Luck

Luck is 2022 computer animated film released under Skydance Media. It also marked the return of John Lasseter to film since his sexual harassment claims from the #METOO movement.
== Plot ==
Sam Greenfield is a clumsy, orphaned 18 year old young woman whose life has been constantly plagued by misfortune and has recently been aged out from her foster home, much to the dismay of her younger friend Hazel, who is hoping to be adopted soon. When Sam is told a social worker has come to get her, Sam pleads with the Foster Home director to let her stay two more weeks for Hazel's adoption, but she tells Sam that the day has come for her to leave and get her own home and she knew that. The social worker takes Sam to her new home, Sam is told she needs to work and/or go to school in order to keep the place. Sam informs her she got a job which starts tomorrow and is taking online classes at the community college. The next day Sam's bad luck continues from leaves getting blown into her room, sleeping through her alarm, getting locked in the bathroom, making a mess in the kitchen, and having her bike pump break. Even at work things don't go well when she stocks shelves so her boss puts her to work on Cart duty. Sam soon goes to see how Hazel is doing and the director tells her that the family cancelled the meeting, Sam assures Hazel that she will be adopted soon. Later after sharing a panini with a black cat and explaining what happened that day, she finds a penny she hopes to give to Hazel for her collection of other lucky items to help her get adopted. The next day, Sam notices that the penny has made her luck significantly improve, which she enjoys. However, she soon loses the penny by inadvertently flushing it down a toilet. 
As Sam bemoans her error, she encounters the cat again and tells him what happened, which causes the cat to berate her for losing the penny. Shocked, Sam follows the cat through a portal to the Land of Luck, where creatures like leprechauns create good luck for the people on Earth. The cat, named Bob, tells Sam he needs the penny for traveling purposes and that he will be banished if word gets out that he lost it. Bob and Sam make a deal to get another penny from the Penny depot for Hazel to use before returning it to Bob. Bob uses a button from Sam to pass off as a penny while she sneaks into the Land of Luck using clothes belonging to Bob's personal leprechaun, Gerry. Throughout the journey, Sam comes to learn how the good luck is managed by a dragon, and that bad luck is managed underneath the Land of Luck.
Following a disaster at the Penny depot which causes Gerry to learn about Sam's identity, Gerry uses a drone to retrieve the missing penny on Earth but the drone gets lost in the In-Between, a space between the Good and Bad Luck lands. Sam and Bob go to the In-Between, which is managed by a unicorn named Jeff. Jeff manages a machine called the Bad Luck Apparat that keeps bad luck specks from sticking which feeds the Randomizer, another machine that sends both good and bad luck into Earth. Jeff tells the pair he found the penny and has returned it to the depot. Not deterred, Sam decides to visit the dragon in hopes to get another penny. The dragon, named Babe, shares a moment with Sam by telling her how better things would be everyone had good luck before giving her a new penny. But Sam sacrifices her penny after Bob is caught for faking his travel penny to spare him from banishment.
Still wanting to help Hazel, Sam and Bob decide to temporarily shut down the Bad Luck Apparat to prevent bad luck from going to the Randomizer and give Hazel the luck she needs to get adopted. However, the bad luck specks start to clog Jeff's machines and destroy the good luck and bad luck stones within the Randomizer, which itself brings bad luck to the Land of Luck and Earth. Seeing Hazel did not get adopted because of this, Sam sulks in remorse. During this Bob reveals he is actually British and the leprechauns realize he's not a lucky cat after all. While Sam sobs over what happens Bob tells her that Hazel is the luckiest girl for having Sam at her side and also points out Sam didn't want to keep the penny for herself but give it to someone else. Sam realizes things can be fixed because she remembers seeing some good luck in Bad Luck land while on her way to the In-Between.
Back in Bad Luck, they find it in a tiki bar where the bartender, a root monster named Rootie, gives them a jar of good luck they have been using. They take it to Babe to forge new good and bad luck stones. However, while Babe creates a bad luck stone, she creates two good luck stones, wanting to create a world with only good luck. Before she can place them, Sam tells Babe people need bad luck as much as good luck even if things don't go your way, that's okay. Realizing her mistake, she allows Sam to place the bad luck stone, and good luck is restored to normal, where Sam sees Hazel finally getting adopted. Before leaving, Sam tells the Bad Luck spirits that even though she had lots of bad luck, she wouldn't change any of it. Bob is offered to keep his job at the Land of Luck, but decides he wants to live with Sam and be her forever family.
