**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...