When I pitched La Luna with a presentation using watercolors, I remember someone asking me, ‘But you want to do it in watercolor?’ And I was like, ‘Well, I mean, you know, we're at Pixar and I think we should use our tools, but how do we bring in some warmth and imperfection.’ The thing I don't always love about computer animation is there's a certain sheen, a certain perfection to it. I come from drawing comics, and watercolors. “I just love sketching,” Casarosa shares. It all started with Casarosa’s drawings, his cartoony, exaggerated 2D-inspired designs, and the question of how the essence of that visual style could be captured in the sophisticated, precision-guided 3DCG pipeline that drives Pixar’s feature film productions. The film’s unique visual style eschews many of the usual photoreal sensibilities we see in so much 3DCG. But all their fun is threatened by a deeply held secret: they are both sea monsters from another world just below the water’s surface. Set in a beautiful Italian seaside town, the film tells the story of a young boy, Luca, his new best friend, Alberto, and their unforgettable summer filled with gelato, pasta, and endless scooter rides. A tale that’s part coming-of-age and part monster-out-of-water, the film, according to the director, is “a love letter to the summers of our youth - those formative years when you’re finding yourself.” Directed by Enrico Casarosa, who charmed audiences with his 2011 Oscar-nominated short, La Luna, and produced by Andrea Warren, Luca is a stylishly fun, heartwarming story about friendship, and a life-changing summer, for two teenage sea monsters living in the waters off the Italian Riviera. Fresh on the heels of Soul’s incredibly successful 2021 awards season run, Disney and Pixar are set to release their latest animated feature, Luca, which opens this coming June 18.