The year just doesn’t feel complete without looking at what Pixar has to offer. I understand that looking forward to a Disney product nowadays is like looking forward to a sunset (it’s difficult to get too excited about something that happens with clockwork regularity), but outside of the first two Cars movies, Pixar has never really steered me wrong as an animation studio. And with their latest, they’ve offered one of their most uncomplicated stories of the last several years, which itself is part of what makes this work.
I really will never get tired at just how freaking good Pixar animation is, and aside from some Felliniesque flights of fantasy, the plot mainly takes place either underwater or in the seaside town of Portorosso. The lighting effects, the rustic architecture work, the warm and inviting colour palette; it fits the bill for the setting of the best summer evar. I particularly like the character designs here, which have a certain fullness and tactile look that I usually associate with stop-motion animation.
This is, of course, intentional, as there’s quite a bit of aesthetic influence being pulled from outside the Disney circle. When it isn’t taking cues from Aardman and the like, there’s also a fair bit of Studio Ghibli influence showing through. Yeah, the town name is pretty damn close to one of those titles, and the amphibious title character is a closer match to Ponyo than The Little Mermaid, but it mainly shows through in how breezy the narrative is. It’s basically just Luca (Jacob Tremblay) and Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer) spending the summer together, where the biggest dilemma they face is training for a triathlon so they can buy a Vespa and explore the world above the sea.
The two leads being sea monsters that turn into humans when they get to dry land (same as all the other sea monsters, as it turns out) is classic Other symbolism, which quite a few critics and audiences have already attributed to a kind of queer coding. Now, rather than continue to beat the dead horse that is Disney’s sheepishness about such things, I will admit that there’s definitely some truth to that. I mean, the Italian summertime setting is one peach away from being Call Me By Your Name, and the chemistry between Luca and Alberto can definitely fit into the mould, especially with how Alberto’s jealousy manifests itself at times.
But here’s the thing: There’s validity to it, but it’s also a rather narrow perspective on this kind of allegory. I mean, feeling the need to hide your true self for fear of how other people will react to you, and living in fear of just how bad that reaction can get? I can relate to this on quite a few levels. As an autistic, I often get the sense that I should be hiding my more obvious stims and social traits just so I don’t get singled out in public. But as a generally awkward person to begin with, I also relate to the joy of finding others who truly get who I am. There’s also how I’m an Australian who does most of their socialising online, usually with Americans, and I have to occasionally deal with certain preconceptions about what our nation’s people are like. And yeah, I have to admit, I can relate to the queer coding as well, as being a bisexual not only can put me at odds with the general populace, I feel out-of-place even within queer spaces.
This is why the ultimate simplicity of the story and the stakes within end up bolstering the production as a whole, as the main character’s journey of self-discovery and coming to terms with their identity doesn’t feel like it needs to be pigeon-holed into any specific kind of self-discovery to resonate. There’s more than one way to vibe with this, and that’s what the film is essentially all about: The feeling of it all. The feeling of getting out in the world, with people you can trust with whatever secrets you’re shouldering, and discovering what makes you you.
In that regard, it’s not that much different from any other coming-of-age film, something that has gotten a lot of artistic traffic over the last several years. But there’s something quite freeing and liberating about how much focus it puts on experiencing the moment as it happens, and how effectively it spins the classic ‘fish out of water’ idiom into something that works this well without any annoying bouts of déjà vu.
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