So I just watched "The Last Unicorn" for the first time in 20+ years [spoilers]

Tybee

Tybee

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This was one of my most cherished films from childhood, and one of the first I remember seeing in the theater (which probably dates me a bit). My wife had never seen it, as she’s younger and it was a little before her time, so she was the control (I’m biased by nostalgia).

Some observations:

  • Mia Farrow and Jeff Bridges SING! They try their best, God bless ‘em, but there’s a reason these two never appeared in any musicals. Scary stuff.
  • Why are all of the magicians in the movie Jewish?
  • Haggard is supposed to be this big, powerful king, but he appears to have no soldiers whatsoever (he does claim at one point that he has “four men-at-arms”). He’s so short-staffed that he and Lir are even manning the gate when our heroes show up.
  • There is a distinct obsession with large, floppy breasts in this movie. Three, count ‘em, THREE huge droopy boobs on the harpy in Mama Fortuna’s circus. And of course the massive mammaries on the tree Schmendrick inadvertently brings to life, which she promptly uses to try and smother him. That brought back memories of my bachelor party.
What holds up:

  • Alan Arkin’s voicework. It helps that Schmendrick is the most nuanced and sympathetic character in the story, but you could tell Arkin really invested a lot in his voicing of this character without ever crossing the line into camp or scenery chewing. His relationship with the unicorn/Amalthea is really the best part of the movie, and Arkin is a big part of that.
  • The title song by folk-rock duo America. Yes, it’s cheesy, but it still has the same effect on me it did lo those many years ago.
  • Mommy Fortuna. She’s an interesting character and there’s a lot of interesting subtext in her scenes and her meditations on death and perception. Also, Angela Lansbury is one of the best voice actors ever.
  • The Red Bull. Still intimidating after all these years, even though I now primarily associate that phrase with something you drink to avoid a hangover.
  • The scene where Molly meets the unicorn. Maybe it’s because I’m getting toward middle age myself now, but I found this scene surprisingly poignant, with Molly basically equating the unicorn with her lost youth and innocence and chastising her for never appearing back then. I think we all feel a little bit of resentment and sadness as the things we relied upon in youth fail to prevent the indignities and compromises of growing older.

What doesn’t hold up:

  • Robert Klein (Helloooooo 1982!) as a showtune-spouting butterfly: Whose idea was this? Not a great way to start the movie. Thankfully, makes everything that comes after seem that much better by comparison.
  • Mia Farrow’s voicework. She does a decent job in parts, but much of the time she is shrill and whiny and you just want to smack her.
  • The animation. While it was one of the last and probably best piece of work put out by the famous (or infamous) Rankin-Bass, the shortcuts and shoddy workmanship make many parts of the film (mainly the many montages) painful to watch. (see trivia below)
  • Every song beside the title track. These are also by America and are laughably bad. Maudlin lyrics featuring pained late 1970s fantasy tropes abound.
Most interesting bit of trivia I found on IMDB:

This movie was animated in Japan by Topcraft, the studio also responsible for earlier Rankin-Bass productions of The Hobbit (1977) (TV) and The Return of the King (1980) (TV), and was their final collaboration. Topcraft was then hired by Tokuma Shoten and Hayao Miyazaki to make his 1984 landmark Kaze no tani no Naushika (1984) (Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind). In 1985, when Miyazaki and Isao Takahata formed Studio Ghibli, most of the major talent at Topcraft was brought on board.


I've always been interested in checking out the original novel. If any of you have read it, how is it?
 
I loved the Rankin Bass productions as a kid but never had seen The Last Unicorn. I tried watching it in my late teens and really couldn't get into it at all. In my experience trying to get friends to watch The Hobbit and Return of the King, thees movies are kinda-sorta horrbile unless you grew up with them, in which case they are amazing.
 
[quote name='Mr Unoriginal']I loved the Rankin Bass productions as a kid but never had seen The Last Unicorn. I tried watching it in my late teens and really couldn't get into it at all. In my experience trying to get friends to watch The Hobbit and Return of the King, thees movies are kinda-sorta horrbile unless you grew up with them, in which case they are amazing.[/quote]

Yeah, it's like that with a lot of things. And the cynicism and experience of adulthood means that no matter how you felt about those things all those years ago, it's going to be somewhat less satisfying than it was in retrospect. But that kernel of emotion and familiarity is still there.

I remember watching "The Hobbit" in my 3rd grade class as a Friday reward. Of course, that film and "Return of the King" (and Ralph Bakshi's terrible, half-finished "Lord of the Rings") took the greatest hit because of the vastly superior take on Middle Earth provided by Peter Jackson. But they still have their charms.

