Luck (2022)

This is a charming film from Skydance Animation (largely staffed by ex-Disney artists, it seems), perfect for kids and family entertainment with lovely animation, characters, voices and an interesting storyline. My only real complaint is that it's about 15 minutes too long.

It's a story about good luck and bad luck and how that is managed for humans by the creatures in charge of it over at the Land of Luck! Leprechauns, unicorns, dragons and many other beings do their best to ensure that the flow of luck, good and bad, gets to the humans on earth in order to keep the equilibrium.

Sam was an orphan and we join the tale as she faces her last day at the Home for Girls in New York and has to make her way in the world, now 18, with a new bedsit, job and learning schedule. She's unlucky. She never got assigned a Forever Family in all the years there and everything she does or touches, goes wrong! She's determined though that little orphan Hazel will not end up the same as her, so heads off to change her luck - and pass it onto her.

Which she seems to do by bumping into a talking black cat who floats around between earth and the Land of Luck! Sam finds a 'penny' on the ground and reels off the old saying 'find a penny, pick it up, all day long you'll have good luck'. Which then forms the infrastructure that the Land of Luck (kind of) works on! Anyway, she loses it - then has to rely on the black cat to get her to the Land of Luck in order to get another.

We then enter the middle of the film and stay there, mostly, as Sam tries to hide the fact that she's a human and passes herself off as a giant leprechaun from Latvia! The Land of Luck is a virtual machine, with all the cute creatures doing their bit towards the common goal - a bit like Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory or the Magical Workshop at the North Pole in Santa Claus: The Movie. You get the idea. So, the adventure begins, ducking and diving between good luck and bad luck, trying hard to do the right thing and rescuing each other from perilous situations and events. It's all good fun, but just goes on too long!

Sam is delightfully voiced by Eva Noblezada, Bob the cat by Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, The World's End, Guest House Paradiso) playing with accents, Babe the dragon by Jane Fonda (Barbarella, 9 to 5, Klute) and the Captain by Whoopy Goldberg (Ghost, Sister Act, Star Trek). They all do a fine job and add to the magic, fantasy and fun of the whole outing.

Those looking for a 'message' from the film won't have to think much - how luck influences our lives, how people can overcome not having it - or worse having the bad stuff - how, by maintaining a positive attitude you can overcome life's challenges, lucky or not, the importance of friendships and loyalty, altruism - and how we can rise above obstacles in our way, regardless. The usual 'Disney' kind of heart-warming, fluffy stuff you'd expect! It's a reasonable enough film, pretty well put together with, of course, an unfeasible storyline, but it's sure to charm the sock off little blighters on many Boxing Days to come, who will be glued to the screen.