By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)
Spoiler Alert
Not every PIXAR movie starts off with a bang. Sometimes the hook isn’t there, especially when viewers don’t really know that the world is fearful of legendary beasts in Luca. People should learn to love them and I wondered if this film may be this studio’s return to Monsters Inc.
Instead, we have another coming of age tale by Enrico Casarosa making his directorial debut. He drew upon his childhood and knowledge of local (Roman) folklore for his story. I believe he was struggling to decide in what kind of movie to make. It’s definitely inspired by A Little Mermaid. Plus, it has that The Good Dinosaur cum Finding Nemo vibe–especially when the parents go searching for their runaway son. Eventually, the perspective switches into something akin to Splash and Ponyo. This multi-tribute mix is okay, but when this film is loaded with the requisite Studio Ghibli references, I was tempted to turn this film off.