Orphaned Sam thinks she is the unluckiest person in the world, and as she leaves the care home she grew up in to start life on her own, it certainly seems that everything that can go wrong for her does. That is until the night she comes across a black cat named Bob (Pegg) that can talk and follows him through a portal to the Land of Luck. Together they have to embark on a mission to find a lucky penny, but once again things go wrong for Sam and it all gets a lot more complicated.
The idea that there is a land of good luck (which has annoyingly cutesy leprechauns and some of the worst Irish accents committed to film) and a land of bad luck is an interesting one, and the intricate world-building here appeal to animation fans of movies like Inside Out. It’s more fun than that movie (though not as funny as Monsters Inc which it also feels similar to), but falters when it tries to get a deep message across, partly because the filmmakers don’t seem to know what the message is – is it that bad and good luck are okay, is it about fate, or is it about making life choices?
It’s colourful, at least, and there are some funny and cute moments – watch out for the bunnies! – as well as nice performances from Pegg, Fonda (as the dragon in charge) and O’Donoghue that make Luck a lively diversion if not a particularly memorable one.
Is Luck suitable for kids? Here are our parents’ notes...
Very young children may find the dragon scary.
Sam and Bob have a few adventures but they never seem to be in great peril.
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