Das letzte Einhorn

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(!)

The first time I saw this movie was when I was very young. So young, in fact, that the only things I can remember about this movie are subtle images; I couldn't even remember if I liked it or not. Now, more than twelve years later and after reading the book, I can honestly say that this is a truly great film.

I have seen very few films that have actually brought me close to tears, and most of those movies are ones I didn't like. The Last Unicorn is an especially good film not just because it stays true to the book, which animated films are rarely good at, but also because it breaks away from the Disney formula for telling the story. All the characters in this film are sympathetic in one way or another, including the villains King Haggard and Mommy Fortuna. Many people would ask why a villain would need to be sympathetic? The simple answer is they don't. The villains are sympathetic though because they are human. The unicorn herself doesn't truly become sympathetic until she is transformed.

I say this film is in the spirit of the great filmmaker and master animator Hayao Miyazaki, a Japanese director, because even though this film is a fantasy, it is not a fairy tale. Miyazaki has become famous for making animated films that are enjoyable for children, but are also sophisticated and deep enough for adults. What makes this movie great is its story.

One of the things that makes this movie so special for me is because it has become one of my favorite love stories. More specifically, it is a story about hopeless love. There are only four love stories, this one included, that I regard as my favorites. One them being Princess Mononoke, one of the many great films by Miyazaki. It is also a unique love story because it is about true eternal love. How is it eternal? I will not say because I don't want to spoil the movie.

My only real complaint about this movie is that the animation isn't very fluid, but I am willing to let that slide because the film was obviously low budget. I only hope that the live-action version will be as good and hopefully even better than the animated version, because even though this movie was well paced there were certain things from the book I hope they mention in the new version that they didn't have time to put into the animated version. I also hope the live-action version is as truthful to the book as this movie was, and leans more to the adult side of the story so more emotion and character development can come out of it.

You're never to old to believe in the impossible.

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.

The imagery is just gorgeous! The songs are delightful and such fun. Hard to believe it's 30 years old and so well done.

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.