Pixar dips into the ocean once too often with “Luca,” a colorful but thin (and literal) fish-out-of-water tale. Although the movie touches on familiar themes about friendship, overcoming ...

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Disney chose to bypass traditional movie theaters and send three Pixar films in a row — 2020's Soul, 2021's Luca, and 2022's Turning Red ...

Luca has the vibe of a stop-motion production, with exaggerated characters that look like they’re made of toothpicks and plasticine. It all helps add to the movie’s cozy nature.

Luca’s mom and dad, voiced by Rudolph and Gaffigan as lovably bumbling helicopter parents, must let go and loosen up, but their instinctive caution is hardly misplaced.

Or a limonata in this case, as the film takes place in an Italian seaside village in the 1950s, where Luca (voiced by Jacob Tremblay, “Good Boys”) and Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer, “Shazam ...