Luca, therefore, walks a very fine line between queer-coding and queer-baiting. Instead of remaining together, Luca and Alberto are split when a third character, Guilia, entices Luca to follow her to school in Genoa in what is implied to be a far more mature and productive pairing. Yet despite these queer allusions, the film quietly reasserts the heteronormativity ingrained in Disney’s traditional storytelling. In a touching celebration of queerness and found family, the townspeople actually welcome Luca and Alberto with love and acceptance when they are outed as sea monsters, enough so that other long-closeted sea monsters feel safe enough to reveal themselves. Yet, like closeted members of the LGBTQIA+ community, they fear the day that their secret will be discovered. Above the water, Luca and Alberto pass as human. Luca’s parents discover their son’s secret and try to send him to live with his uncle in the ocean’s depths, but the pair escape to Portorosso. Because the sea monsters of Portorosso’s waters fear humans and forbid their children from entering the human realm, Luca must hide his excursions to the surface and, by extension, his relationship with Alberto. Not only do Luca and Alberto form a close achillean relationship (a masculine attraction that may or may not include romantic or sexual feelings), the themes and story beats also touch on common LGBTQIA+ experiences. The two boys quickly form a passionate friendship, building a makeshift Vespa and dreaming of travelling the world together. This adventure arrives in the form of Alberto Scarfano, a fellow sea monster who lives on the surface.
He stumbles on a human artefact, awakening a keen desire to leave his everyday life behind in search of adventure above the waves.
We first meet the titular character, adolescent sea monster Luca Paguro, as he tends to the family’s goatfish. Queerbaiting is when creators hint that characters might be queer in order to attract progressive audience but without providing any real queer representation that could risk losing conservative audiences.ĭisney has yet to feature an explicitly queer protagonist in its feature films. Queer coding is when LGBTQIA+ creatives insert queer themes, characters and relationships into content without making them explicitly so, in order to fly under the radar of conservative censors and critics. The issue with Luca comes down to the difference between queerbaiting and queer coding. As a queer animation researcher, I know first hand how pronounced that problem is in film and TV. The themes explored in Luca have since led to accusations of “ queerbaiting” - a phenomenon in which LGBTQIA+ relationships are hinted at, but never clearly expressed. It’s also, according to many, a narrative about a gay relationship – even if the film itself stops short of confirming that. Set in the fictional seaside town of Portorosso, Luca is a story of adventure, escape, difference and found family. This article contains spoilers for the film Luca.īack in June, Disney released Pixar’s latest feature film, Luca.