Disney Plus recently released the newest Pixar film Luca, and we couldn’t resist tackling
it for our channel.
Now, this movie is like many other animations Pixar has done, meaning there really isn’t
anyone we can deem as evil.
But we can still break down who is the least good, and who is the most good.
I’m Anthony with WickedBinge, and this is Luca: Good to Most Good.
Starting with our least good characters, we have Ercole Visconti.
The main antagonist of the movie, Ercole thinks far too highly of himself.
He rides the title of Champion of the Portorosso Cup as well as he does his Vespa.
When he isn’t training, Ercole torments the town.
When he signs up for the race, it’s revealed he had been lying about his age for the last
couple of years.
Ercole wasn’t content with just keeping his bitterness during the race.
He went out of his way to harass Guilia, Alberto, and Luca.
When he found Luca and Alberto alone in town, Ercole turned to using violence in an attempt
to get them to back out of the race.
He made his lackeys hold Alberto while he punched him in the stomach.
However, even before our main heroes teamed up against him, Ercole made it clear Luca
and Alberto were not welcome in his book.
He even tried to shove Luca into the fountain.
He may not be the vilest Pixar villain, but he was cruel.
Next up, we have Ercole’s lackeys: Ciccio and Guido.
Often silent in the background while Ercole rampaged, we have to make them a lesser good
in this ranking because they had complicity.
After all, they had been the ones to hold Alberto in place while Ercole punched him.
Also, they stood by while the kids in town were pushed around by their quote-unquote
“friend.”
However, they rank a little higher than Ercole for finally standing up to him in the end.
Guido had been the one to change their direction at the last moment when Ercole was going to
crash into Guilia’s boat knowing it would cause serious harm to Luca, Alberto, and Guilia.
Moving on, we have Uncle Ugo.
After Daniela and Lorenzo discovered Luca’s adventures towards the surface, Ugo was called
from the deeper ocean to give Luca a temporary home.
Now we don’t see Ugo for a long time in this film.
In all fairness, he seems like a nice enough guy.
But Ugo was also unwilling to hear Luca out.
He took the news about Alberto as confirmation that Luca was being influenced by a flawed
role model.
While we usually have pets ranking as more good, we have to place Machiavelli here on
our list.
He is Massimo’s cat and is seen throughout the movie being suspicious of Alberto and
Luca.
Luckily he was able to warm up to the boys after they found out feeding him fish got
them on his good side.
Since Machiavelli was the one who lived with Massimo for the entire year while Guilia left
to live with her mother, it makes sense that he would be anxious about new people in the
home.
Introduced to us as the organizer of the Portorosso Cup Race, Signora Marsigliese comes up next
on this list.
She adored the theatrics of organizing the race, even if it meant going a little overboard
with her performances.
While Signora Marsigliese was an organized and passionate woman proud of her town, she
wasn’t perfect.
Despite catching Ercole lying about his age, she allowed him to have a spot in the race.
We can understand that Ercole was very influential among the villagers.
Still, Signora Marsigliese could have easily demanded proof of everyone’s ages and made
it impossible for Ercole to continue competing.
Signora was accommodating to Luca deciding to race on his own, even if she didn’t quite
understand the planning behind wearing a diving suit in the swim portion of the race.
However, she also dropped the ball when it came to the eating portion.
Ercole could not have been allowed to shove the rest of the pasta in Guido’s face.
At least she came through in the end and stated that Luca and Alberto did technically win,
having crossed the finish line before the others.
Taking our next spot is Luca’s father, Lorenzo Paguro.
At the beginning of the movie, he’s far more concerned with his show crabs.
While his wife is expressing her concerns over Luca, Lorenzo replies with nonsense and
gives away the fact that he wasn’t paying attention.
To his credit, Lorenzo did help his wife to find out where their son was going every day.
Once they found the trinkets that Luca hid away, Lorenzo shared Daniela’s worry.
As a result, he called his brother Ugo over and asking for the other sea monster to take
in their son while things calmed down at home.
Though Lorenzo was scared of the surface, he followed his wife to the village and helped
find their son.
Following her husband on this ranking is Daniela Paguro.
Between the two parents, she clearly had a closer relationship with Luca.
Daniela was always showing concern over his well-being.
She had been the first between her and her husband to try finding out where Luca was
going every day.
When everything was exposed, Daniela was not willing to hear Luca out.
After Luca ran away, Daniela overcame her fear to find her son, taking Lorenzo with
her.
While they had a lot of trouble finding out which of the dozens of kids was their own
little monster, Daniela came up with some creative solutions to figure it out.
Sure, it wasn’t exactly the best idea to slam a soccer ball into a kid’s face or
knock a bunch of kids into a fountain, but it narrowed down their search.
When they finally found Luca, Daniela tried stopping Luca from competing, not understanding
what her son was trying to accomplish.
During the cycling part of the race, Daniela began to slowly come around to Luca being
on the surface, recognizing how well he was doing without their help.
With the encouragement of her mother and Luca’s friend Alberto, Daniela eventually agreed
to let Luca attend a human school.
