How much does luck influence our lives? Are some people lucky? And, conversely, are some people unlucky?
In the world of the mildly enjoyable but overstuffed computer-animated movie “Luck” — a production of Skydance Animation debuting this week on Apple TV+ — the answers to those questions are yes, yes and oh my gosh, yes.
In fact, Sam Greenfield (voiced by Eva Noblezada) may just be the unluckiest person in the world. Lots of little things go wrong for her all the time — she can’t even toast a piece of bread without things going haywire.
More importantly, though, the resident of the Summerland Home for Girls has never been lucky enough to find her “forever family.”
“Yeah,” says Sam, who’s now 18, “sure missed the boat on that one. On the upside, now I can put all that hoping behind me.”
It’s time for her to move out of Summerland — leaving behind young friends such as Hazel (Adelynn Spoon) — and into an apartment. To keep it, she’ll need to be in school and work.
We really get a sense of just how unlucky Sam is at the new digs, where, among other problems, a broom falls against the bathroom doorknob, locking her inside, and then said doorknob comes apart as she pulls on it while trying to free herself.
It’s not much better at her new job at a crafts superstore, where cheerful store manager Marv (Lil Rel Howery) gives her responsibilities that bring with them little risk of her damaging the inventory.
At the orphanage, Sam and Hazel have talked much about luck and were always on the lookout for a lucky penny.
“Find a penny, pick it up, and all day long you’ll have good luck,” they’d say.
Well, after a dejected Sam has an encounter with a black cat on the street, she finds one — and boy does her luck change. Appealingly selfless, Sam wants nothing more than to give the good-luck charm to Hazel before a fast-approaching visit with a couple looking to adopt.
Not surprisingly, Sam’s luck runs out when she loses the penny in a most unfortunate way. This is bad news not only for Sam and Hazel but also for the cat, Bob (Simon Pegg), who speaks — with a Scottish accent, no less — and hails from a magical place called the Land of Luck. Losing a lucky penny is no small deal, and Bob already gets the stink eye from a higher-up, the Captain (Whoopi Goldberg, “The Lion King”).
While he has no interest in being friends or getting to know Sam, Bob makes a deal with her: They will travel to the Land of Luck to secure a new penny; Sam first will loan it to Hazel, and then it will remain in Bob’s possession to keep him in the Captain’s good graces.
What follows is an extended adventure full of colorful creatures — including a dragon voiced by Jane Fonda (“Grace and Frankie”), a leprechaun named Gerry (Colin O’Donoghue, “Once Upon a Time”) and Rootie (John Ratzenberger, “Cheers”), the proprietor of an unlucky juice bar — and occasionally dazzling visuals and inventive scenarios.
“Luck” is reminiscent of a couple of Pixar efforts, 2015’s “Inside Out” and 2020’s “Soul,” which have reality-based setups that may be interesting to adult viewers that give way to fantasy-world adventures designed to enthrall kids. That’s fine — entertaining kids obviously should be the prime objective of these movies — but “Luck” does allow the adult mind to wander off from time to time.
The bigger problem with “Luck” is it feels a step below similar big-screen releases. (For instance, both “Inside Out” and “Soul” won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and “Luck” almost surely won’t.) Director Peggy Holmes helmed the 2008 direct-to-video release “The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning” and a few subsequent animated efforts that had limited theatrical releases. That feels about right based on a viewing of “Luck.”
By the way, Skydance Animation is led by John Lasseter, once the chief creative officer at Pixar and the director of such Pixar hits as 1995’s “Toy Story” and 2006’s “Cars.” He’s a producer on “Luck,” but it may have benefited from him sitting in the big chair.
That said, some of the performances in “Luck” are quite appealing, starting with Noblezada (“Hadestown”), who helps make Sam a very appealing young woman. (If there’s a knock against the character, she doesn’t have much of an arc; she begins and ends as an admirable person and doesn’t really have a lesson to learn.)
While we get a lot of Pegg (“Ice Age: Land of the Dinosaurs), who ensures “Luck” has a steady pulse whenever Bob is in the middle of the action, we are left wanting more of Howery, the comedian-actor (“Get Out,” “Free Guy”) making the most of his very limited time.
The best thing “Luck” has to offer is the lesson it gets to about bad luck and how, if handled correctly, it isn’t so bad. That’s a good one for the little ones — and it’s enough to nudge it into the Land of the Recommended.
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‘LUCK’
2.5 stars (out of 4)
MPAA rating: G
Running time: 1:46
How to watch: On Apple TV+ Friday
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