One year later back on Earth, Hazel's family spends time with Sam and Bob as Sam has finally accepted her bad luck.
== Voice cast ==
* Eva Noblezada as Sam Greenfield, an unlucky person who discovers the Land of Luck and must unite with magical creatures there to turn her luck around
* Simon Pegg as Bob, a black cat with a Scottish accent who becomes Sam's partner for the journey
* Jane Fonda as Babe, a female dragon who acts as the exuberant CEO of Good Luck and undisputed luckiest ancient being in all the land
* Whoopi Goldberg as The Captain, a leprechaun who acts as the Land of Luck's head of security
* Flula Borg as Jeff, a German-accented unicorn who works as the facilities engineer maintaining the luck distributing machine
* Lil Rel Howery as Marvin, Sam's upbeat boss who runs an arts and crafts shop
* Colin O'Donoghue as Gerry, a leprechaun who works with Bob
* John Ratzenberger as Rootie, a root monster who runs a tiki bar and the self-appointed Mayor of Bad Luck
* Grey DeLisle as Mrs. Rivera, Saoirse, the Penny Depot boss and additional voices
* Suzy Nakamura as a social worker
* Kwaku Fortune as Gael
* Adelynn Spoon as Hazel, Sam's best friend and roommate
* Kari Wahlgren as Hazel's adoptive mother and Aine
* Nick Thurston as Hazel's adoptive father
** Thurston also voices a nosy cat
* Chris Edgerly as a typing Bunny
* Moe Irvin as Phil the Pig Foreman
* Fred Tatasciore as Quinn, Fred, and additional voices
=== Loop Group ===
* Carlos Alazraqui
* Terri Douglas
* Robin Atkin Downes
* Matthew Yang King
* Jennie Kwan
* Scott Menville
* Piotr Michael
* Zeno Robinson
* Fred Tatasciore
* Kari Wahlgren
* Debra Wilson
* Matthew Wood
* Shelby Young
== Production ==
=== Development ===
In March 2017, Skydance Media formed a multi-year partnership with Madrid-based animation studio Ilion Animation Studios, forming an animation division called Skydance Animation. In July, it announced Luck. It would be distributed by Paramount Pictures as part of their deal with Skydance Media and was given a release date of March 19, 2021. In April 2018, Luck was greenlit by Paramount Animation chief Mireille Soria, and Alessandro Carloni signed on to direct the film, from a script by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Bergerbased on an original concept by Rebeca Carrasco, Juan De Dios and Julián Romero. Luck had been in development at Ilion before forming its deal with Skydance. Skydance Animation hired former Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Animation Studios CCOJohn Lasseter in late January 2019, as Head of Animation.
Following Lasseter's hiring, then-chief of Paramount Animation Mireille Soria announced that Paramount would no longer work with Skydance Animation. Luck was still going to be released by Paramount Pictures without the Paramount Animation brand until Apple TV+ acquired the distribution rights to it in December 2020. Apple Original Films would replace Paramount as a production company on the film, with Apple TV+ distributing. On January 14, 2020, Carloni was replaced by Peggy Holmes, who had previously directed Secret of the Wings (2012) and The Pirate Fairy (2014) for Lasseter, as the film's director. Kiel Murray, screenwriter for Cars (2006) and Cars 3 (2017), was also hired to rewrite the screenplay, turning it into a workplace fantasy comedy similar to Monsters, Inc. through Abiel and Berger were still credited for the story co-written by Murray.
One of the core inspirations when rescreahing the myths about Luck is the main character Sam, having her in foster care to find her forever family. The main inspiration for Sam and her unluckyness came from I Love Lucy and The Carol Burnett Show, along with other inspiration from Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Donald O'Connor. In researching Luck, workers at Skydance Animation discovered how obsessed people are with the concept, along with some interesting reversals, including how it became random by Good and Bad Luck. For example, black cats are considered good luck in Scotland, which led them to create Bob. By the end of the film, he's revealed to be English as black cats are considered bad luck in England.
Category:Rated G
Category:Animated films
Category:2022 films
Category:American films
Category:American animated films
Category:English-language films
Category:Films starring Eva Noblezada
Category:Films starring Simon Pegg
Category:Films starring John Ratzenberger
Category:Films with screenplays by John Lasseter
Category:Adventure films
Category:1:85:1 Aspect Ratio Films
Category:Apple TV+ films