Bad luck is an epidemic in the new Apple TV Plus animated feature Luck
Eva Noblezada, Simon Pegg, and Jane Fonda star in the film produced by ousted Pixar boss John Lasseter
Find a penny, pick it up, and all day long you’ll have… the plot of Luck. That about sums things up for the latest Apple TV+ animated film.
The new trailer offers a pretty thorough explanation of the movie: Sam (voiced by Broadway star Eva Noblezada) is a particularly unlucky young woman for whom everything goes wrong all the time (locking herself in the bathroom, dousing herself with glitter, never having matching socks, etc., etc.). She thinks things are finally turning around when she finds a genuine lucky penny, but even the coin’s magic isn’t enough to counteract her natural curse, as she accidentally flushes it down the toilet.
As it turns out, the coin was planted in her path by a black cat named Bob (Simon Pegg), who hails from “The Land of Luck.” Determined to get her coin back, Sam follows Bob back home to what looks like a luck factory, a place where humans are not allowed. (Did the Pixar alums working on this film lift the Monsters Inc. plot points intentionally, or by accident?)
Despite being “the only creature that can sniff out bad luck,” dragon CEO Jane Fonda seemingly fails to notice that her new overly-tall leprechaun employee is actually a human and bad luck magnet to boot. She warns that “[the] tiniest amount of bad luck can shut down our entire operation,” and Sam, obviously, brings way more than the tiniest amount. She inevitably severs “the good luck connection,” potentially dooming everyone in the world to bad luck.
The film itself—Skydance Animation’s first feature—didn’t have the luckiest production process. All the way back in 2019, Emma Thompson dropped out of the film due to Skydance’s hiring of John Lasseter, who was pushed out of Disney/Pixar amidst sexual misconduct allegations. But the movie coming out years later on a major streaming platform suggests the film’s luck has changed, regardless of the major black stain on its record.
Luck also stars Whoopi Goldberg, Lil Rel Howery, Flula Borg, and Colin O’Donoghue. The film is directed by Peggy Holmes (The Pirate Fairy) and written by Kiel Murray (Cars), with Lasseter, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and David Eisenmann producing. Luck debuts on Apple TV+ on August 5, 2022.