Sure, it didn’t completely make up for how she wanted to send him away rather than listening
to his side of things, but it showed a lot of growth.
Next up on our list is Grandma Paguro.
When Luca starts asking questions about boats and the human village, Grandma Paguro quickly
catches on.
She gloats about beating human monsters in card games and helps her grandson by giving
him cover stories when Daniela grills the poor boy about where he was.
After Luca and Alberto are revealed as sea monsters at the end of the movie, Grandma
Paguro makes another appearance, explaining that she came there often.
She encouraged the idea of Luca going to school and immediately approved of Alberto and Guilia.
Our next spot goes to another parent: Massimo Marcovaldo.
Guilia’s father worked as a fisherman and was one of the many on the hunt for sea monsters.
Massimo had no issue with his daughter racing and didn’t really object to her creating
a team.
But he did have to be upfront with how they still had to afford the entry fee.
After giving Alberto and Luca a chance to help him work, Massimo was quick to warm up
to his daughter’s friends.
He put the two to work to make them earn their keep, but we count that as a fair trade-off
rather than a strict work ethic.
When Massimo saw for himself that Luca and Alberto were the sea monsters he had been
hunting, he had been one of the first to defend them.
While he had been raised in a town that taught him to be afraid of such creatures, Massimo
was able to rise above that fear and see them as the young men who helped and befriended
his daughter.
By the end, it was also hinted that Massimo figured out Grandma Paguro’s secret.
He doesn’t sound surprised when handing her a plate of food and calling her by name.
It’s a fun hint that perhaps Massimo was one of the many humans that lost to her in
a game of cards, further cementing his acceptance of Luca and Alberto being sea monsters.
Not to mention he was happy to accept Aberto living and working with him once Luca and
Guilia left for school.
Between Massimo missing his own child during the school year and Alberto’s father leaving
him behind, it was a heartwarming way for them to take care of one another.
Of course, it helps that Alberto used his knowledge of fish to help Massimo become more
successful.
Our bronze medal of most good goes to Guilia Marcovaldo.
The first to come to Luca and Alberto’s aid, Guilia was the only one in the village
to stand up to Ercole and his mistreatment of the town.
She spoke her mind and refused to be intimidated.
Though Luca and Alberto were odd, Guilia just rolled with it.
There are a lot of kids in animation that would have simply laughed off Luca calling
the moon a fish, but Guilia took it as a chance to teach him something.
When Luca and Alberto were fighting, Guilia tried to keep the mood light by encouraging
their progress.
After Alberto’s true nature was exposed, Guilia overcame her fear to find out for herself
if Luca was the same.
When it was shown to be true, she begged Luca to return to the ocean so he would be safe.
Seeing Luca continue with the race, Guilia still made it clear that she wanted him to
return home.
But that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to help him by showing him how to eat noodles.
When Ercole chased after Luca and Alberto, Guilia allowed herself to get hurt to slow
him down and keep him from hurting her friends.
And, of course, we can’t forget the main reason Guilia agreed to team up with Alberto
and Luca.
Though Guilia had been hesitant to accept help, she had been more unsettled at the idea
of encouraging runaways.
When Luca explained that his parents were looking to send him away, Guilia accepted
their aid.
She may not have understood all of the details of why they wanted to leave home, but she
could sympathize that being sent away from everything you love would be a horrible punishment.
Of all the humans to befriend, Luca and Alberto made a good call trusting Guilia.
Our silver medal of most good is being awarded to Luca Paguro.
Our main protagonist, Luca is quickly torn between his fascination with humans and his
obligations at home.
While Luca was hesitant to be on land, he warmed up quickly to shifting back and forth
with Alberto’s help.
Between him and Alberto, Luca had been the one to figure out that money could be used
to make a Vespa, leading to them uniting with Guilia for the race.
Luca was clearly under a lot of stress after being told he had to be sent away by his parents.
In Luca’s defense, any kid who came home and being told they were meant to live with
a total stranger would be on edge.
It made sense that Luca would be desperate for a way for him and Alberto to get a Vespa
so they could ride away and be free to explore the world.
Though Luca was pretty nervous and soft-spoken, he quickly absorbed all the information he
could from Guilia’s books.
His need to ask questions and find answers led to him wanting to change their motivation,
but he had been upfront with Alberto rather than hiding it.
He still wanted his first friend to be involved with his new dream.
We dock him some points for one obvious reason: leaving Alberto to be exposed as a sea monster
alone.
Sure, Alberto was being hasty with revealing himself as inhuman.
Still, Luca shouldn’t have pretended to not know and left Alberto to fend for himself.
To Luca’s credit, he did follow Alberto and apologize for his actions.
Luca had been willing to give up the idea of school and go back to their original plan
of getting a Vespa to travel around, deciding to enter the race alone.
Though Luca had many hiccups when competing, he kept going to try and make things better
with Alberto.
Seeing Ercole call attention to Alberto in his sea monster form, Luca quickly gets Alberto
to safety even though it meant revealing himself.
