Review: Disney and Pixar Luca Home Video Release
Disney and Pixar’s Luca arrived on home video in various digital and disc formats on Tuesday August 3rd. The film was originally released on Disney+ on June 18th. In this film the Pixar team takes you to the Italian Riviera to share in a summer adventure of two boys/sea creatures Luca & Alberto. For more on the film here is Maggie’s full review and here is a post featuring some insight from the creative team’s press conference.
I was able to review a digital version of the film and bonus materials on MoviesAnywhere. In addition to the film, this initial offering included four featurettes and a half dozen deleted scenes.
Here are my first impressions of each feature:
- Our Italian Inspiration (14:20) – This featurette takes you to Cinque Terre, Italy, along with several of the Pixar artists who created the film. These filmmakers talk about their research trip and the background of the location for the film. This traditional bonus feature I found the most interesting of the offerings and I enjoyed taking the trip with the team. This same featurette is available on Disney+ release too.
- Secretly a Sea Monster (12:23) – Another traditional featurette exploring the filmakers design process for Luca’s transformation between human and sea monster form. Both the technical side of how to do this with a computer as well as the artistic side.
- Getting the Scales Right (2:07) – This short featurette is a cut down/edited version of the longer Secretly a Sea Monster featurette, so I am not quite sure its purpose.
- Best Friends (7:14) – The cast and crew of Luca share their own stories of growing up and friendships and how those personal experiences were drawn upon for the film. They also talk about which of the three personality types they are – Luca, Alberto or Giulia.
- Deleted Scenes – There are six deleted scenes, each one with its own introduction as well as a general introduction to the set by the director. Below are the summaries of each Pixar shared in the product description:
- Introduction (1:19) – Director Enrico Casarosa introduces scenes not included in the final version of “Luca.”
- Starfish Hunt (Alternate Opening)(4:38) – Luca explores the shore and the sea, gathering mussels and starfish, in this serene alternate opening to the film.
- Isola Del Mare (Alternate Opening) (2:53) – Luca welcomes viewers to the quiet island he calls home.
- Festa Del Mare (8:10) – The boys go to a festival filled with fun … and danger.
- Here Comes Giulia (8:14) – Giulia explores Isola Del Mare, where she meets Luca and Alberto, and asks so many questions.
- Gelato Trouble (2:40) – Giulia offers to treat Luca and Alberto to something called “gelato.”
- Sea Monster Cannery (2:21) – Luca dreams about a magical place filled with Vespas and gelato, but things aren’t quite what they seem.
For an initial home video release the bonus offerings were average. If you are a fan of deleted scenes this release should be near the top of your list to consider adding to your library. The half dozen deleted scenes clock in at around 30 minutes of material. For those wanting more of a traditional look at how the film was made the offerings are a bit on the light side with only two featurettes of a moderate length.
With the film being first released on Disney+ the question of is it also worth buying this home video release is a tough one to answer. If you do not have Disney+ this is your chance to see the film. If you have Disney+ the answer boils down to if the bonus features are worth it for you, or if you just like having physical discs/packaging. If you enjoy studying deleted scenes this is definitely worth considering due to the large number of extended sequences available.
Related Links:
- Maggie’s Luca Review
- Luca Creative Team Press Conference Highlights
- Luca Home Video Release Details/Specifications
- Listing of Luca posts on the Geek’s Blog
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