"Between Land and Sea: Binary Reductionism and the Fluid Self in Luca"
Written by Maya Mohammad, McGill University
Edited by Ayşegül Alpak
Introduction
The Pixar Animation Studios film Luca (2021), directed by Enrico Casarosa, follows a family of sea creatures living near the fictional town of Portorosso on the Italian Riviera. In this town, regional folktales feed common fears of the unknown, as people on land call the other “sea monsters,” and those in the sea call humans “land monsters,” which is reinforced by the strict land-sea divide. The divide is eventually breached by the movie’s protagonist, Luca, as he emerges on the beach and transforms from a sea creature to a human, thereby undermining the social order it previously upheld. This prompts Luca to renegotiate his identities as both human and sea creature, as he confronts the choice of remaining with his new friends in Portorosso or returning to his family in the sea. He reconciles his split self by revealing his sea creature identity to people on land, thereby demonstrating that land and sea inhabitants are not as opposite as previously imagined. Through examining Luca’s simultaneous embodiment of land and sea identities, I argue that the film critiques binary reductionism by exposing how fear-induced cultural fictions homogenize complex lived experiences, and claim that identity is constantly negotiated and interconnected rather than fixed within oppositional categories.
The Constructed Fantasy of Land and Sea Identities
Luca echoes anthropologist Michael Taussig’s (2000) conceptualization of the beach as a liminal threshold in exploring how subjectivity is formed through estrangement from self, others, and environment. Luca’s first encounter with land life is mediated through his finding of human objects lost at sea. In these moments, he undergoes the process of fantasy as described by Taussig, where hints of foreign human objects displace the readily existing reality and feed Luca’s imagination about the existence of an unfamiliar one.[1] Through this, Taussig’s conception of the ocean as representing a site of unknowability that is physically separated by the beach is reversed to apply to the estrangement of sea creatures and their unfamiliarity with land. In this instance, Luca's imagination seeks to fill the knowledge gap about land life, challenging the mutual antagonism caused by local myths that cast the other as monstrous. His collection of human objects allows him to recognize the existence of a parallel world to the sea, yet one that remains physically out of reach due to the material threshold of the beach. The beach itself thus becomes a liminal space, evoking Luca’s fantasy of what lies beyond—moreover, the potential for a new conception of his identity in relation to his changing environment.
The physical transformation Luca undergoes as he emerges from the sea—transitioning from sea creature to human—marks the beach not only as a threshold but also as a site of disruption.[2] Luca feels alienated from himself and his environment after his transformation from a sea creature to a human when he surfaces on the beach. After Luca’s transformation, his identity becomes a fluid concept that is constantly negotiated within both external and internal contexts. This moment of transformation from sea creature to human can be analyzed as a moment of identification using psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan’s notion of the mirror stage. As Lacan explains, in this mirror stage, “the transformation takes place in the subject when he assumes an image” to be their new identity.[3] To put it more clearly, when he first emerges on the beach he is confronted with the image of his newly discovered human self, which is asymmetrical to his previous identification. It distinguishes his internal and external self in that “the I’s mental permanence,” which is his self-recognition as a sea creature, is manifested on land in “its alienating destination” of the human image.[4] This asymmetry causes feelings of alienation both from his physical self and his environment, as “the specular image seems to be the threshold of the visible world.”[5] The beach here functions as the material threshold that imposes “the appearance of doubles,” i.e. land-sea or outer/inner selves.[6] Luca’s self-reflection on land is a symbolic “doubles” mirror image: his human appearance resembles him, but doesn’t match his inner sea creature self. Combined with the aforementioned disruption in his understanding of reality, this identity change further compels him to confront, collapse, and surpass the previously suppressed instability between his internal and external selves.
The manifestation of both land and sea within one person drives the collapse of dominant narratives that uphold strict binaries by demonstrating their interconnectedness. Luca’s simultaneous embodiment of both exposes the flaws of land-sea binarisms. However, this fluid and sometimes contradictory concept of identity is viewed as unnatural within their community. Entering human society induces feelings of alienation as he must assimilate within it, causing his fantasy of land to be destabilized by the reality of being othered in a place where he does not belong. This is represented when his sea creature identity is revealed to humans, and he believes he must choose only one of two selves.[7] There doesn’t seem to be a better choice because he has strong ties to both sides: his sea creature relatives and his human friends. At this point, the characters cannot conceive of existing in both environments simultaneously; for sea and land to reconcile rather than remain in dual existence. Luca's facing this embodied dissonance ultimately causes his land-sea selves to harmonize, thus eliminating the physical and metaphorical divide. As Luca’s sea creature appearance is revealed to the town on land, the fear-inducing folktales are proven false.[8] It shows humans and sea creatures are not as “other” as they have been constructed to be, as their similarities are made more visible. For example, they have families, parents, and homes, just like humans. Thus, the manifestation of both land and sea within one person drives the collapse of dominant narratives that uphold strict binaries by demonstrating their interconnectedness.
