A Unicorn in the Garden

While UPA is often revered as one of the most innovative animation studios of its time to this day, that's not to say they hit the mark every single time. In addition to the dwindling Mr. Magoo series, they embraced the art of animation to a point where they ended up dipping into feets of pretension and indulgence, especially when trying to come off as too high brow for the mainstream crowd. One of the biggest offenders is their 1953 adaptation of the James Thurber fable, The Unicorn in the Garden. Despite being hailed as a truly magnificent piece of film within the animation field, it might not exactly hold up in the modern age quite as smoothly.

The basic premise of the short follows a man who informs his wife that he saw a unicorn in their front garden, only for the wife to attempt getting him back for such a make believe lie. While very simple in both concept and execution, the main theme of the story is to not expect one's hopes to be an utter certainty. As this theme is presented through a bitter marriage, the single downfall of this entire short is how outdated it is by modern standards. Given that this was made at a time when the media would often route for the henpecked husband over the aggressive wife, the whole film ends up becoming less about embracing make believe than it does about miserable married couples outsmarting one another. What isn't helped is how much they play around with the wife being mischievous, even if she has every right to get back at her seemingly looney husband. Perhaps the short might have worked better as a full blown thriller instead of a comedy, but alas, what we get is a sad case of revenge between two middle aged people who should have just gotten divorced.

In terms of better qualities, the art direction is nothing short of brilliant, especially since the film brings the simplified graphic Thurber style into animation gorgeously. While the character and layout design are far more minimalized than the average UPA short as a result, the character animation, specific staging and color direction allow the film to present itself in the best way it possibly can. If a scene calls for ambience, the colors are bright and cheery; if a scene needs to come off as disturbingly brooting, grim shadows will plague the light; if a scene needs to be mellow, the character's inner thoughts will come out clear as day. The score by David Raskin comes off very melodious while still having a certain level of uneasiness all throughout the short's narrow length. It's almost as if the short is meant to be a dream of sorts, especially when one could never possibly see a scenario presented in the film ever accompanying reality. And yet, despite that possible theory, it's nevertheless unclear as to whether we can laugh or mourn over the dysfunctional marriage happening on screen.

So is Unicorn in the Garden truly another magnificent triumph within the UPA filmography? It may depend on who you ask, for it could either be seen as a witty satire on non trustworthy relationships or a failed artistic interpretation on exploring marriages. Whenever one might imagine a single entity that could easily come off as too high brow for its own good, an easy answer could be this, just like many other UPA experiments that would try to bite off more than they could chew in terms of speaking their minds on what makes strong artistic content. Alas, don't count your boobies until they're hatched.