Luck: It could use more

Luck (2022) • View trailer

Three stars (out of five). Rated G, and suitable for all ages

Available via: Apple TV+

By Derrick Bang

It has been said — of some poor souls — that if they didn’t have bad luck, they’d have no luck at all.

 

Sam Greenfield (voiced by Eva Noblezada) falls into that category. Toasters malfunction, door knobs fall apart, bicycle tires go flat and pump handles break. Sadly, she also has spent her entire life at the Summerland Home for Girls, as an orphan never lucky enough to find new parents who would offer her a “forever home.”

 

Although Bob the cat regards the Land of Luck's workings as "just another day at the
office," Sam — a human in a realm where she doesn't belong — is amazed by all of
its wonders.

Now, having just turned 18, she has “aged out” and must make her own way in the big, bad world.

Director Peggy Holmes’ Luck is the newest release from Skydance Animation, and the first to emerge since former Pixar guru John Lasseter came on board in early 2019. Although Lasseter is credited solely as co-producer, this film definitely has familiar, Pixar-esque elements that suggest he had a guiding hand in shaping the script: not least of which is the aforementioned first act, as the characters of Sam and her adolescent best friend Hazel (Adelynn Spoon) are established.

 

You’ll detect the mildly retro, heart-tugging pathos that was so important to films such as Toy Story, Up and Inside Out.

 

Hazel, poised to meet an adoptive couple who might become her “forever family,” has stacked the deck as only a child could: with a cigar box filled with good-luck tokens. She needs only a “lucky penny” to complete what she believes will be her can’t-miss shot at happiness.

 

Sam, although desperate to oblige, has enough trouble coping with her own newly acquired adult responsibilities … starting with a darling studio apartment that conspires to make her late for her first day as a clerk at an arts and crafts big box store. This emporium is run by the cheerful Marvin (Lil Rel Howery), who — upon seeing how Sam makes utter hash of even simple assignments — wisely sends her outside on “cart patrol.”

 

At the end of this long, accident-prone day, a dejected Sam sits on the curb and impulsively shares her panini with a stoic black cat. After it departs, she spots — could it be? — a lucky penny.

 

Sam’s subsequent investigation of this coin’s power is a riot, particularly with respect to its control over the jelly-side-down principle. But this applies only when the penny is in her possession; she guards it carefully, intending to pass it along to Hazel.

 

Alas, not carefully enough.

The Good Dinosaur: Jurassic lark

The Good Dinosaur (2015) • View trailer 
3.5 stars. Rated PG, for dramatic intensity
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 11.27.15

Time and again, the folks at Pixar have demonstrated a talent for wildly imaginative, outside-the-box storytelling.

The secret lives of toys. The source of our nightmares, and our emotions. Superheroes with family and identity crises. The fate of a tiny, semi-sentient robot left alone to clean up a polluted Earth.

Arlo (far right) and his tiny "pet," Spot, find themselves in the middle of a range war, when
a trio of cattle ranchers led by Butch (second from left) take on a pack of rustling
velociraptors.

And now, perhaps, the best and biggest “what if” of all: What if that huge asteroid hadn’t hit Earth, roughly 65 million years ago?

According to Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur, at least some of the massive saurians would have established an agrarian society, homesteading and raising families much like 19th century American settlers. Indeed, this whole narrative is a playful riff on classic Western archetypes, from the aforementioned farmers to nastier aggressors lurking in outlying regions, with an actual “cattle” round-up thrown in for good measure.

At the same time, traditional family values have been grafted onto dinosaurs, often with droll intent, in the time-honored fashion of countless earlier animated Disney films that have anthropomorphized everything from elephants to Dalmatians. Indeed, much about The Good Dinosaur feels less like “standard” Pixar fare — if there is such a thing — and more like the coming-of-age plot beats of traditional Disney animated storytelling.

Then there’s also the matter of the rather unusual “pet” nipping at the edges of everything else here: a narrative element likely to make ultra-conservative, man-is-the-center-of-everything types choke on their Cheerios.

If all this sounds like rather a lot for one film, well ... yes, that’s an issue. “The Good Dinosaur” feels a bit overcooked, and it lacks the tight focus that marks Pixar’s best films. I’m always wary of scripts credited to multiple authors, and this one acknowledges five writers — Peter Sohn, Erik Benson, Meg LeFauve, Kelsey Mann and Bob Peterson — with Sohn also in the director’s chair.

At times, this saga doesn’t quite know how to find its legs, much like the title character.