Luca is a fun, eccentric film that exudes personality and leaves room for some rumination regarding friendship and fatherhood. The notion of platonic friendships is one you don’t hear too much about. That is to say, a close, intimate relationship, much like a true friendship, but one that is not sexually charged or defined by physical intimacy. Current cultural trends seem diametrically opposed to these kinds of relationships, reading subtextual emotions and attractions into both same- and other-sex relationships. Famed twentieth-century Christian writer C. S. Lewis contended that what made Friendship (with a capital “F”) so profound was the fact that it was the most unnecessary kind of relationship needed to function in society. It was not required for survival, nor to reproduce as a species. It is unique in that it is chosen. The other type of relationship that forms a crucial part of the film’s story is the relationship between fathers and their children. As Christians, we should not turn a blind eye toward the responsibilities of the father. Luca is yet another thoughtful, earnest look at the joys of childhood and the pains of growing up. 

This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with Journal author Cole Burgett about his online-exclusive, “Friendship and Fatherhood in Pixar’s Luca.” 

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