Emma Berman

In Luca (2021), Emma Berman's Giulia Marcovaldo keeps the boys from having the friendship entirely to themselves. Her quick, enthusiastic delivery makes her a welcome third presence, with enough personality to hold our attention alongside them. We warmed to her because she made us want to spend time with all three children, even when the story wandered. That is a considerable service to a film which is more assured about friendship than about what its friends should do next.

Berman worked on Italian pronunciation and accent for director Enrico Casarosa, and the preparation does not weigh down the performance. The speed of her delivery helps: Giulia sounds eager to get her words out, and Berman keeps that eagerness appealing. Mike Jones and Jesse Andrews's screenplay gives some of the wider cast less to work with, leaving the voices to make recognisable figures worth caring about. The children fare better, but Berman cannot supply the direction that their time together sometimes lacks.

Luca was her feature breakthrough, and the television work that followed has stayed close to its younger audience. In SuperKitties (2023) she voices Ginny; in Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures (2023), Nash Durango. These are substantial parts in children's animation, continuing a pattern of outgoing, determined young characters. The continuity makes sense for a performer whose most persuasive quality is the pleasure she seems to take in getting a line out.

The recurring casting need not tell us the limit of what she can do. We would be interested to hear her in a quieter part, though playing an excitable child well is worth taking seriously in its own right. Animation needs actors who make such children engaging without making them exhausting. Start with Luca, accepting the meandering story for the sake of the children at its centre.