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The first official trailer of Pixar's new animated film, Luca, has been unveiled, and with the movie hitting U.S. theaters on June 18.

The coming-of-age movie is set in the Italian Riviera, the stunning coastal strip in Italy sandwiched between the Ligurian Sea and the mountain chain formed by the Maritime Alps and the Apennines.

Luca tells the story of Luca Paguro, a 13-year-old sea creature who is curious to experience what life is outside the sea, and his fellow inquisitive kid friend named Alberto Scorfano.

The two assume human-looking appearances and explores their surroundings while enjoying simpler things like eating gelato and riding bicycles.

Photo by: Disney

The movie stars Jacob Tremblay as Luca and Jack Dylan Grazer as Alberto.

They are joined by Emma Berman, Maya Rudolph, Jim Gaffigan, and Marco Barricelli.

Directing the film is Enrico Casarosa, whose credentials as a storyboard artist include Ice Age, Ratatouille, Up, and Coco, among others.

“I think there's a lot of stories that certainly inspired us, you know, the selkies or the foxes from Japan.

"I love those kinds of stories. Something that isn't what it appears to be, I always love.

So it does come a bit from those kinds of stories, but it's maybe too general a way to put it,” Casarosa told the entertainment website, Collider.

Photo by: Disney

“We do have sea monsters that have kind of developed almost a defensive way of hiding in plain sight, so that when they're dry, when they're out in the open, they can look like humans but they're not truly humans, and water will bring it back, so it will truly show [them].”

He continued, “And we have this fun, dangerous tension of, 'If you get splashed with water, you're in trouble,' and that is how this transformation works.

"It's a little bit magical, but it's actually a little more biological in some weird way, because we let octopus' camouflage inspire some of the look, so we were also looking a little bit at, how could it really work?”

In another interview, the 50-year-old storyboard artist-director revealed how they ended up casting Jacob as the movie's lead star.

Photo by: Disney

“When we met Jacob, he immediately struck me as so earnest, a complete professional, but just innocent and playful,” he told Entertainment Tonight (ET).

“He is a true kid. I think he lives in this world that is probably asking him to grow up really fast, but he's not. He struck me as the kid that wants to stay a kid a little more. That was important.”

For Jacob, he sees himself into his character and can't wait for the film to be released in its entirety.

“We have very, very similar features. He's got more curly hair than me, but I think we look very similar,” said Jacob.

Watch the trailer here:

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