A month ago we shared Five Fascinating Facts about Pixar’s summertime film, Luca, and the reception on our social media channels was so well received, we figured we should share five MORE facts about the film which hits Disney+ in less than a month (June 18).
The fifth fact in the list even includes some tips shared by Pixar on where to keep an eye out for the famous trio of Easter Eggs — the Pixar Ball (a.k.a., the Luxo, Jr. Ball), A113, and the Pizza Planet Truck. So, if you don’t want to know anything, this is your spoiler warning.
1. WIDE-EYED LUCA
Production Designer, Daniela Strijleva, shared that of all the characters, Luca has the largest eyes (proportional to his head) of the main characters since he’s so curious and eager to “take everything in.” A bonus fact about Luca is that when he’s in sea monster form, he has 3,436 scales on his body.
2. WHY SILENZIO BRUNO?
You know the phrase Alberto shouts with Luca in the trailer for the film to silence the negative voices in our heads? That’s right — Silenzio Bruno! Enrico Casarosa (Director) shared that writer, Jesse Andrews came up with the catchy phrase and associated name.
Producer, Andrea Warren also noted that if they wrote it as, “ ‘You know that voice inside your head and if you listen to it, it’ll hold you back?’ It was such a fun way to capture that idea in a quick phrase.”
Enrico chuckled as he said, “with apologies to people named Bruno.”
Note: Pixar Post may receive a commission for items purchased through affiliate links in this article — we thank you for your support.
There is even a great book about getting past your fears called Silenzio Bruno! now available at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
3. CARTOON SPLASHES
When I was chatting with Effects Supervisor, Jon Reisch about the film, he noted that this film was a challenge for a very specific reason. Typically, the effects team is supposed to create realistic-looking water, smoke, dust, or other natural phenomena in the environment.
On Luca, the focus was more on creating “simplified elegance” rather than photorealism. After playing with several different versions (inspired by how the water looked in traditional Japanese woodblock paintings and Miyazaki films), the team created “cartoon splashes.”
We cannot wait for all of you reading this to see the film to fully appreciate the beauty the effects team created. They hand-sculpted shapes in the computer and the physics were then applied to those drawings and shapes to create another unique layer to the film.
4. MOUTH SHAPES — OOH!
You’ll notice that the main characters’ mouths are different from previous Pixar films — they’re more circular and oval. Animation Supervisor, Mike Venturini, shared that Luca features a more graphic mouth shape and they needed to created new rigging controls to accommodate the new look.
There are 221 and 223 individual controls in Luca’s and Alberto’s mouths, respectively, to help animators create the rounded mouth expressions used throughout. Mike also noted that it wasn’t easy in the beginning to get used to the new style and that they paid “little to no respect from anatomy” (which they usually follow) to capture the more illustrative look.
5. EASTER EGGS
As with all Pixar films, Luca is no different when it comes to hiding Easter Eggs that will have you searching edge-to-edge for these little gems.
We’ve already talked about the fact that you can spot Miguel from Coco in our first YouTube live trailer discussion (and a few others), but we also wanted to pass along some tips that Pixar shared for where to look for the Pixar Ball, Pizza Planet Truck and A113 reference.
Pixar Ball — The iconic yellow, red and blue Pixar ball can be spotted on a rooftop as the Portorosso Cup bike race gets underway.
Pizza Planet Truck — Keep an eye out for the Pizza Planet truck in the form of a Piaggio Ape parked on a street in Portorosso. Not sure what a Piaggo Ape is? It’s a 3-wheeled light commercial vehicle popularized by the same company that makes the Vespa (via Wikipedia).
A113 — The number on a CalArts classroom where many Pixar filmmakers studied, appears on a train ticket seen in the film. It is also noted that the train number is 94608, which the ZIP code for Emeryville, California (where Pixar’s headquarters is located).
—
Hungry for more Luca facts? There are a lot more details from the Luca press event that shared while discussing the Luca trailer breakdown on YouTube and in our trailer post. Stay tuned as we’ll be sharing much more from Luca leading up to (and following) its June 18 release on Disney+.
SYNOPSIS
Set in a beautiful seaside town on the Italian Riviera, Disney and Pixar’s original feature film “Luca” is a coming-of-age story about two friends’ summer of unforgettable fun that’s threatened by their deeply-held secret: they are sea monsters from another world.
