Luck is the first film produced at Skydance Animation under the stewardship of new Head Of Animation John Lasseter, following his high-profile exit from Pixar after accusations of sexual misconduct. He is only a producer here — choreographer-turned-filmmaker Peggy Holmes is in the director’s chair — but Lasseter's influence on the project is self-evident, and the comparison to his former studio is openly invited, in fact — marketing for the film loudly trumpets “From the creative visionary behind Toy Story”. It certainly borrows Pixar’s visual style (cutesy stylised animation interacting in near-photorealistic environments) and behind-the-scenes talent (Lasseter has poached many of his former collaborators). But some of that famous Pixar formula can be felt, too: like Monsters, Inc. or Inside Out, this is a story about a reality-adjacent fantasy world that controls some elemental force — a means of teaching kids some wisdom about the human condition. Luck never quite hits Pixar’s peaks, alas, but its creators give it a good shot.
The film begins in sentimental fashion, establishing Sam (voiced by Eva Noblezada) as an orphan at a foster home who never found her “forever family”. She is also, apparently, the least lucky person who has ever lived, which manifests as extreme clumsiness and constant debilitating misfortune. As she turns 18 and begins an independent life, Sam wishes for better luck for fellow orphan Hazel (voiced by Adelynn Spoon), her tiny roommate and effective little sister. It’s a sweetly pitched set-up but schmaltzy in the extreme; your tolerance for this level of cheese may vary.
Some of the pratfalls feel repetitive, but it’s bright, lively and engaging throughout.
Then along comes a cat named Bob, who bears more than a passing visual resemblance to Jiji, the talking cat from Kiki’s Delivery Service, and through Simon Pegg’s performance sounds a little like Mike Myers’ Shrek. In fairness, his accent is one of the better ones, especially when held against some of the near-hate-crimes committed against the Emerald Isle once we’re whisked away to the fantastical Land of Luck. This is where good luck and bad luck are apparently manufactured; parts of it seemingly modelled on an American Irish bar on St Patrick's day, minus the booze.
Still, it’s a sparky and impressively realised place — if slightly complicated. Here, you’re never more than five minutes away from a bit of exposition, and as Sam and Bob embark on their mission, we’re constantly having in-universe rules explained to us: they must locate a ‘travel penny’, then a ‘good luck crystal’, a ‘bunny drone’, and, naturally, the joystick that controls the bunny drone.
But if you can keep up, there is some nicely staged visual comedy to be enjoyed. There is a very funny stand-off with an auto-flushing toilet, which behaves like 2001’s HAL, and an inspired dance sequence with a gaggle of bunnies that only the hardest hearts would begrudge. Some of the pratfalls feel repetitive — after a while, the bad-luck clumsiness feels like the same joke, over and over again — but it’s bright, lively and engaging throughout.
The ultimate message of the film feels slightly confused: it wants us to embrace the randomness of life (‘Bad luck can be good sometimes!’ is what we’re encouraged to think), without really pondering how much of life is actually driven by choice and personal responsibility. But if you can stomach the wobbly lessons, the sometimes clunky writing and the offensively bad Irish accents, this is a perfectly fine thing to pop your kid in front of for a couple of hours.
