Have you ever seen a video on the internet and become so fascinated with it that you watched it well over five times in a single day, and you can't really explain why? That happened to me recently with the ninety-five-second teaser trailer for the upcoming animated film, Luck, due to premiere on Apple TV+ later this August.
The trailer isn't all that incredible, but it is surprisingly captivating. It reminded me of the first teaser trailer for Zootopia: a single long take of a prominent character providing the central theme and plot of the film and showcasing the kind of storytelling style intended. In this case, an adorable black cat, voiced by Simon Pegg, drops some knowledge about luck and its cultural interpretations. Specifically how black cats are considered incredibly lucky in Scottland as opposed to most other parts of the world. His name's Bob, by the way. After providing us with a tour of the Land of Luck, Bob mentions how humans have never visited the place, only to be accidentally pushed across the room by a suddenly opening door and for a young human woman to step inside, totally confused at her whereabouts.
The film doesn't look all that different from most typical Western-released animated movies: bright colors, comedic tone, exaggerated designs, etc. Most audiences would brush them off as nothing more than visual aids for babysitters (and in many cases, they are). Not to say that the movie looks terrible, only that Western animated movies have been traditionally and incredibly formulaic. Western animation has been (and still is) under the delusion that it's only for children and could never be taken seriously as a storytelling medium outside of the six to twelve demographic.
In the case of Luck, while its visuals seem to retain that unfortunate expectation of animated movies here in the West, the concept behind the story sounds much more profound than one might expect. It almost sounds like a concept that PIXAR would explore, and there is a good reason for that.
One of the film's producers is John Lassater, one of the forefathers of PIXAR and the primary creative mind behind Toy Story. I would be remiss not to mention his fall from grace in recent years with accusations of sexual misconduct, which is both unfortunate and annoying. Even so, whatever else can be said about him as a person, there is no denying that he knows how to engage an audience (both young and old) with animation. In that way, he's similar to how I view Tom Cruise: I may never want to meet him in person, but I'm confident I'll be incredibly entertained with his work.
Incidentally, this is a perfect example of why I believe in the importance of separating art from the artist. Regardless of the validity of the accusations, it is unfair to hold them against the rest of the film. And while director Peggy Holmes along with writers Kiel Murray, Jonathan Aibel, and Glenn Berger, may not have the most promising of resumes (I'm looking at you, Monster Trucks), it is bad form to immediately assume we know what we may be in for with this movie.
Despite the overabundance of terrible one-dimensional works of animated media that seem to dominate western animation, we're still occasionally peppered with a few pleasant surprises here and there. Again, consider Toy Story and Zootopia as examples. While I have no expectations for this little piece of animated curiosity, I am hopeful for some kind of pleasant surprise. We shall find out soon enough come August.
Check out the trailer for yourself at the link below.
Ladies & gentlemen, I am TheNorm; thank you all for reading.
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