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Luca (2021)

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Buona sera, signorina! We hope you’ve got your pasta dinner ready for tonight’s screening of Luca, Pixar‘s latest film that just released for free on Disney+. That’s right — it’s completely free, no pesky $29.99 Premier Access fee needed. As traveling restarts around the globe, you may find Luca inspiring you to book a whole trip to the magical Mediterranean world of gelato, fresh fish, and Vespa rides. Wondering where in the world that may be? We’ve already hinted at the answer, but keep reading to find out where exactly Luca takes place.

Luca follows the ragtag adventures of two little fish boys, Luca (Jacob Tremblay) and Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer). It’s a real fish out of water situation as the pair journey up to the land, ready to embrace a Little Mermaid lifestyle of learning how to walk, talk, and dress like human beings. But the fishermen in the town hate sea monsters, which spells trouble for, well, the two sea monsters. Luca and Alberto try to enjoy a summer of biking, swimming, and other human fun — but too much playing around will turn them into trophies on a wall.

Was Luca based in Napoli, “where love is king”? Or was it in Sicily, like Cinema Paradiso? Perhaps it takes place in a different spot of the Mediterranean entirely. We have all the answers you need. Here’s where Luca takes place:

Where is Luca based?

You may have already figured this out, but Italy. Not only does Luca take place in Italy, it’s really all about Italian culture. More specifically, Northern Italy, a spot that’s lesser represented in popular Italian films like Cinema Paradiso and Eat, Pray, Love.

Was Luca based on a specific town? Is Portorosso a real town in Italy?

Luca is based in “Portorosso,” a town on the Italian Riviera. But Portorosso isn’t a real town, though the Italian Riviera is a real place. It could be based on the gorgeous Portofino, a little village on the Ligurian Sea in the province of Genoa. Or it could be based on the Cinque Terre, a string of five colorful towns in the Italian Riviera where tourists can hike amidst tree-lined views of the sea.

…Or actually, it could be (and is) a reference to Porco Rosso, a 1992 movie directed by Hayao Miyazaki for Studio Ghibli. That movie takes place in a similar time period, and features a World War I pilot who is magically transformed into a pig (shades of Luca and Alberto transforming back and forth from sea monsters to human). It also, in an unsurprising twist, takes place in a few places in Italy: Milan, the coast of the Adriatic Sea, as well as across the water in Croatia.

Like Luca, Porco Rosso is mostly set in fictionalized versions of Italy. That said, take a look at the real Portofino below, and you can probably see where the animators for both films drew some of their inspiration.

Do they speak Italian in Luca?

No! (That’s Italian for no.) You may hear some Italian words like “Silenzio, Bruno!” and more, but the leads are voiced by two young American actors. The director Enrico Casarosa, however, is Genoese, so Luca is still authentically Italian.