Luck

The plucky new animated feature from Apple TV+ features some top-notch voice acting and colorful cartooning, even if the story is a bit of a borrow from "Inside Out."

If the world of Luck seems a bit familiar to these eyes, it’s not terribly astounding. With its brightly saturated colors, diverse denizens and intricate set of rules governing the metaphysical — not to mention its plucky, never-give-up heroine who gets lost for a while — it clearly looks ‘inspired’ by “Inside Out” from Disney-Pixar a few years ago.

Pixar headman John Lasseter left (under a cloud) to take over SkyDance Animation, and “Luck” is their first feature film, with him credited as producer. So there’s clearly some of the same fingerprints on both films.

Even John Ratzenberger, who’s done voice work for virtually every Pixar film, crops up in a typical weisenheimer role.

“Luck” stars Eva Noblezada, who was terrific in “Yellow Rose” from 2019, as Sam, an orphan who has just turned 18 and thus is aging out of her home. Sam is bright, energetic and optimistic, and may just be the most unlucky girl in the world.

Just making breakfast in her new apartment is a parade of clumsiness, pratfalls and unlikely accidents worthy of a Marx Brothers routine. Jam is more likely to end up on the wall than on her toast. She’s similarly a disaster at her job in a retail arts and crafts store, with ribbons flying everywhere and glitter bombs galore.

Sam has learned to adapt to her innate ill fortune, smiling and daring the world to keep her down. But she’s worried that it will affect her friend Hazel, who’s still young enough to get adopted and find the forever home Sam never did.

She bumps into Bob (Simon Pegg), a black cat who’s very poised and graceful. He drops a strange penny that Sam discovers gives her all the good luck there is. Instantly, she is transformed into a blissful ballerina, effortlessly coasting through life. She’s determined to pass it on to Hazel, but winds up losing the coin and getting sucked into Bob’s world.

Not only can Bob talk — in a thick Scottish brogue — he’s actually a denizen of the city of Good Luck. It’s here that all the good luck is generated and pumped out into Earth in the form of friendly green energy. But there’s also an opposing underworld of Bad Luck, where purple stuff is sent out to balance the good.

Bob and Sam go on an extended adventure to retrieve the lost “travel penny,” as it’s known in this world, use it to get Hazel herself a family and then safeguard the reputation of Bob, who’s being looked hard at by the Captain (Whoopi Goldberg), the head leprechaun who considers him an interloper from Bad Luck.

(It’s some of the same dynamic between Mike and Roz from “Monsters, Inc.,” another Disney-Pixar tentpole.)

Along the way they recruit Gerry (Colin O'Donoghue) a friend of Bob’s who he refers to as an assistant; meet Jeff (Flula Borg), a portly unicorn who works the machinery that mixes the good and bad luck; and appeal to Babe the Dragon (Jane Fonda), the heroic leader of Good Luck, who can smell a bit of bad luck dust a mile off.

The movie, directed by Peggy Holmes from a script by Kiel Murray, Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger, gets a little too caught up in the mechanics of how the luck world works. Sam and Bob have to deal with crystals, bunny drones (you’ll see), penny-polishing centers and a bunch of other cockamamie contingencies along their way.

It would’ve been better to streamline all these stuff, particularly for younger audience members. I could see my boys’ (age 9 and 11) eyes glazing over a bit as the characters discussed the latest byzantine challenge.

The animation makes up for the weak storytelling, with an array of creatures and locations sure to dazzle the eye. They travel around town via a Rube Goldberg-esque array of moving discs, chutes and other gizmos. Because all the natives are imbued with good luck, they nonchalantly prance through these contraptions, while the unsure-footed Sam trips and crashes.

I especially liked when we finally got to visit the Bad Luck side, which Bob describes as being occupied by “goblins and roots.” I’ll just say, it’s not what you expect.

Despite the at times over-complicated plot, “Luck” expresses a sweet and simple sentiment about the trials and tribulations of bad luck, but also how good luck isn’t to be taken for granted. We’ll all wade through heaps of both through our lives, and just as a person can’t be happy all the time, we have to learn to adapt to and even appreciate the sadder, clumsier bumps in the road.

Wow, that really does sound like a bit of a borrow, doesn’t it?