob Tremblay and the entire voice cast are excellent. A big surprise is Sacha Baron Cohen, who voices Uncle Ugo. Andrea, how did you get Sacha Baron Cohen, who’s known as King Julien in the “Madagascar” movies, to come into this Pixar film?
AW: There were so many pros and cons about being on Zoom and all over the place. But one of the pros was you could book somebody pretty easily for a small role. He was very busy at the time that we reached out. But he was up for doing something quickly. He’s so talented that we managed to get everything easily. He tried tons of different ways and is such an incredible improviser. That was one of the benefits, actually. When we were doing recording sessions over Zoom, he could be anywhere and we could be anywhere and it was a pretty easy thing to do.
JM: Enrico, in the promotion for the movie you said, “Summer isn’t just a season. It’s a state of mind.” In making this movie in the entire calendar – a movie about summer – how was that experience?
EC: It’s an interesting thing. There was a moment where we sent our team [to Italy] maybe two summers ago. We were so busy trying to do the storyboards and re-writing the movie and making the story as great as it could be that we couldn’t go. We planned to, but we sent them and it was all about, “Try the gelato here. There were a lot of good recommendations. A lot of food. Jump in the sea in this area!” They would send me a lot of QuickTime videos, and they would send me the… beautiful, crystal blue water by a rock and I would be so wanting to jump in there! I did that for the first 20 years of my life and I have it in my blood. So it was important for them to experience this. It was a big thing to convey. You need to have as much of the core team involved and having felt that sun on their skin and having seen the light and all the details. A big part was experiencing it and trying to keep it in it. We went through the pandemic on Zoom as we were making this movie and honestly we kept on saying, “Thank God we have Portorosso to look at.” We get a mini vacation every day!
JM: I think it’s escapism. The entire movie is escapism. My favorite line in the film comes late in the movie, where one of the characters says, “Some people will never accept him. But some will. And he seems to know how to find the good ones.” I feel like in my life I’ve tried to find the good ones when it comes to friends. Enrico, where did that line come from?
EC: It really felt important to talk about how we go out into the world. That’s a line where it’s his mother really struggling saying, “My son is amazing but how can I let him go out there. It’s a risky world. There’s people who won’t like him. There’s people who won’t want to accept him.” Talking to the reality of that was important. In going through this social upheaval this year, it was important to not just have a vanilla ending where it’s “Everybody’s fine. Everybody’s gonna love you.” It was wonderful to talk about feeling different. [Him] being a sea monster, I hope everyone brings their own way that they might feel a bit out of place or odd or different and that that friendship – it really is those people that don’t care: they love you for who you are. Exactly who you are. We love that it brought the two main themes of our movie together in that line. “A big part of me I can’t even show you for part of the movie” and then our ending is really about showing himself and flying his flag. This was about, “We’re friends. You can do it.” Not everything is gonna be blue skies, but with the right people that love you and for whom you’re never too much, it will work out.
JM: It’s beautiful. It’s really sweet. Andrea, the final act and other moments that happen after that line really got me and brought me back to the older Pixar movies, from 1999 to about 2010, as far as those heart-tugging moments. How does that final act, without spoiling it, make you feel?
AW: We really put a lot of work into what you wanted to feel. Even the line we were just talking about: making sure that the parents could accept the moment that happens and making sure everyone could be on board. And as an audience member you’re not worried about any other things in that ending was a big process in story [development] because it’s not just the moment itself. It’s really all the things you could be distracted by as a viewer when you’re watching that moment. We spent a lot of time really crafting all the threads that lead to that moment. I think it does play out in a beautiful, sincere, sweet way. The performances are beautiful in that scene. We really worked on fine-tuning the music in that scene to convey the complex emotions that are happening. You’re right: it was with the mission of really getting a little heart squeeze going there.
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