Consequences of Binary Reductionism
Examining Luca’s negotiated identity as a disturbance to binary structures connects his challenge to dominant narratives and consequent exclusion from real-life experiences of marginalization, which are rooted in binary reductionism and intracategorical simplification.[9] Binaries in Luca are tools for the antagonization and consequent justified marginalization of the constructed “other.” The mythologization of land and sea monsters conveniently replaces their respective realities. It encourages what Taussig calls a fantasy that produces the invisibilization of certain people based on a lack of information or misinformation. Folktales in the film employ this fantasy, serving as a mechanism of power that distorts social realities via imagined binarity. They create cultural fictions that exaggerate the constructed otherness by maintaining the social separation based on fear, which naturalizes exclusion. In this section, the implications of binary reductionism will be analyzed further in the film’s framing.
The symbolization of Luca’s land-sea dualism evokes broader themes of animal versus human, wilderness versus civilization, and self versus other, all modes of binary reductionism. This term is used to explain the process of simplifying complex identities, experiences, or realities into opposing categories. It reduces individual complexities by enforcing a strict either/or logic, often operating to marginalize specific groups. In this case, it aims at the othering of land and sea people through the uniformization of intracategorical complexity. The deconstruction of these binary categories “reveal[s] the complexity of lived experience within such groups.”[10] Applying this lens of homogenization to the film reveals that people sharing a living environment, whether land or sea, have similar experiences and identity traits. Instead, intracategorical complexity redirects the focus from differences between these categories to differences within them. For example, the film reveals intracategorical complexity by showing that not all sea creatures have the same relation to land. While Luca expresses curiosity about land, his parents fear it, and his friend Alberto embraces it entirely, highlighting internal diversity within the category of sea creatures that resists binary reductionism.
Luca is a major agent in complicating the cultural fiction that describes sea creatures and humans as monolithic because he does not fit into either category. His embodying of the unique intersection of both “account for lived experience at neglected points of intersection—ones that tended to reflect multiple subordinate locations as opposed to dominant or mixed locations.”[11] Dominant locations assume the naturalized experiences of universalized binary identities.[12] It would be abiding by the mythologized sea creature identities that uphold their monster-like characteristics, rather than exposing their actual lived experiences that are actually similar to those of humans. Luca’s character reflects how real-world social categories have internal complexities that get erased by dominant narratives, exposing how binary reductionism marginalizes individuals by homogenizing them within a single category and placing them in opposition to others.
Conclusion
Luca utilizes the land-sea divide to explore how binary structures shape identity and belonging. The beach serves as a liminal threshold, where subjectivity is formed through estrangement from self, others, and environment. Following Taussig’s understanding of the beach as a space of cultural imagination and threshold, Luca’s crossing into land life marks the disruption of binary order and the beginning of internal conflict. When he sees his human reflection, he experiences what Lacan calls the mirror stage—a misrecognition that produces a split between internal and external self. Luca’s newfound identity exposes the instability of binary categories. His identity is not fixed but negotiated, shaped by shifting contexts and relationships. The fear-driven folktales that frame land and sea creatures as monsters work as mechanisms of power, producing what Taussig calls fantasy to naturalize separation and uphold social divisions. These myths replace lived realities with imagined oppositions. I use binary reductionism to describe this process: the simplification of complex identities into fixed, oppositional categories. Applying McCall’s intracategorical framework, the film reveals internal diversity within the category of “sea creature,” challenging the assumption of group uniformity. Many sea creature characters are depicted as relating differently to land, resisting naturalizing narratives. Luca’s refusal to choose between land and sea exposes the limitations of binary logic. His presence challenges the myth of oppositional difference and opens space for recognition across boundaries. The film ultimately calls for a view of identity that embraces fluidity, complexity, and coexistence beyond binary constraints.
Endnotes
[1]Michael Taussig, "The Beach (A Fantasy)." Critical Inquiry 26, no. 2 (2000): 250.
[2]Luca, directed by Enrico Casarosa (2021; Milano, Walt Disney Pictures) 00:09:55 to 00:10:48.
[3]Jacques Lacan, "The Mirror Stage as Formative of the I function as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience," In Écrits, translated by Bruce Fink (W. W. Norton, 1949), 76.
[4]Lacan, "The Mirror Stage as Formative of the I function as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience," 76.
[5]Lacan, "The Mirror Stage as Formative of the I function as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience," 77.
[6]Lacan, "The Mirror Stage as Formative of the I function as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience," 77.
[7]Casarosa, “Luca,” at 1:04:05 to 1:06:34.
[8]Casarosa, “Luca,” at 1:16:30 to 1:19:32.
[9]Leslie McCall, "The Complexity of Intersectionality." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 30, no. 3 (2005): 1771–1800.
[10]McCall, "The Complexity of Intersectionality," 1774.
[11]McCall, "The Complexity of Intersectionality," 1780.
[12]McCall, "The Complexity of Intersectionality," 1780.