Luck

***SPOILERS ALERT!***

***Luck*** is a 2022 computer-animated fantasy comedy film directed by Peggy Holmes and written by Kiel Murray who co-wrote the story with Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, based on an original concept by Rebeca Carrasco, Juan De Dios and Julián Romero. Produced by Skydance Animation, the film features the voices of Eva Noblezada, Simon Pegg, Jane Fonda, Whoopi Goldberg, Flula Borg, Lil Rel Howery, Colin O'Donoghue, and John Ratzenberger.

The film premiered in Madrid on August 2, 2022, and was released on Apple TV+ and in select theaters in the United States on August 5, 2022. The film received mixed reviews from critics with praise for the voice acting and animation, but criticism for the worldbuilding and plot.

## Plot

Sam Greenfield is a clumsy 18-year-old orphaned young woman whose life is constantly plagued by misfortune and has just recently begun to live independently, much to the dismay of her younger friend Hazel, who is due to be adopted soon. One night, after sharing a panini with a black cat, 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. 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 got out that he lost it. Bob and Sam make a deal to get another penny from the Penny depot for Hazel 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 special 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 inhabited 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 sent it back to the depot. Nonetheless, 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 for everyone if there was good luck all around before giving her a new penny. However, she has to sacrifice the penny to spare Bob from banishment after they learn Bob lost his penny.

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 thus, give Hazel the luck she needs to get adopted. However, the bad luck specks start to clog Jeff's machine, leaking into the Land of Luck and destroying the good luck and bad luck stones within the Randomizer, which itself brings bad luck to the Land of Luck and to Earth. Seeing Hazel did not get adopted because of this, Sam sulks in remorse. Bob tells Sam that without luck or not, Hazel is the luckiest girl for having Sam at her side. Sam discovers things can be fixed because she found some good luck in Bad Luck land while on her way to the In-Between.

She and Bob go to the source, a bar; where the bartender, a giant root 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 could place them, Sam tells Babe people need bad luck as much as good luck. Realizing her mistake, she allows Sam to place the bad luck stone, and both lands and luck are restored to normal, where Sam sees Hazel finally getting adopted. Bob is offered to keep his job at the Land of Luck, but decides he wants to live with Sam.

One year later back home, Hazel's family spends time with Sam and Bob as Sam has finally accepted her bad luck.

## Cast

* Eva Noblezada as Sam Greenfield
* Simon Pegg as Bob
* Jane Fonda as Babe
* Whoopi Goldberg as The Captain
* Flula Borg as Jeff
* Lil Rel Howery as Marvin
* Colin O'Donoghue as Gerry
* John Ratzenberger as Rootie
* Grey DeLisle as Mrs. Rivera and the Penny Depot boss
* Suzy Nakamura as a social worker
* Kwaku Fortune as Gael
* Adelynn Spoon as Hazel
* Kari Wahlgren as Hazel's adoptive mother
* Nick Thurston as Hazel's adoptive father and a nosy cat
* Chris Edgerly as a typing bunny
* Moe Irvin as Phil
* Fred Tatasciore as Quinn and Fred

## Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 48% of 67 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.1/10. The website's consensus reads, "*Luck* is inoffensive enough as an animated babysitter, but there are far more original -- and entertaining -- options for its target audience." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 48 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Peter Bradshaw from *The Guardian* rated the film two stars out of five, describing the script as "utterly zing-less and contorted."

## Trivia

* This is the first film created by Skydance Animation.