Lucky and Zorba (original title: La gabbianella e il gatto, "The little seagull and the cat") is a 1998 Italian animated film directed by Enzo D'Alò. It is an adaptation of a 1996 book called The story of a seagull and the cat who taught her to fly (Historia de una gaviota y del gato que le enseñó a volar) by the Chilean writer Luis Sepúlveda.
As the story begins, we meet a young seagull named Kenga. While with her flock, she gets dirtied by an petrol flood. She blindly flies to a city, where she finally crashes into a garden, right on top of the cat who lives there, Zorba. Because of the petrol on her feathers, he refuses to eat her, and she gets him to promise three things: that he would not eat her egg when she lays it, that he would take care of it until it hatches, and that he would teach the newborn to fly. She then dies of exhaustion.
Some days after, the egg hatches, and Zorba names the newborn Lucky.
Meanwhile, the rats of the town plan an uprising against the town's cats, and their plans involve Lucky...
Lucky and Zorba contains examples of:
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Compared to the book, the movie puts much more emphasis on Lucky's Break the Cutie moment when she believes that Zorba wants to eat her, to the point that she runs away. Her interactions with the rats is also more traumatic in the movie (in the book, Zorba saves her before they have the time to kidnap her).
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Big Rat is blue, while his second-in-command is a green rat. All the other rats in the movie have more realistic colors, just like the cats and the other animals.
- Ambiguously Absent Parent: No mention to where Pallino/Yoyo's parents and Nina's mother are.
- Artistic License – Biology: Fortunata/Lucky, when she's still a chick, is white-feathered and both her beak and legs are yellow, despite real seagull chicks having greyish/brownish beak, legs and plumage (with darker dots), as it helps blending with the environment. On the other end, young Fortunata's disproportionately long legs are accurate.
- Art Shift: The opening with the Poet and Nina composing a poem on the spot, Kengah's last song and Nina's dream are all animated in a strikingly more semplistic and childish artstyle (resembling the crayon drawing made by Nina herself in the opening scene).
- Ascended Extra: In the book, the rats are just minor antagonists who try to eat Lucky in one scene. In the movie, they are the main villains with the Evil Plan of taking over the town, with even two songs about it.
- Big Bad: The rat leader, named Big Rat, is a threat to the cats because he's planning to Taking Over the Town along with the other rats. He also kidnaps Lucky in the climax.
- Big Brother Bully: Pallino/Yoyo acts as such with Fortunata/Lucky, until his My God, What Have I Done? moment.
- Bittersweet Ending: Lucky eventually learns to fly, thanks to Zorba's help and encouragement. But as Zorba expected, she also leaves Zorba and the other cats, in order to join the other seagulls.
- Canon Foreigner:
- Yoyo's character is created for this movie. In the book, it's a chimpanzee named Matías the one who tells Lucky that the cats want to eat her.
- Nina is this too, since the Poet doesn't have a daughter in the book. In the original story, it's the Poet himself the one who helps Zorba and Lucky at the end.
- Igor, the male seagull who interacts with Kengah at the beginning, only exists in the movie.
- The old lady, who appears in a few scenes as Zorba's owner, only exists in the movie.
- Creator Cameo: In the original dub, the Poet is voiced by no less than Luis Sepulveda, the author of the book the movie was based on.
- Crotch-Glance Sex Check: Rosa dei Venti/Salty Brine briefly checks between Fortunata/Lucky's legs before declaring that it's a female.
- Cute Kitten: Yoyo, although he's very much a Bratty Half-Pint. Lucky is cute as well, and all the good guys treat her like they would a kitten.
- The Dragon: The green rat who acts as a sycophant to Big Rat. He is the second in command in the Swarm of Rats.
- Dub Name Change: While most names are either left as-are (Zorba, Bubulina) or are translated literally (Fortunata to Lucky, il Colonnello to the Colonel, etc.), a few are changed around more overtly:
- Segretario ("Secretary") becomes Gopher.
- Pallino ("Small Ball/Spot") becomes Yoyo in the English, French, and Spanish dub.
- Rosa dei Venti ("Compass Star", literally "Rose of the Winds") becomes Salty Brine.
- A downplayed example with Grande Topo ("Big Mouse") who becomes Big Rat. In Italian, rats can be called either "ratti" or "topi di fogna" ("sewer mice"), and both expressions are used in the movie.
- Fortunata/Lucky becomes Félicité ("happiness") in the French dub.
