“Luck”: Apple goes for Pixar
Apple has put a $140 million animation strip on TV+ starring Pixar veteran John Lasseter, among others.
Apple is following in the footsteps of its co-founder Steve Jobs, who died in 2011: the iPhone company has released its first major animated film. “Luck” is reminiscent of productions by Jobs’ Pixar film company, which now belongs to Disney. This is also because one of the producers of the strip was John Lasseter, who himself was responsible for many Pixar films. Apple spent a lot of money: the film, which was made in the USA and Spain, cost 140 to 200 million US dollars.
Application across the web
“Luck” can be seen exclusively on the Apple TV+ streaming service, which costs 5 euros a month. The film is also shown in individual cinemas in Spain and the USA in order to qualify for prizes. Apple pulled out all the stops with the application: its own homepage was covered with animations, and trailers ran as advertising on YouTube and various other websites, including IMDB. Apple had previously tried to attract new users to Apple TV+ – which consists almost entirely of original material – with major films. The company spends a lot of money on this.
“Luck” is about the 18-year-old orphan Sam (Eva Noblezada), who has a lot of bad luck by nature and finally realizes that there is a very special world of good and bad luck producers, which Sam with the help of a talking cat (Simon Pegg) can visit. Other stars of the film are Jane Fonda and Whoopi Goldberg.
Larry Ellison’s son involved
“Luck” was produced by Apple Original Films and executived by Skydance Animation. The studio is a joint venture between Madrid-based animation company Ilion and Santa Monica-based Skydance Media. This company was in turn founded by David Ellison, who in turn is the son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison. Again, there is a connection to Apple: Larry Ellison was one of Steve Jobs’ best friends. Skydance previously produced Top Gun: Maverick, several Mission Impossible films, and Jack Reacher flicks.
Trailer for “Luck” (Video: Apple).
“Luck” received rather below-average feedback from the critics. There was praise for the animation and effects, but the storyline and the world designed by Skydance received criticism. “Luck” on Rotten Tomatoes currently has a rating of just 47 percent with 71 reviews. The result at Metacritic is similar.
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