Luck has three problems. Problem #1: Any animated feature film released in the last 20 years is immediately compared to the elephant in the room that is PIXAR. Problem #2: Luck, the first animated feature released by Skydance Animation, is on the best streaming service around right now, Apple TV Plus. Problem #3: Skydance Animation’s head of animation is former PIXAR head honcho, John Lasseter.
Now, that’s a lot of baggage for one 105 minute cartoon to overcome. And this movie tries (sometimes a little too hard) but doesn’t quite manage to reach any real creative heights.
Could Have Been Better
This animated feature tells the story of Sam, an orphan from a foster home who is stepping out into the world, on her own, for the very first time. She also happens to be the unluckiest person in the world. One day Sam meets Bob, a black cat who, unbeknownst to her, is actually an agent for the Land of Luck. Bob, accidentally drops his lucky penny, which Sam finds, and it turns her luck around. Just as things start working out for her, Sam accidentally flushes the penny down the toilet.
Sam then bumps into Bob again, discovers he can talk, follows him down a mystical magical portal and finds herself in the Land of Luck, where she tries to turn her fortunes around, while helping Bob get himself out of trouble for losing his lucky penny in the first place.
Hijinks and adventures ensue. Cute things and characters appear and do things. There is a dance number in the middle. A lesson is learned. And Sam and Bob live happily ever after.
Actually Luck has just one problem. The problem of expectation. Nothing here is great. Everything is good enough. Throughout its 105 minute runtime, I kept finding myself easily distracted by the real world. I wasn’t fully engaged. There were a couple of nice laughs (Flula Borg is always incredibly funny, even when it’s just his voice), but nothing all that memorable. Luck didn’t move me. Luck didn’t wow me. There was no Toy Story 4 opening scene rain sequence to make me lose my mind at the technical brilliance. There was no Inside Out emotional moments to make me hide a sniffle from my wife (RIP Bing Bong).
And yet, all the emotional opportunities were there. At one point we see Sam’s personal file and how she bounced around from orphanage to orphanage. We see flashbacks of a young Sam who is left at the orphanage steps, waiting for foster families who never show up. We see the Land of Bad Luck, the lives they lead, and learn of the misunderstood nature of their work. Luck breezes right by those moments.
Where PIXAR would have explored the emotions of abandonment, loneliness, and rejection that comes from being an orphan, Luck instead decides to make their protagonist a bubbly, sweet, but severely unlucky eighteen year old. Luck feels superficial.
Should Have Been Better
“But Bahir,” I hear you shout at your screens, “this is a movie for kids! Your jaded, thirty-year-old self is expecting too much!” First of all, I’m forty, but thank you. Secondly, Toy Story 3 was also a movie for kids, and I don’t think I have ever felt as much hatred for a villain as I did for Lotso. And that incinerator scene in the third act? Wow.
Luck is fine. The younger kids will enjoy it. There are enough cute things and colourful moments that will keep them entertained while you make dinner. The adults in the room, however, will mostly be playing with their phones. The expectations that I’ve heaped on this animated feature film for kids may be unfair, but with the pedigree behind it (Skydance Animation is a subsidiary of Skydance Media which, amongst others, co-produced 6 Underground, The Old Guard, The Adam Project, and Top Gun: Maverick), I expected more. John Lasseter, whose combined films have grossed more than nineteen BILLION dollars at the box office, also knows a thing or two about storytelling.
As for Apple TV Plus, the best thing I can say is that Luck feels like a Netflix animated feature film.
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