The Last Unicorn is a very respectably made animated film from 1982, it's also the first non-action/adventure cartoon I've reviewed here. The story of the Last Unicorn actually started as a novel of the same name by Peter S. Beagle. Written back in 1968 the book has been translated into multiple languages and sold over 5 million copies world wide. In part the book's growth in popularity stems from this beloved 1982 film which was directed by the famous team of Rankin and Bass. Even if the names Rankin and Bass don't sound familiar it's a fair bet you've seen their work, especially if you enjoy the stop-motion holiday films Rudolf, Frosty the Snowman and Santa Clause is Comin' to Town. Though mostly known for these excellent holiday specials, Rankin/Bass would venture into traditional animation on a regular basis with such works as The Hobbit, Return of the King, The Flight of Dragons and - of course - The Last Unicorn.I was about six or seven years old when this movie came about and I watched it on a regular basis. Truthfully I remember being a little scared at times due to the more serious nature of the story, and of course the giant flaming Red Bull. As with many things the movie became a distant memory during my teen years and it wasn't until my college days that I rediscovered it. Sadly the only version of the film available at the time was a pan and scan full screen with tons of dust and scratches. Now with the 25th anniversary edition having been released I can finally enjoy a re-mastered version of the film in widescreen format.
To be clear I have never read the novelized version of The Last Unicorn, so this review will not compare and contrast the book and animated film at all. That said the story of The Last Unicorn is about - as you can probably guess - a unicorn discovering she is the last of her kind, as well as her quest to uncover what happened to the others like her. Along the way she befriends a bumbling wizard named Schmendrick and a middle aged woman by the name of Molly Grue. It is soon revealed that all the missing unicorns have been captured by a magical creature called the Red Bull, and to find them our heroes must travel to the castle of King Haggard. As our three companions journey closer to their goal however, the Red Bull appears and begins chasing the last unicorn. With no other options left for stopping the Red Bull Schmendrick casts a spell that turns the unicorn into a creature the bull has no interest in, a human. The remainder of the film deals with the mystery behind all the missing unicorns, as well as the last unicorns struggle with becoming human. Faced with emotions no other unicorn has ever felt, Lady Amalthea (the name given to the last unicorn after her transformation) must ultimately decide if she should stay mortal (as opposed to an ageless unicorn) or return to her original form.
Without a doubt the story of The Last Unicorn is an excellent one. Layered and intelligent, we just don't get enough of this kind of writing in entertainment these days. Since the screenplay was penned by the books author (Peter S. Beagle) it would probably be a fair bet to say the movie holds very true to the source material. Themes such as lonely vs. loneliness and regret make for interesting subject matter and I'm sure they were a part of the original story. At times I must admit that these ideas were a little underdeveloped, but given the films length (90 minutes) I felt they still worked well. If I had to find any fault with the movies plot/pacing it would be during the Captain Cully scene. Basically Schmendrick is captured by a roving band of outlaws and must tell a story involving Robin Hood to humor his captors. In doing this he actually conjures an apparition of Robin Hood and his Merry Men which allows him to escape. This may not sound all that bad but in the movie the whole scene plays out rather oddly. Something about the edits between Schmendrick and the unicorn left me wondering who really performed the magic. Also the decision to start using magic while telling the tale comes about very suddenly and somewhat unnaturally. The end of the film also feels a tad counter intuitive with the Red Bull backing down rather quickly once he is confronted. I do not bring these points up to condemn the movie in any way, they're just unusual hiccups in an otherwise solid narrative.
Unfortunately visuals from The Last Unicorn are a bit on the uneven side. Animation is decidedly minimal with stilted and inexpressive movements taking away from the characters performances. There are several scenes where the voice actors really pour their passion into the well written dialog, only to have the animation fail in conveying the emotion; most notably when Molly Grue first meets the unicorn and when King Haggard confronts Lady Amalthea. I don't blame the animators per se, it's clear the movie had a limited budget and the limited animation is nothing more than a byproduct of this. Given deeper pockets I am sure the Japanese animation studio could have rendered these characters superbly.
While the animation from The Last Unicorn is somewhat lacking, I would consider the films backgrounds a resounding success. Don't get me wrong, this isn't Disney quality stuff, but it's still very well designed and painted. I was especially impressed with the last unicorn’s forest from the beginning of the film. The look of the trees combined with a shifting color pallet ranging from warm to cool colors reminded me of a storybook type design. Later during the journey to King Haggard's castle, we are treated to a more harsh and rocky terrain. Once again the background painters do an exceptional job setting the mood with darker, more muted hues while detailing the stony surface admirably. Besides the story, I would rank the backgrounds as my favorite feature in the film.
Character designs are either really good, or really bad. Much like they did in the Hobbit, Rankin and Bass used a lot of squat, bulbous human design in the film. Captain Cully, witch Momma Fortuna, Rukh and others suffer from this unattractive look. Though Molly Grue does not share this shortcoming she does sport one of the most ridiculous looking hair styles ever, an unkempt rats nest made worse by the movies limited animation. Fortunately the look of Schmendrick, King Haggard and Price Lir fare much better. The best design work, however, would have to be the creature designs for the Unicorn, Red Bull and Harpy Celaeno. The unicorn is especially good because it goes beyond just the standard “horse with a horn” look and instead creates a very stylized, majestic animal, one worthy of the stories focus.
Overall the visuals from The Last Unicorn serve their purpose. Yes some of the design work could have been better, but ultimately it's the limited budget that hurts the film most. If the movies animation studio Topcraft had been given more money to work with they would have - no doubt - knocked our stocks off. After all many of the people comprising Topcraft went on to work for Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli, one of the greatest animation outfits in history.
Like the films visuals, the audio from The Last Unicorn has its ups and downs. The movies score works well with a very folksy soundtrack courtesy of America, but towards the end of the film we get two very out of place songs from both Lady Amalthea and Prince Lir. The purpose of these numbers is to illustrate the last unicorn’s struggle to remember what she is while at the same time falling in love with the prince. While this may be commonplace in a Disney film the songs here just don’t work. They are poorly written, performed and are ultimately superfluous. I personally felt that the movie could have conveyed all these emotions through regular dialog and spared us these musical mishaps.
From a voice acting standpoint I thought the movie had a pretty decent cast. Alan Arkin does a good job as do Christopher Lee (King Haggard) and Tammy Grimes (Molly Grue). The only real complaint I had just happens to be with the stories most important character, the last unicorn. Mia Farrow does the voice of both the last unicorn and Lady Amalthea, but while she possesses the ethereal sound necessary for the character her delivery was lacking. By contrast Arkin really did not have the best voice to fit his character Schmendrick, but made up for it by performing his lines well and thus the character worked.
In the end The Last Unicorn is a flawed, but ultimately solid movie. It would be easy for me to dwell on what could have been, but instead I choose to enjoy the film for what it did right. For anyone who wants to pick this up on DVD I would recommend the 25th anniversary edition. It has a short interview with the book’s author, Peter S. Beagle, and features a re-mastered widescreen picture (though there are still a lot of dust and scratches to be found).
