I absolutely love the movie, Luca by Disney & Pixar animations!
Pixar is known for making movies with universal themes that appeal to a wide variety of audience. Luca is no different. It is based on the universal themes of adventure, trust, friendship, betrayal, courage, and forgiveness.
The characters have been sketched so well that you fall in love with each one of them.
I won’t be talking about the story as I don’t want to spoil it for you just in case some of you haven’t watched it yet. Instead, I’ll talk about the connections that I felt while watching the movie that eventually led me to making this fan art of the character, Alberto.
I grew up in a small town in India and had loads of adventure as a child. I made friends at school and in my neighbourhood. It was easy when I was little, but as I grew it became difficult to build friendship because of my identity. And I wasn’t alone. Almost everyone, in my class was discovering their caste identity and were trying to make sense of the social hierarchy that came along with it.
Kids would make jokes, tease, and bully one another using caste slurs. As an untouchable and the monitor of the class, I received a little more insult than everyone else. It was embarrassing and humiliating. It was a direct attack on self-esteem, but you know what they say. Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Well, it’s true!
While kids were desperately trying to build their self-esteem based on their caste identities. I learned to hold my own based on my unique skills and abilities.
Later, on, when I moved to a bigger city, hoping things would be better, I was surprised to learn that caste existed in Metropolitan cities as well.
Since I was attending an English medium school in South Delhi, almost everybody assumed me to be from a privileged caste and they felt free using caste slurs around me.
Like Luca, I was the odd one out. But nobody knew that as I would simply move away from kids, who would bring caste slurs in conversations.
So there, I was in a big city without my family without any real friends, alone.
But that’s not where the story ends. I was yet to attend college and meet awesome friends who like Alberto became my buddies for life.
This Art is dedicated to my crazy friends!
You can watch the entire art process here:
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