Pixar fans Luca — particularly those who bring the titular young sea monster and his best friend Alberto aboard — are rejoicing on social media, announcing that “Luberto” (as the ship was named) has been declared canon. This conversation sparked when McKenna Harris, story artist, appeared Luca and director of the accompanying short film Hello Albertoshared a series of sweet (and unofficial) art pieces from Luca and Alberto in one Instagram storyand ends with a picture of the two kissing under an umbrella.
“I had a whole sequence in my head where Luca and Alberto reunited four summers in a row, culminating in a kiss,” Harris wrote.
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Image: McKenna Harris via Instagram
Just to be clear: Pixar didn’t do this Strictly speaking confirmed that Luca and Alberto are a couple. Some people on social media are calling Harris the director of Luca, but Harris only directed the accompanying short film. These images are unofficial, and while Harris is more familiar with the characters than a typical fan artist, director Enrico Casarosa has not commented on them Also The fact that the relationship was interpreted as romantic confirms fans.
The first trailer of the film created a huge buzz much There was a lot of conversation about the relationship between the two boys, especially since the Italian Riviera setting reminded some viewers of Luca Guadagnino’s beloved queer romance Call me by your name. But when asked about the main characters’ relationship before the film’s release, Casarosa denied that they had any romantic feelings for each other and insisted that he wanted to focus on their friendship.
“I really wanted to talk about friendship before boyfriends and boyfriends complicated things,” he said in an interview before the film’s release.
Nevertheless, queer topics are in Luca are undeniable. Even if it’s not explicitly a love story, Luca contains many parallels to the LGBTQ experience, particularly when it comes to how Luca hides his identity from others and finds community outside of his judgmental family. The fans clung on
Since LucaSince the film’s release in 2021, Disney and Pixar’s theatrical animations have featured a few more overt queer relationships, but they’re usually kept on the sidelines of the story. The relationship between Luca and Alberto is not canon, but like so many others, it is previous Disney characters and relationships that feel queer-coded has taken on new meaning for some fans. The whole damn movie is about the close, loving, emotional friendship of these boys, and that’s more fulfilling than the brief supporting couples in other Disney and Pixar films. Now that someone in the insider scene seems to think so, fans have a reason to celebrate and watch the film again with this new knowledge.
