Luca Paguro

Luca Paguro
General information
Full name	Luca Paguro
Gender	Male
Age	13
Personal information
Occupation	School Student
Family	Daniela Paguro (mother) Lorenzo Paguro (father) Grandma Paguro (grandmother) Uncle Ugo (uncle)
Series information
Appearance	Luca
Portrayed by	Jacob Tremblay

Luca Paguro is the titular character of Luca.

Luca Paguro is the titular protagonist of the 2021 Disney•Pixar animated feature film, Luca. He is a sea monster that is influenced by Alberto Scorfano to venture into the surface. Once he discovers his parents will send him to the deep, away from the surface, he and Alberto escape to the Italian town of Portorosso, and enter the Portorosso Cup so they can buy a Vespa and see the world together.

Background

Luca Paguro is a bright and inventive 13-year-old sea monster with endless curiosity – especially when it comes to the mysterious world above the sea. Although he's been warned his whole life that the human world is a dangerous place, he longs for something beyond his quiet farm life where he herds goatfish day after day. So when another sea monster with actual experience above the surface takes Luca under his fin, his eyes open up to a whole world of possibilities.

Personality

Luca starts out as a very timid and shy character. He is afraid of the surface, but is also very curious about it. He meets Alberto, who Luca thinks is a human diver, but turns out to be a sea monster just like him. After Alberto introduces him to the surface, Luca attempts to confidently refuse staying there as he believes himself to be a "good kid." When he receives the opportunity to approach the surface shortly later on, his first reaction is reluctance to disobey his parents' orders and see Alberto again.

As the movie progresses, Luca is able to expand on his curiosities about human life and what was on the surface as Alberto shows him his collection of human items. Alberto is able to teach Luca to ignore his doubts and leave his comfort zone, which is how he gained his skills on a bicycle that he needed to compete in the Portorosso Cup. He credits Alberto with teaching him how to be crazy.

Luca was also a very kind-hearted individual who was willing to stand up towards anyone who threatened to harm his friends. Luca also held a strong desire to see the world above the surface, despite being forbidden by his parents in doing so. Luca was very intrigued in learning new things, which he enjoyed doing while spending time in Portorosso and growing super excited when he learns something new.

He starts bonding with Giulia when she tells him about astronomy and the universe, which makes Luca want to go to school with her. After deeply hurting Alberto, Luca attempts to make it up to him by winning the prize money for their Vespa. He was even willing to come to Alberto's rescue and expose himself as a sea monster when Ercole caught and attempted to kill Alberto when his sea monster identity was revealed during the Portorosso Cup.

By the end of the movie, Luca is much braver and wiser than the fearful, nervous version of him that existed early in the story.

Appearance

Sea monster Luca

In human form, Luca is a slender pre teen with fair skin, rosy cheeks, brown eyes, and wavy, dark brown hair. He wears a teal striped ivory shirt, blue shorts, and is barefoot all the time.

In sea monster form, Luca has blue-green scales and blue "hair". His eyes are still brown, but they have yellow sclera and oval shaped pupils. He also has a long tail with blue caudal fins. Before Luca obtains his new outfits, he is seen wearing green pants made of seaweed.

Powers and Abilities

• Human transformation: Luca is able to appear as human when out of contact with water. He is usually shown this by shaking off the water on his skin. If Luca gets in contact with water, it will revert him back into a sea monster.

• Enhanced swimming: When as a sea monster, Luca is able to swim at a great speed.

Film Appearances

Luca

Luca discovering an alarm clock

Luca is a goatfish herder, who herds fish that act similar to sheep. He was first seen rounding up his fish and going around his neighborhood, and his neighbors are getting a bit annoyed, as they make it clear he’s done this before. As he is headed over to the little circle ranch, he begins to get bored of his continuous cycle of herding until he sees “land monster” stuff around there and grows fascinated with them. As he looks through an alarm clock and playing card, he spots a boat and immediately runs for cover. While hiding, Luca imagines himself floating up to the surface, seeing the person on the boat, but gets snapped back to reality when he is called to dinner.

As his parents complain about their sea monster life, Luca asks where do boats come from, to which his Grandma explains it comes from the human town and hints that she's been there before. However, Daniela forces him to end the conversation, reminding Luca about their rule to never interact with the surface. Once Luca then goes back to herding his fish, he resumes looking around for more "land monster" stuff and comes across more far away. As he is looking at an old gramophone, he is approached by a deep sea diver who turns out to be another young sea monster named Alberto Scorfano, who attracts Luca to the surface and pulls him out against his will, turning him to appear like a human. A panicked Luca eventually calms down and becomes fascinated by his surroundings, but immediately returns to the water, but that moment still sticks into his mind till the next day.

