Review: Luck

Synopsis:

From Apple Original Films comes the story of Sam Greenfield, the unluckiest person in the world, who when she stumbles into the never-before-seen Land of Luck, sets out on a quest to bring some good luck home for her best friend. But with humans not allowed, her only chance is teaming up with the magical creatures who live there to do it. “ Luck” is produced by Skydance Animation.

What We Thought:

I thought Luck was quite cute. It’s nothing overly groundbreaking or original, but that’s fine. Kids will love the colors, the different characters, the music and families will enjoy the sweet story. If I had kids, I’d sit down and watch it with them and listen to their laughter.

The story is about a young girl named Sam who turns 18 and has to move out and get her own apartment because she could never find a foster family. Sam is also the unluckiest girl in the world, but what she lacks in luck, she makes up for with heart. She wants to help young Hazel find her forever home so she doesn’t have to live the life she did. Enter Simon Pegg’s Bob, a black cat that loses his lucky penny which transforms Sam’s life. Until she flushes it down a toilet and follows Bob into the Land of the Luck to get another one for Hazel.

Bob wants her gone immediately because humans aren’t allowed there, but he agrees to help her since he lost the penny in the first place. This is where the bulk of the movie takes place and it’s where it is the most fun. You see all kinds of animals and creatures including pigs, Leprechauns, a dragon and unicorn. Kids will love these characters and all the shenanigans. The lucky part of this world is colorful with crazy contraptions and characters doing random things because luck makes it easy. The other side is where bad luck lives and it’s dark and gloomy with all kinds of accidents. I enjoyed all the creatures and characters although I do think a lot of them look similar to Illumination Studios characters like the pigs, rabbits and unicorn from Sing, The Secret Life of Pets and other movies.

Whether kids get the concept of luck/being unlucky is irrelevant. The movie is fun and cute and they will like that. The rabbit creatures are like Minions and get laughs. The Leprechauns have a funny scene when Sam’s bad luck takes them out of control. Even the bad luck area has characters kids will like and not be scared of.

The story of a good person like Sam wanting to help someone else is the big takeaway from Luck. You root for Sam despite her bad luck because she’s doing the right thing and doing something nice. Animated movies sometimes beat you over the head with their sweetness, but this has enough adventure with everything going on that it held my attention. People might write it off as a poor man’s Pixar (it does have a former Pixar person producing it), but as someone who isn’t a Pixar diehard, I can see the similarities, but also see differences. It’s emotional, but never feels overly sweet and doesn’t pull on your heart strings too much. I’m not sure what kind of audience it will find being released the way it is, but if you have Apple TV+ and want something nice to watch with the family, this will definitely work.