'Luca' Behind-The-Scenes Video Gives You A Nostalgic Look At Pixar's Italian Summer

Luca, the upcoming Pixar movie that seems to be a cross between Call Me By Your Name and that weird Discovery channel special about "real" mermaids, is headed straight to Disney+ this month. And at the very least, it looks visually gorgeous. The Pixar animators have created a bright, blue, beautiful version of the Italian Riviera, and a new behind-the-scenes video focuses on the research that went into making the animated Italian Riviera feel authentic to the real Italian Riviera.

I've always wanted to go to Italy, but for now, I'll have to live vicariously through Luca. The new Disney Pixar movie is "Set in a beautiful seaside town on the Italian Riviera," and "is a coming-of-age story about one young boy experiencing an unforgettable summer filled with gelato, pasta and endless scooter rides. Luca shares these adventures with his newfound best friend, but all the fun is threatened by a deeply-held secret: they are sea monsters from another world just below the water's surface." The film is set in the 1950s, in the (fictional) Portorosso, a seaside town.

And like most Pixar movies, it looks gorgeous. "Imagine a world where summer isn't just a season, but a state of mind. In Luca, we want to take you to this wonderful, nostalgic look on Italian summers," says director Enrico Casarosa in the video above. "Pixar has a history of wanting to make our films feel authentic, and part of that is doing research," adds producer Andrea Warren. Which means the Pixar team headed off to the real Italian Riviera to take photos and notes, and honestly, that sounds like a pretty great job. If anyone wants to hire me to jet off to the Italian Riviera, feel free to slide into my DMs.

The animation team strived to make Luca look like "a postcard you can jump into and be immersed by." And director Casarosa adds that the animation style, especially the textures, was inspired by the work of legendary Studio Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki, and you really can't go wrong if you're finding inspiration there.

Luca, which features the voice talents of Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer, Emma Berman, Marco Barricelli, Saverio Raimondo, Maya Rudolph, and Jim Gaffigan, will hit Disney+ on June 18, 2021. And unlike so many other new movies going to Disney+, you won't have to pay an extra premium charge to watch this one. It's included with your subscription.