Have you seen the brand new Disney and Pixar movie, Luca? This movie came out in theaters and on Disney+ yesterday, which just so happened to coincide with our trip to the beach. Although I didn’t have many details about the movie, I decided to pull some ideas together and have a Disney Dinner & A Movie Night at Cinnamon Shore.

This post is spoiler-free, but when I was planning our night I REALLY tried to find some spoilers about the movie. From what little I could gather online, I knew that the movie took place in Italy and followed a boy (Luca) who also happened to be a sea monster. The clips and pictures I found showed that the movie was colorful, with most of the art depicting the ocean, Italy, blues, and greens. Initially, my idea was to grab some Italian food for our meal. Our beach condo is walking distance from a pizza place, and I figured that would be a quick and simple dinner, but truthfully, I wanted to do more.

And then, I saw this ad for a new Danielle Nicole bag on the @dnhandbangs Instagram Account:

This precious bag sparked an idea, and I decided to make a life preserver charcuterie board. Thankfully, most meats and cheeses are either red or white, so I figured it wouldn’t be too hard. I grabbed a round board that I had and some rope and put together the perfect snack tray for Luca.

I started by placing a small blue plate in the middle of my board. On top of the plate, I added sour blue candy, gummy fish, and gummy whales. I wanted this area on the board to represent the water in the film, and I wanted it to be playful (the movie is about kids, after all). Then, I placed fresh Mozzarella, White Cheddar, Brie, and Asiago cheese around my board, leaving a space between each cheese. After that, I added fresh cherry tomatoes and salami to look like the red stripes you would find on a life preserver. Finally, I took a white rope, taped it around the edges of the circle board, and served the tray with crackers.

Truthfully, I could live off of charcuterie boards (even though they are glorified Lunchables, let’s be honest), but my husband wanted a little more for dinner. So, in the end, we decided to also order a cheese pizza and a couple of cannolis from the local pizza place. I sat up our dinner on the living room coffee table and put Luca on Disney+; it was the perfect way to start our weekend beach trip.

Luca is a heartwarming movie about a boy who is scared of what the world will think of him because he’s different. We all agreed that it is the perfect movie for summer and just another Pixar movie that I love so much. Check out Luca on Disney+ or in theaters now.

Sending love and magic.