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"Luck meets the minimum requirements of having a light story with simple characters and sweet messages, but it's far from an inspiring, imaginative, incredibly entertaining work.

The humor related to the protagonist's misfortunes induces some moments of laughter, but even these are cliches repeated countless times throughout the history of cinema. Strangely, the 3D animation fails to offer expressiveness and emotion to the characters, being limited to the beautiful environment that surrounds the narrative.

The score tries to elevate the overall film with sentimental tunes and melodies, but unfortunately, it's not enough to avoid the first animated disappointment of the year."

Rating: C

Kudos to the Spanish subsidiary of Skydance (formerly known as Ilion Animation Studios) for the very imaginative and satisfying animation but the moral of the story was very problematic, reeking of fatalism and mysticism to the point of being borderline religious, instead of cultivating rational thinking and healthy coping skills in children.

[spoiler]I was hoping that at some point the movie would reveal that the Good Luck Land was running a scam, that the magic was a hoax [since they already revealed that (un)lucky moments were being randomly distributed in the human world], and explain to Sam that good/bad luck is only a matter of perception. People who view themselves as chronically unlucky do so because of cognitive biases/distortions that become internalized as part of their self-schema and is usually a symptom of mental illness (depression, anxiety disorders etc.).[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Also, when the luck lines got severed and the dragon said that now the world will know only bad luck, that made **no sense**. If anything, the only things that the world would've been deprived of would be (what we perceive as) extremely good or extremely bad luck, so just average luck which would be a very good outcome for the world. That would mean less socioeconomic inequalities, less poverty, less suffering etc.
Instead, the movie went with the belief that we need bad luck to appreciate the good (which is a very privileged and characteristically Christian thing to say). It's like telling people who were born in extreme poverty or with disabilities or genetic illnesses to be thankful for their bad luck.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Also also, the film's insistence on a "forever family" being the sole goal and source of happiness for a foster kid was... weird, and didn't seem very healthy. I mean, it's okay for a kid to wish they will be adopted but for Sam to be so single-minded and risk literally everything, felt like another missed teaching opportunity. I wonder if this pattern of conservative beliefs was intentional. [Skydance founder and CEO is David Ellison, son of billionaire co-founder of Oracle, Larry Ellison, who is one of the largest supporters and donors of Trump and the GOP][/spoiler]

**Overall : Luck feels as warm and familiar as a favorite blanket reminding us of some of our favorite Pixar movies from 25 years ago.**

A sweet movie with a sweet message. John Lasseter’s return to animation felt like a return to the Pixar stories of the 90s - hope-filled stories about finding meaningful friendships and family. Luck had moments of laughter and moments that touched your heart. It didn’t rise to the level of Toy Story or Finding Nemo, but it is definitely a good one. My three-year-old immediately wanted to start it over again when it ended, and she loved the fun creatures and bright-colored worlds. So it looks like Luck will be around the house quite a bit for the next few months.

In theory, this ought to have been much better - but somehow it just doesn't ever get going. The story centres around "Sam" who has the most damnable ill-luck. If it can go wrong for her (and those around her) then you can bet your last lucky penny then it will! Sitting, despondently, outside a café one day, she shares her sandwich with a black cat and thereafter her adventures start as she discovers this cat comes from the land of luck. Good luck, actually, reigned over benignly by the dragon (Jane Fonda). As with everything, though, it's an equilibrium and there is a fine balance to be had with bad luck - which they try to contain in a machine. Her arrival spells doom for this finely stable environment. Soon she and the cat "Bob" are having to spin plates a-plenty to stop their universe collapsing into chaos. It's far too wordy and worthy - the sentiment was all just a bit too sweet, sugary and over-whelming for me. It is a perfectly adequate production and the animation does enough, but at 1¾ it's all just to thinly stretched out and actually quite slow. It will be fine for the kids on the television at Christmas, but it's very limited cinema release speaks volumes...