Pixar’s ‘Luca’ gets a little help from Calgary

CALGARY – Disney/Pixar’s newest film Luca got a little help from Calgary, which lent one of its own to the project.

Mookie and Billie Jo’s Neighbourhood spoke to Calgary’s John Hoffman, who worked on the movie as story supervisor, on our sister station CHFM.

“The initial impetus for the idea came from Enrico Casarosa, the director. Part of it was the side of the sea monster, and the other side of it was this deeply personal story that was inspired by this very important friendship that he had when he was a kid,” Hoffman said.

“We have a team of story artists that work on all of these movies and I sort of supervise that group. We make these movies multiple times in storyboard form.”

Hoffman says he worked on the movies for over three years.

“A script is written, then we bring the story team on and break it up into what we call sequences,” he said.

“It’s kind of like a moving comic book of the entire movie. We put that all up with dialogue and music and everything, and then we screen it for the studio.”

“Then we get all of these notes coming in–we tear the whole thing apart, and rebuild it again. We do that about eight times,” Hoffman said.

“Eventually, you get a Pixar movie out of that.”

Hoffman says a lot of work goes into making a Pixar film, and it took even more work just to land the gig with the animation giant.

“So I worked at a bunch of small studios,” Hoffman said.

“And then eventually, after sending my portfolio in a number of times to Pixar, I finally managed to get a job–after a few rejections.”

The animated film is set in a beautiful seaside town on the Italian Riviera. Luca is a coming-of-age story about one young boy experiencing an unforgettable summer filled with gelato, pasta, and endless scooter rides.

Luca shares these adventures with his newfound best friend, but all the fun is threatened by a deeply-held secret: they are sea monsters from another world just below the water’s surface.

The movie is now streaming on Disney+.