If you love animated movies, then we can almost guarantee you've seen your fair share of Pixar movies. The studio has a legendary line-up of movies that rival other major studios. Pixar has not always had a smooth time with all of its potential filmmakers, and while things tend to work out for the studio, they have had some disastrous results.
John Lasseter rose to prominence while at Pixar, though he has since departed. Recently, he released his first movie since moving on from Pixar, and it's not exactly off to a hot start.
Let's take a look at Lasseter's newest feature, and see what's going on.
Most people might not be familiar with the name John Lasseter, but we can guarantee that they are familiar with his outstanding body of work.
After cutting his teeth in animation during the '70s and '80s, Lasseter directed his first film, Toy Story, in 1995. That film revolutionized the animation industry, and it proved that Lasseter was a terrific storyteller who could craft an outstanding film.
Lasseter would follow this up by directing both A Bug's Life, and Toy Story 2. The man was leading the charge at Pixar, and once he shifted into a producer role, he helped the studio reach unprecedented heights.
While serving in a producing capacity, Lasseter would work on movies like Monsters, Inc, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, and more for Pixar.
Outside of Pixar's works, Lasseter was involved with movies like Spirited Away, Tangles, Frozen, and Ponyo.
Lasseter's time at Pixar, however, came to a screeching halt after his alleged treatment of female employees came to light.
The filmmaker has since moved on, and he has gotten back in the game with his newest movie.
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2022's Luck is John Lasseter's latest release, and it marks his first film away from the Pixar banner. As you can imagine, movie fans have been itching to see what the acclaimed filmmaker would bring to the table with another studio.
The movie, which is an AppleTV+ release, is a fantasy comedy that boasts an amazing cast. Featuring names like Simon Pegg, Jane Fonda, and Whoopi Goldberg, it's easy to see why people were excited about this movie.
When speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Lasseter spoke about the story itself, and about how director Peggy Holmes was the right person to direct the feature.
"I knew it would be challenging because we had to kind of take it back down to the beginning and rebuild it and do it in a pretty short amount of time. Peggy is a crazy-great story mind, and Peggy has a gigantic heart, and when we were reconceiving Luck, I knew she was exactly the right person to do it," he said.
A lot of work went into bringing this picture to life, and AppleTV+ was hopeful that it would hit the ground running upon release. Unfortunately, Lasseter's first post-Pixar film isn't getting the type of reception that he's grown accustomed to.
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At the time of this writing, Luck is sitting with a 48% on Rotten Tomatoes. This would effectively clock it at the worst Pixar movie in history, if it was made by the studio, and we cannot imagine that Lasseter is happy with this type of critical reception.
Alastair Ryder, who gave the film 3/10 for Looper was pretty blunt with his words.
"It doesn't take long to understand why John Lasseter was reportedly falling asleep after having the screenplay read to him," Ryder wrote.
John Anderson of The Wall Street Journal was also critical of the film.
"The bigger problem is there are too many ideas, and fantastical solutions to manufactured problems, most of which feel as if they're being made up as the movie goes along," Anderson wrote.
Conversely, the film's audience score is a 72%. It does show that there are people out there who have enjoyed the film, but even then, it's on the lower end of the 70s.
The Apple+ release did see a limited spread in theaters, but it will largely rely on its critical reception and its streaming numbers to determine whether it's a success for the streaming platform.
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Lucky is hardly finding any luck of its own so far, but it could shock the world and put up some solid streaming numbers in the coming weeks. If that's the case, then it would be a major win for Lasseter and his team.
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