Thelma la licorne

Glitter, fantasy, pink, unicorns. Check, check, check, check. Another film about staying true to who you are; having fun while doing it! Yes, there are plenty of predictable cliches here, but a fun watch for some distraction. As long as you are you expecting any in depth meaning with lasting emotional influence. Not to say there are not good lessons and themes played on throughout the film, but they are not presented in any way that we have not all seen before. It is based on characters in the book by Aaron Blabey, actually two books. Blabey also did The Bad Guys, highly recommended books + film. These illustrated children's books do indeed follow the same general truth for adult's books- namely, that books are almost always better than the film!

Thelma the Unicorn (2024) is the first animated movie to be directed by Jared Hess and it's his best movies to date since Napoleon Dynamite (2004).

Positives for Thelma the Unicorn (2024): The plot of the movie is very basic and it does work for the most part. The voice performances from Brittany Howard, Will Forte, Jemaine Clement, Edi Patterson, Fred Armisen, Zach Galifianakis, Jon Heder and Shondrella Avery are pretty good. The animation looks good through the movie. There is a good message that kids can learn from the movie. And finally, the comedy is pretty decent.

Negatives for Thelma the Unicorn (2024): This is another Jared Hess movie where it is just too weird. None of the characters are particularly likable other than Will Forte, Job Heder and the blind old lady. Thelma is a little too selfish with the idea of fame and while I get why she did it, the way with how the movie does it is just too much. I also have to say that Jemaine Clement is not an actor who is for me, his acting is too weird. The story is very predictable and you know what is going to happen. And finally, this movie is basically made for kids and not adults which isn't a bad thing, but I've watched movies and show that can appeal to both kids and adults very well.

Overall, Thelma the Unicorn (2024) is a fun little animated movie for kids and that is just fine.

It's a cute little family B movie that is lighter on divisive politics than I expected a movie about a pink unicorns to be. Refreshingly opposite of what Disney would've chose to do with it.

The plot is predictable but has a good message, especially if you dislike what the music industry has become in the last twenty years. It moves along at a fairly quick pace and won't make you crazy like some other children's entertainment.

No that isn't Tim Curry, but one would sure hope he is getting image and likeness royalties for the Vic Diamond character. It's really well done, but there is no doubt who that was modelled after.

It's hard to turn a 5 minute picture book into 90 minutes of film, but Thelma the Unicorn will (probably) keep little kids entertained.

Of course there's an overarching message of being who you are etc, filled in with interesting moments about the culture of celebrity, the cult of fame, and how your favourite stars are carefully curated with marketing. As an adult and well out of the target demographic, this was the most interesting part of the film. My kid, aged 9, is a bit too old for it too but having grown up with the book, she wanted to see it. And she loved it!

Recommended for the under 10s.

If you've never read the book, the movie might come across as new and heartwarming. I read this book almost every night, and what's just a fun story about a pony pretending to be a unicorn and being famous, the movie takes that and is fully bloated of a new plot of her desperately wanting to be in a band and be a singer that's known well, which takes away from the aspect that she just wanted to be a unicorn in the book for the feel of being a unicorn. So my kids didn't like it, and I hate how every kids movie has to be a musical of some sort, it just feels overdone, and the movie comes across as a weird merge of 70s Hollywood with modern technology, which just makes the film odd to me. Thelma tries way too hard to be trendy and aim at kids. And the voice actress does a tremendous job, I guess it just feels off from what the book shows you, it just doesn't feel like Thelma.