After the race, Luca and Alberto rushed to Guilia’s side to help her up after stopping
Ercole from chasing them.
Before everyone, including the parents that tried sending him away, Luca stood his ground,
finally honest with the village about who he was.
We can only imagine how well Luca will do in school, since he could chase after his
dream thanks to his friend.
Finally, we’re granting the gold medal of most good to Alberto Scorfano.
Alberto was a great friend to Luca from the first moment they met.
While some may argue that leading Luca to the surface was a bad choice, we have to disagree.
Alberto was able to introduce Luca to all the things that made the surface world fun
and exciting.
When Luca expressed how his parents were planning to send him away, Alberto sympathized and
tried to find a way for him and Luca to live their own lives.
Sure, going on the hunt for a Vespa and deciding to live their lives traveling wasn’t the
smartest or most thought-out choice.
Still, they were only fourteen year old boys that were still learning about humans.
Alberto did express some jealousy when he thought he was losing Luca to Guilia.
Eventually, he was able to overcome it and help Luca accomplish his dream of going to
school.
By the end of the movie, Alberto still had his own issues to deal with.
He was still trying to come to terms with his father abandoning him.
He also still had to deal with his new friends being so far away from him.
But he still whooped and cheered for Luca’s departure to give Luca peace of mind.
In all honesty, Alberto had every right to be angry with Luca after their fight.
We agree that Alberto acted jealously and could have found a better solution than letting
Guilia see him in his sea monster form.
But seeing Luca pretend to not be like him and denounce him in front of the townspeople
had to have been nothing short of heartbreaking.
When Luca sought him out, Alberto had internalized all of his anger, seeing himself as unworthy
of loyalty or affection.
When Luca declared he would race alone, Alberto had initially brushed off the idea as crazy.
He clearly doubted the possibility since they both knew there was a swimming portion that
would have been near impossible to navigate without being revealed as a sea monster.
But when Luca kept going, Alberto showed up in the rain with an umbrella, ready to cover
Luca and keep him from being found out.
When Alberto was revealed in front of the townspeople, he begged his friend to stay
dry rather than expecting Luca to follow suit.
He stated that Luca was still safe so long as he stayed away.
When things settled, Alberto took things a step further.
He sold the Vespa they had been dreaming of owning to get Luca a train ticket, giving
his blessing for Luca to go to school.
Alberto was a prime example of what it means for someone to have a heart of gold and more
than earned a spot in the Pixar heroes Hall of Fame.
Before we go, we wanted to hand out some extra medals to the characters that fit them the
best.
Taking the Darwin Medal is Luca’s Uncle Ugo.
Ugo is said to be brothers with Lorenzo, yet Ugo looks completely different from Luca’s
father.
While some of that likely came from genetics, we speculate that Ugo and Lorenzo once looked
far more similar.
But for reasons not explained in the movie, Ugo had decided to move to the deeper ocean
levels and so adapted to that environment.
The Lust Medal we’re going to give to Luca.
Kind of in a loose sense of the word…lust can mean an intense love of something, and
Luca has that covered with his fixation on human things.
From the beginning of this story, Luca is desperate to know more about the land and
the supposed monsters that walk among it.
Luca’s love of the human world ran so deep that he wanted to learn everything.
Going home with the Wrath Medal and the Pride Medal is our main antagonist Ercole.
Not only due to the race but because he was able to use the money he won to buy flashy
things like a top-of-the-line Vespa.
When Alberto and Luca joined Guilia for the race, Ercole tried intimidating them with
physical assault and threats.
Not to mention when the town was beginning to cheer Luca’s efforts on, Ercole was seen
scolding them for showing support to an underdog.
The Greed Medal we’re going to give to Daniela.
We’re giving her this medal because of her demand to keep her son isolated.
Though we can understand her motivations, Daniela made a mistake many parents make when
controlling their children’s surroundings.
This is not taking the child’s wants and needs into account.
Daniela was so preoccupied keeping Luca alive she didn’t really speak to him about her
concerns.
The Sloth Medal goes to Lorenzo.
Luca’s father isn’t seen doing a whole lot during most of the movie.
While his wife is the one to make plans and worry about Luca, Lorenzo has a far more relaxed
approach to life.
He’s seen in the beginning just fussing over his show crabs and barely paying attention
to Luca.
By the end, Lorenzo was able to admit that he didn’t show his son the attention Luca
needed from his father.
Finally, we have to give the Gluttony Medal to Machiavelli.
Machiavelli often hissed or growled at the two, not happy knowing that they were the
sea monsters the people of Portorosso had grown afraid of.
The only thing that made his feline happy was Luca feeding him fish anytime he would
growl.
And that ends our ranking.
But let us know in the comment section who you think is the least good and most good
characters in the Pixar film Luca.
And tell us what we should cover next.
Remember to hit that notification bell and binge our Good to Evil playlist.
Where we break down the morality of the characters in your favorite cartoons, shows, and movies.
But most importantly, stay wicked.