Lina Rau
Jessica Pressman
ECL 305: Literature in the Environment
3 March 2024 II Discovery Essay on Disney’s Luca
Analyzing humanism in Disney’s Luca
Disney’s Luca is an animated movie set in the seaside of the Italian town of Portorosso at the end of the 1950’s. The sea monster Luca, whose parents forbid him to approach human surface in fear of their son being hunted, one day gets to know another sea monster child called Alberto. The boys soon start to sneak out of their natural environment to travel around the world with a Vespa. On their journey the two young sea monsters meet the young and compassionate human called Giulia, who they soon get friends with. In fear of Giulia having prejudices, too, the two young boys hide their identity. However, Giulia uncovers their secret and responds with empathy and understanding. All together they continue their journey, showing that them looking differently does not make a difference in their friendship. At the end of the movie the townspeople discover the sea monsters’ secret and their former perception on them change. They start to live together and allow the sea monsters to be on land.
In the movie one scene that is crucial to analyze is the situation where the townspeople discover that Luca and Alberto change into sea monsters after it starts raining (Disney’s Luca 1:14h – 1:17h). Alberto first decided to sacrifice himself because Luca did not touch water yet and still looked like a human. When the townspeople saw Alberto in his fish form, they started to hunt him and wanted to catch him, having in mind that they can receive a prize as a reward for catching a sea monster. Even though the sea monsters are not humans they seem to portray different human like emotions and characteristics the townspeople cannot. The question one must ask is, what it exactly means to be human. Are the sea monsters just any beasts that do not have anything in common with humans? Or can we actually see the monsters as creatures that resemble humans and even have better characteristics than humans? Although we as humans are attributing non-human characteristics onto monsters, they should be more seen as being human-like creatures whom humans have something in common with. In the case of “Luca”, the monsters are showing more human like emotions than the townspeople do. Disney’s Luca thus teaches on humanism.
Before analyzing the lack of the townspeople’s humanism, a closer look should be taken on how the sea monsters are perceived in the movie. In the town a lot of rumors have spread that there are sea monsters in the water lurking out. The townspeople are suspicious about their existence and therefore have negative perceptions on anything which they do not portray as being humans. They are gossiping around the sea monsters and have many negative stereotypes connected to the creatures. When the Townspeople see Alberto’s and later Luca’s real form, they initially start a mob with torches and pitchforks in their hand, signalizing that they feel threatened by the sea monster’s existence. Even though Giulia and Luca try to educate the townspeople that sea monsters are not dangerous, they first remain unwilled to listen.
As shown above the townspeople have a deep fear against the unknown. Throughout our classes we have seen that humans have always feared the unknown- especially the unknown sea. The sea was always seen as an environment that poses unforeseeable threats to humans as it has mystical features. The same attributions are put onto monsters. The definition of monster is, apart from that, a creature that deviates from social norms. Furthermore, the word derives from the Latin word “monstrare” meaning to demonstrate or to warn, which means that monsters have a demonstrative quality. Keeping that in mind, a bigger “so what?” of the movie and a lot of interesting aspects can be pointed out.
The first aspect that can be pointed out is the establishment of a class system. The townspeople see themselves as the elite and, compared to that, see the sea monsters as creatures that should be hunted. If the townspeople catch a sea monster they would be celebrated like kings and would keep the dead body of the monster as a trophy, in belief that they have the right to do so and dominate not only the living beings on land but also the living beings in the sea. Similar things can be seen in society up to today where people or animals are exploited or hunted for the benefit of others. One similar example to the one in “Luca” in the real world is e.g. the poaching of big animals such as lions or elephants in African countries just for people’s pleasure. The movie thus deliberately confronts the viewers with the topic of marginalization.
The next point is how the townspeople actually treat their surroundings and especially the environment. Most of the townspeople are fishermen, which shows that they are exploiting the sea without taking care of it. The young sea monster Luca in comparison is taking care of his surroundings and he does not try to violate the nature on land. Him being respectful towards a place on earth he did not really know before makes him be a person that has better morals than the townspeople do.
Referring that back to the pivotal scene mentioned earlier similar results can be found. The most interesting fact is that the townspeople’s fear of the unknown is used as an excuse for them not being open minded. The townspeople more or less believe that it justifies them having prejudices and unreasonable hate against the sea monsters. Apart from that both Luca and Alberto possess emotions or relationships (e.g. their friendship) that are similar to the ones humans have. Alberto even considers sacrificing himself for the safety of Luca. When Luca’s and Alberto’s real identity is discovered, the townspeople instantly start to objectify the young boys as something they want to hunt and to capture, even though they got along with them before the boys transformed into their natural skin. With their weapons in their hand, the townspeople are quite literally the monsters of society: their willingness to destroy, to murder and to being ignorant, is more monster like than anything else.
The movie in general therefore uses the figure of the sea monster to show (just like in “monstrare”) that it covers more humanism than humans do. In reality, the real monster in the movie is the human that destroys and exploits the environment or other living beings. The scene in the movie must thus be seen as a self-reflection of society today. We humans need to be aware of the importance of ecosystems in the sea again and need to work on the problems society has today (greed, hate, egoism…). Instead of thinking about the difference between sea monster and humans, sea monsters should be seen as an extension of humans that could possibly portray what humans do wrong.