- Ear Notch: Rosa dei Venti/Salty Brine has a triangular one on her left ear.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: During his song, Big Rat declares victory because he believes all the cats have gone crazy, as it's the only reason he can think of that the cats would hatch and raise Lucky, a bird.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: In one of the first scenes, this happens to Lucky's mother Kengah. She almost drowns in the sea and later she dies while being covered with petrol.
- Fiery Redhead: Pallino/Yoyo is red-haired and is rather exuberant, if not boisterous.
- Friend to All Living Things: Both the Poet and Nina are very sensitive towards all living beings and are aware that they have a soul just like them. That's what makes Zorba decide that the little girl is the person who can help them.
- Friendship Song: The song "I'm So Happy to Be a Cat" is about the friendship between the cats and the little seagull Lucky.
- Gender Flip: The male cat Barlovento from the book becomes a female cat named Rosa dei Venti (Salty Brine in English) in the movie. Although Rosa has no Tertiary Sexual Characteristics and doesn't look feminine.
- Gilligan Cut: After Diderot read on the encyclopedia that gasoline is what's needed to clean oil, Secretary retorts that they are cats and can't just go to a petrol station and ask for gasoline. Cut to a driver asking for gasoline at a petrol station and the cats taking some of it by dipping, of all things, Secretary's tail in the tank.
- Hidden Depths: Judging by how Colonel and Diderot react to Segretario singing passionately, they didn't expect him to be such a good singer.
- Imprinting: The whole movie revolves around it, as the seagull chick Lucky mistakes the cat Zorba for her mother after she hatches in front of him.
- Kick the Dog: Or rather kick the seagull. Pallino/Yoyo yells at Fortunata/Lucky that she isn't a cat at all in petty a fit of rage and that Zorba and the other cats are rising her just to make her fat and eat her because that's what cats do to birds. He has a My God, What Have I Done? moment shortly after and the two reconcile later.
- Intellectual Animal: Diderot, one of Zorba's friends is literate.
- Interspecies Adoption: For all intents and purposes, Lucky the seagull ends up being adopted and raised to independence by a housecat.
- Love at First Sight: A cat version of this. Zorba and Bubulina are smitten with each other since the first moment they meet.
- Melting-Pot Nomenclature: This movie is an Italian adaptation of a Chilean book, the story is set in Germany (Hamburg), and the characters have random names like Zorba (Greek), Fortunata (Italian, translated to "Lucky" in English), Diderot (French), Kengah (possibly Indian), and Igor (Russian). Possibly justified by the fact that these characters are not human.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Pallino/Yoyo after yelling at Fortunata/Lucky that she's not a cat like she's always believed and lying about Zorba and the other cats planning to eat her.
- No Name Given: The Poet is simply known and credited as "the Poet".
- Only Known by Their Nickname: In the Italian version, the cats initially decide to name the litte seagull Fortunata ("lucky") but after that, this name is never used and they always call her Fifì. Despite this, the viewers tend to remember the seagull's name as Fortunata rather than Fifì.
- Parental Bonus: When the cats try to understand if Lucky is male or female, Diderot searches for the word "sex" in the encyclopedia. Then he briefly smiles while looking at the page (not seen by the viewers) and quickly says "Unfortunately the encyclopedia doesn't say anything about determining the sex of seagulls".
- Species Title: The Italian title translates to "The little seagull and the cat".
- Swarm of Rats: The rats plan an uprising against the town's cats.
- Taxidermy Is Creepy: When Yoyo/Pallino pettily yells at Lucky/Fortunata that she's not a cat but a bird, just like the stuffed ones the museum hall is filled with, the little seagull can do nothing but look at the stuffed birds that seem to be staring at her ominously and then runs away in shock.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Rosa dei Venti/Salty Brine and Bubulina respectively. Bubulina is a flirty and elegant housecat, Salty Brine is an adventurous cat who looks and sounds masculine, despite being female.
- Took a Level in Kindness: After his My God, What Have I Done? moment Pallino/Yoyo becomes nicer to Fortunata and starts seeing her as a sister.
- Trojan Horse: Or rather Trojan Cheese. The cats give a giant wheel of cheese to the rats, but they are hidden inside. With this stratagem, they are able to rescue Lucky and Yoyo.
- Tuft of Head Fur: Diderot has one.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Fortunata/Lucky pukes right on Zorba's face in one scene.
- Would Hurt a Child: Big Rat kidnaps Lucky and plans to let the rats eat her. Even when Yoyo comes in to save her, the rats just overpower him and take him as an additional meal. Fortunately, they are saved in the nick of time by Zorba and his friends.
- You Dirty Rat!: The main antagonists are a group of evil rats. They even have two Villain Songs named Dirty Work, and We are the Rats. In the original version of the movie, they refer to themselves as mice, however.