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The latest work of Disney & Pixar “Luca”, which depicts the “Best Summer” of the young sea monster boys will be released exclusively on Disney paid subscription video streaming service “Disney+”, on June 18, 2021.

“Luca” takes place in a beautiful seaside city in northern Italy. As director Enrico Casarosa has actually lived in Italy when he was young, this was supposed to be a work that portrayed the natural and streets of “Italy’s Summer” delicately based on his memory, but somehow it has become a world setting where “Japanese can easily get on to it”.

The animator Earl Brawley, who has experience living in Japan and came from a Japan animation studio, revealed that is because of the “influence of Miyazaki Hayao and Studio Ghibli” and “the various streets of the fishing village in Japan”. What’s exactly does he meant by this?

The American Early Brawley started his career as an animator in Japan. After working on “Knights of Sidonia” in Polygon Pictures, he has also accumulated his career in OLM Digital, and other studios, and has experience living in Japan for approximately 10 years.

Because of this experience, he is quite familiar with the Japanese animation and culture, and his analyze on “Luca” is “As this work takes place in a small fishing village, and since there is a lot of these type of villages in Japan, the atmosphere is quite similar despite the difference in culture.”
He also mentioned the reason for Japanese to easily get on to this work, “It is because our production team is heavily influenced by Miyazaki Hayao and Studio Ghibli as we depict the streets in a way that Japanese can relate to. I believe that Japanese will get a sense of nostalgia while watching this film.”

Actually, the director of “Luca” Enrico is known as a Japanophile who loves Japanese animation a lot. He also admits that he was heavily influenced by Miyazaki Hayao and Studio Ghibli, just like what Earl Brawley said.

Among the works of Miyazaki Hayao, director Enrico especially like “Porco Rosso”, and he even named her daughter “Fio”, which is the name of the heroine from “Porco Rosso”.
There will even be an homage to the protagonist of “Porco Rosso”, “Porco Rosso” in the seaside city “Port Rosso” that the sea monsters Luca and Albert will be having an adventure in. Other than this, there will also have various scenes that were influenced by Miyazaki Hayao’s work and Studio Ghibli as well.

Under the Ghibli-lover director, the animator Earl Brawley, who has affection toward Japanese animation and a fan of “Cowboy Bebop”, “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind”, “Ninja Scroll”, and “Porco Rosso”, has participated in this work.
The result of theirs refusal to compromise is the birth of the work that “Japanese can easily get on to” from Pixar.

What kind of adventure will the sea monsters Luca and Albert, whose true appearance can’t be seen by others, have in their adore human world?
Also, how will the setting of this adventure that was inspired by Miyazaki Hayao and Studio Ghibli be like? The Japanese audience will surely be moved by this more than the friendship of the two.

Disney & Pixar’s latest work “Luca” will be released exclusively on “Disney+”, on June 18, 2021.

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