Trivia / Luca

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• Acting for Two: Director Enrico Casarosa voices the "What's wrong with you, stupido?" fisherman as well as a scopa player.
• Approval of God: Director Enrico Casarosa frequently retweets and likes fanart of the film on his Twitter account, including shipping art of Luca/Alberto.
• Breaking Old Trends: With the noted absence of living easter egg John Ratzenberger voicing a part, Director Enrico Casarosa tweeted that he wants to start a new Pixar tradition where, instead of Ratzenberger, he'd like to have Pixar veteran Peter Sohn, who voiced Ciccio in Luca, cast as a voice in each movie. However, even he is unsure if future Pixar film directors will actually keep up this new tradition. For instance, Turning Red completely lacks a voice over from Peter Sohn. He voiced Sox in Lightyear however.
• Creator Cameo: Pixar modeller Nick Pitera, famous for his vocal videos on YouTube, shows up on a record cover in Giulia's bedroom.
• DVD Commentary: In an unusual move, director Enrico Casarosa and producer Andrea Warren, released a commentary track as an "Extra" when Luca was released on Disney+, yet it was not included on the Blu-Ray or DVD release. The "Extra" is also only available on Disney Plus in the US.
• The Danza:
  • A side character named Giacomo is voiced by Giacomo Gianniotti in English and Italian.
  • In the Italian dub, Massimo is voiced by Italian actor Massimo Corvo.
  • Played around with the two main characters in the Italian dub: Luca Paguro is voiced by Alberto Vannini, and Alberto Scorfano is voiced by Luca Tesei.
• Demand Overload: The merchandise for this film, specifically the artbook, the plushies and the Happy Meal toys, sold out in the summer of 2021 due to the film's popularity.
• Descended Creator: Enrico Casarosa, in addition to directing the film, voices one of the angry fishermen as well as the Scopa player.
• Directed by Cast Member: The Latin American Spanish dub was directed by Ricardo Tejedo, who voiced Mr. Branzino.
• Executive Meddling: Many Pixar employees were upset at the move to make the film a Disney+ exclusive, putting out public statements that doing it with Soul in the middle of the COVID-19 Pandemic was fair enough, but doing it twice in a row even with most movie theaters having reopened and the vaccine rollout ramping up, and not even putting it behind a premium paywall like Raya and the Last Dragon, started to give the impression that the studio isn't respected by Disney execs.
• Fake Nationality: The film takes place in Liguria, but most of the characters are played by North American actors, including Canadian actor Jacob Tremblay (Luca) and American actor Jack Dylan Grazer (Alberto). Saverio Raimondo (Ercole Visconti), Giacomo Gianniotti (Giacomo), Lorenzo Crisci (Guido), Francesca Fanti (Maggiore), Gino La Monica (Tomasso) and Marina Massironi (Mrs. Marsigliese) are the only actors to actually be from Italy, although they're not from Liguria, but from Lazio (Rome's region) in Saverio, Giannotti, Fanti and Crisci's case, Campania (Naples' region) for La Monica and Lombardy (Milan's region) for Massironi. San Francisco native Marco Barricelli (Massimo) is an American of Italian descent.
• In Memoriam: A dedication of schoolteacher Patricia Willrett, who died from complications of ALS in 2020, appears in the ending credits.
• Inspiration for the Work: The movie was inspired by the works of Hayao Miyazaki, particularly his more whimsical, low-key films such as Kiki's Delivery Service and Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, as well as his TV series Future Boy Conan.
• Kids' Meal Toy: McDonald's released eight different toys that could change color in their Happy Meals. These consisted of Monalisa, Massimo, Giulia, Machiavelli, and two different toys of Luca and Alberto.
• Multiple Languages, Same Voice Actor:
  • Saverio Raimondo (Ercole Visconti), Marina Massironi (Mrs. Marsigliese), Gino La Monica (Tomasso), Lorenzo Crisci (Guido) and Giacomo Gianniotti (Giacomo) voiced their characters in the original English as well as the Italian dub.
  • Orietta Berti and Luciana Littizetto voiced Concetta and Pinuccia Aragosta in the Italian, Latin American Spanish and European Portuguese dubs. Littizetto also voiced Pinuccia for the European Spanish dub.