Luca learning about the Vespa

The next day, Luca makes a statue replica of himself called 'Smuca' for his fish before he swims to the surface where he reunites with Alberto. When approaching the surface, Luca struggles on walking until Alberto teaches him how to do it, before introducing him to more great stuff the surface has to offer, such as air, gravity, the sky, clouds, the sun, and finally human stuff. Alberto then shows Luca the Vespa, an Italian scooter that, according to him, will take you anywhere in the world. As Luca imagines the idea of a Vespa, he then offers the idea to make one with Alberto. Even though he claims to not stay too long in the surface, Luca ends up staying for three hours to create the makeshift Vespa. Once Luca gets home, he is confronted by his mother on where he's been, to which Luca gets a horrible vision on what would happen if he did admit the truth, but his Grandma claims he was sent by her to look for sea cucumbers. A grateful Luca thanks her for covering him up, as he goes to bed excited for tomorrow.

Luca returns to the island to ride the Vespa, but soon declines after seeing here they would ride it, to which Alberto gives him the task of holding the ramp. Luca nervously pitches to leave it for another time, however Alberto was already riding it down. The Vespa soon breaks while riding downhill, causing Alberto to crash into the sea, luckily unharmed and determined to build another one. Throughout the past couple of days, Alberto and Luca create many versions of the Vespa and trying it out to see if its suitable to ride, as Luca leaves his statue "Smuca" to do his goatfish herding.

Luca's dream

The duo eventually complete their Vespa but it requires Luca to also ride down to secure it, something which Luca is worried about. Alberto then tells Luca he has a Bruno in his head, a negative voice that tells him that he can't do it, and to shut him up he must say "Silenzio Bruno!" After saying that, Luca and Alberto ride the Vespa which finally stays intact and leads them flying up. Later at night, Alberto tells Luca that the tiny lights in the sky are anchovies and that the big light protects them. Luca then asks Alberto about the the human town, still thinking about the thought of getting a real Vespa and later dreams about riding a Vespa with Alberto in field of dandelions, and flying into space seeing all the anchovies. Luca's dream was interrupted by a brief nightmare, which causes him to wake up and realise he overslept.

Luca upset about his parent's decision.

Luca returns home and is confronted by his parents, who secretly knew about him going to the surface and called Luca's Uncle Ugo to take him to the deep for the season in order to protect him. An angry Luca swims back to Alberto, informing him about what happens, which gives Alberto the idea for then to escape to the human town, Portorosso, and ask a supposed 'Signor Vespa' to build them a Vespa. SO the two swim to Portorosso, performing a few impressive leaps in the process, and are mesmerised by the look of the town once they got there.

Luca and Alberto manage to sneak in, with Luca anxious about their choice but Alberto confident about what they're doing. Luca becomes more mesmerised once he got into the town, but quickly discovers that it has a deep hatred of sea monsters. A human with a red Vespa soon comes in, with Luca and Alberto concluding that it's Signor Vespa and are eager to approach him. Luca then approaches a ball, which a young human asks hum to kick it towards him to which he does so, but it instead hits Signor Vespa's Vespa and starts to approach the duo angrily. The Signor Vespa informs that his name is Ercole Visconti, the 5-time-winner of The Portorosso Cup, which is how he got his Vespa. Ercole soon makes fun of the duo and attempts to shove Luca's face into the water fountain, but is stopped by a fish delivery girl named Giulia Marcovaldo, who he has rivalry with.

Luca and Alberto staring at the cheap Vespa

Giulia takes Luca and Alberto away from Ercole, informing that "We underdogs have to look out for each other." Giulia then asks the boys if they're in town for The Portorosso Cup, but leaves them to be after they awkwardly stays quiet. Luca tells Alberto that they should ask Giulia about The Portorosso Cup, since that is how Ercole got his Vespa. So after many moments of awkwardly talking to Giulia, they learn that if they win in the race, which consist of swimming, biking and eating pasta. they're rewarded with prize money that can get them a cheap Vespa. Luca and Alberto then asks Giulia if they can race with her, to which she tests if they're capable by having Luca ride her bike. Seeing that Luca struggles, Giulia asks where they're from, learning that they're runaways, and Luca adding that he needs to win the race or else he'll be sent away. Giulia then concludes to Luca to do biking, Alberto to do eating and her to do swimming, but they now need to get money for the entry fee, from her father.

Gallery

Trivia

• Luca is Pixar's fourth titular character, the others being Nemo, WALL-E, and Dory, as well as the third titular character to be a protagonist, the first two being WALL-E and Dory.
• The DisInsider initially reported that Portorosso was going to be Luca's surname, and possibly a reference to Porco Rosso.
  • His actual surname, Paguro, is Italian for "hermit crab".
• Luca is based on Enrico Casarosa himself. He chose the name, Luca, over his own because he felt it would be easier for foreign countries to say that name rather than his own.
• Luca's design is loosely recycled from the character of Bambino from Casarosa's short film La Luna.
• Out of all the characters in the film, Luca has the largest eyes (proportional to his head) since he is so curious and eager to "take everything in."
• Luca has, in some ways, drawn comparisons to Ariel from The Little Mermaid. Both characters arguably suffer from boredom from living under the sea and find happiness when they come to the surface, where they have to hide their oceanic origin. The major difference is that Ariel is motivated by love, having fallen in love with Prince Eric, while Luca's motivation is adventure and discovery.