The Last Unicorn

The Last Unicorn stands out as that rarest of beasts: a film far better than the book. This can be attributed to the fact that the book's author, Peter S. Beagle, was forced by the constraints of film to pare his work down to the bare essentials. The Last Unicorn is marketed as a children's film, but it's far more than that -- a tale of redemption, of the search for identity, truth, and lost innocence. Molly Grue's meeting with the Unicorn stands as one of the most poignant moments in cinema.

or this film had some sort of supernatural power over me...I think all three are true because I saw this film once when I was 3 or 4 and fell so deeply in love with it that since we didn't have a VCR I somehow found out when it was on again, mashed scotch tape over a cassette I found, shoved it into my new huge Fisher Price tape recorder and audio recorded the entire movie. At that age I already knew this film held the secrets of the universe and if I could get that on tape I had it made. Well I lost the tape and haven't seen the film since, so someday I'll watch it again and see if I was right....wow...the soundtrack must've been awesome because I can still hum the song in my head(!)

I remember watching this movie as a child and wearing out the old VHS tape. The music provided by the 70s music group, America, provides a wonderful folk mood to the piece. I recently discovered this movie on DVD and immediately bought the movie. I watched the movie and read the book. I love how the animators were able to bring forward the essence of Peter Beagle's masterpiece of fantasy fiction.

The Last Unicorn is story about friendship and love. The Unicorn discovers that she is the last unicorn in the world. Searching for a sense of identity, she starts a quest to find the other unicorns. That quest introduces her to Schmendrick and Molly Grue. The Unicorn, Schmendrick and Molly are each searching to fill a void, and as an audience member, I vicariously find a way to fill my void through their experiences.

I saw this movie in theaters when I was a kid. I didn't see it again for the longest time until I found it on video recently. I rented it and was instantly reminded of what a wonderful movie this is. I bought my own copy a week later. It's one of the few book-to-movie translations that actually stays true to the spirit of the book. Probably due to the fact that Peter S. Beagle wrote the screenplay. A must-see. Gotta love that theme song!

This movie is of unexpectedly high quality, mixed up in melancholy and nostalgia, though I don't think I actually saw it in the 1980s. It begins with a power 80s ballad, which the kiddos made fun of, but still very catchy. Schmendrick, the bumbling magician, reminds me of Cedric the magician in Sophia. And the Red Bull looks like the Balrog, not the energy drink. The tale is all a little random and confused, but has some interesting twists like the _adopted_ prince who pushes the unicorn to stay true to her original identity rather than marry him (take note Ariel). Fighting the inevitability of old age and death is another theme of interest, especially through the witch who runs a zoo with magical creatures and the crazy king who hoards the unicorns because they make him happy. Both the witch and the prince (if not the king) achieve a kind of immortality by leaving their mark on the deathless creatures: the Harpy will always remember that she was captured in the circus, and the unicorn will always remember that she loved the prince.

It's also fascinating to me that Hayao Miyazaki worked at the studio which made The Last Unicorn, Topcraft, which made Nausicaa soon thereafter. I don't see that many connections in terms of the animation aesthetics; but I haven't yet seen the Hobbit animated films also made by Rankin and Bass/Topcraft, so I can't comment there.

On a personal note, we watched this in NYC the day we went to Princeton, but didn't pay much attention to it; Seb got the blu ray for his 6th birthday and chose to watch it that night.