• Real-Life Relative: In the Latin American Spanish dub, Ricardo Tejedo voiced Mr. Branzino and his father Eduardo voiced a bicycle rider. Ricardo's wife (and, by extension, Eduardo's daughter-in-law) Cristina Hernández voiced Maggiore.
• Shipper on Set: McKenna Harris (story lead of this film and director of Ciao Alberto) supports the Luca/Alberto ship and has created shipping fanart of the two, including one where the two kiss under an umbrella.
• So My Kids Can Watch: Jim Gaffigan says that getting cast in a Pixar movie finally made him cool in the eyes of his children.
• Swan Song: The Italian dub of Luca was Ludovica Modugno's final film before she died on October 26, 2021, a little over four months after the film premiered on Disney+.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The crew were going to ask legendary Italian composer Ennio Morricone to do the score, but he sadly died on July 6, 2020, after suffering a fall that broke his femur. Dan Romer eventually wrote the music.
  • Luca's last name was originally going to be Portorosso. This name would be given to the town instead and Luca's surname became Paguro.
  • Ciccio was actually meant to be a third sea monster, and would've joined Luca and Alberto on their journey to the surface world serving as the Plucky Comic Relief. However, the filmmakers decided to keep the film focused on the relationship between Luca and Alberto, so Ciccio eventually joined Guido in being Ercole's sidekick.
  • Massimo wasn't always meant to be one-armed, if this concept art is anything to go by.◊
  • The film was going to start off much more Ghibli-esque, where Luca is on the surface seemingly an ordinary human before diving into the water and turning into a sea monster.
  • In an early version of the scene where Alberto reveals himself as a sea monster had him pull Luca into the water with him, exposing them both as sea monsters to a frightened Giulia and had sea monster Luca trying to calm her saying he can explain but then leaving in despair. This version was rejected because it left Luca furious with what Alberto did and made Alberto significantly unlikable.
  • Giulia was originally planned to be a lesbian at one point, but the filmmakers decided against it, feeling they couldn’t do it without making a girlfriend for her and not wanting the story to be about romance.
  • They considered making "Bruno" the name of Alberto's Disappeared Dad but decided against it, instead Enrico stated that Bruno is simply a silly name Alberto found to name his insecurities.
  • One interview with Enrico Casarosa mentions that, in an earlier iteration, there were ideas of having Alberto turn into a giant kraken in the climax and Luca would need to defend him, but it was scrapped when it was clear that it would escalate the movie's stakes from the gentler theme of friendship to a much more dark and dramatic tone.
  • In a 2022 interview with Insider, Enrico Casarosa admits that he did briefly consider making Luca and Alberto a couple during development. However, he ultimately decided to keep them as friends instead.
  • First revision:
    • Isola dal Mare was originally going to be a small town that paralleled Portorosso except everyone there was a sea monster in a masquerade, but this was cut as the director felt having two similar towns was redundant and had no good reason for why the sea monsters needed a masquerade in the first place.
    • Luca and Alberto were going to arrive in Portorosso in the middle of a festival and Giulia was going to be an aspiring sea monster hunter just like her dad.
  • Second revision:
    • Giulia was going to be a photographer who meet Luca and Alberto on the small island, and be aware of their secret from the get-go.
    • The Aragosta sisters were originally going to be called the Mansa sisters, and Luca's and Alberto's interaction with them were a lot longer that served as an homage to Spaghetti Westerns.
• Word of God: Enrico Casarosa confirmed the main characters' birthdays on Twitter; Luca's is November 20th, Alberto's is September 25th, and Giulia's is March 18th.
• Write What You Know: An interview by Enrico Casarosa indicated that the plot of a shy, reserved kid who befriends a nonconformist type who pushes him into becoming more open is directly based on his own experiences as a child. He also said to have spent, as a kid, summers at Cinque Terre, which is where the movie is set.
• Write Who You Know: Alberto Scorfano is based on Alberto Surace, Enrico Casarosa's childhood best friend who helped him come out of his shell when they were kids.

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