I do still bust out laughing every time I hear Glen Yarbrough warble "The greeeeeeeeatest adventure...."
 
[quote name='Tybee']I do still bust out laughing every time I hear Glen Yarbrough warble "The greeeeeeeeatest adventure...."[/QUOTE]

Everytime I showed that movie to friends they always asked if it was over already since the credits (and amazing singing) don't come until about 7 min into the movie.
 
wasnt john ritter in the last unicorn as a voice character?i think he was the wizard. i never really liked that film it was too irly for me but i watched it because it was a sunday in the 80s and the only cartoon on tv. no heavy metal is still a cool old toon to watch that hobit toon is odd with the whole drawing over people thing.one movie to me that still holds up that i saw as a kid is Something Wicked This Way Comes. as an adult i can tell that theres a lapse in ages i believe where at one point the blonde kids looks older towards the end of the film than he did at the beginning. and at the very end hes small again ( possible due to shooting scenes over later or at diff times).

the main badguy in the film Dark i believe his name is is still one of the coolest film villans ive ever seen. thats one of the few films id like to see remade or get a sequel sinc the concept would be very fitting for this day and age but i cant think of too many people that could fill that guys shoes.


im also surprised at how the Dark Crystal was considered a kids film. i love the movie but its a damn dark and scary piece of work for the times. they dont make kids movies like that anymore.
 
[quote name='lokizz']wasnt john ritter in the last unicorn as a voice character?i think he was the wizard.[/quote]

That was Alan Arkin.

m also surprised at how the Dark Crystal was considered a kids film. i love the movie but its a damn dark and scary piece of work for the times. they dont make kids movies like that anymore.
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That movie scared the SHIT out of me when I was a kid. I didn't even want to see it. When my parents told me we were going, I went and hid in the woods and it took them hours to find me. Watched most of it through my fingers. Of course, I own it now. ;)
 
Years ago, I imported a DVD of this from...Canada or the UK or somewhere, as it was not available in the US. That probably cost me 40-50 bucks at the time.

Then I saw it on sale at Target within the last year for like 9 bucks.

Pissed me off.

It doesn't help that I had imported it for a girlfriend at the time, who ended up being a total bitch slut.

Yeah. I don't have a good association with it. I remember watching it with her and looking at the harpy's breasts. Don't remember much else from the film other than it didn't really seem all that great, but I didn't have the nostalgia element.

I guess I could go back and rewatch it someday. Maybe.
 
As Mr Unoriginal pointed out, unless you have a prior (positive) association with this film, I would never expect it to hold up to comparison to current tastes. That's just the way it is with these things. Case in point: My wife was less than impressed.
 
When I saw the post I was like, "why does that sound familiar?" And now I know, I used to love that movie when I was a little girl ^^ Ok, I think it was possibly a little too much for me at that age, but I still loved it. Cause hello, unicorns! Only parts I remember off the top of my head right now is when it was stuck in a cage and the ocean tides that were full of unicorns. Wow... I feel old.
 
Sweet. I saw this way back when and had no idea what it was called and thought it was pretty cool.

Then I watched it again not to long ago and still thought it was cool.

Moral is.. IT'S AWWWWWWWRIGHT!
 
[quote name='crushtopher']The Last Unicorn and The Dark Crystal = EPIC[/quote]

I'd also put "Watership Down" in this category of super nostalgia inducing films, but I've seen that one several times in the intervening years, so watching it now doesn't have quite the same punch as seeing something you haven't seen since you were little.

Another film I would very much like to track down that I've only recently remembered is "Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure." That movie was trippy. I don't remember a lot about it, except the stuffed camel they meet up with and the giant mountain-sized monster made of candy that tries to kill them or something. It's not on DVD, though.

EDIT: But it IS on Google Video.
 
The only thing I remember about "The Last Unicorn" is that the Red Bull gave me nightmares as a kid. That's all I remember of it.

I've been trying to remember a movie I saw as a kid. At least, I think it was a movie. Maybe it was some sort of sugar induced delusion, but still... All I can remember was that the bad guy was turning people into puzzle pieces and building a wall of some sort with them. Anyone have any ideas?
 
When we were kids, The Last Unicorn was always my sister's favorite movie. We'd watch it and laugh at the drunk skeleton. Laugh when they swore. Laugh at the breasts. It was good times.

I also remember always being scared of the harpy scene as well as whenever the Red Bull was around.

I watched it by myself again a few years ago and actually enjoyed it quite a lot.
 
[quote name='Tybee']I'd also put "Watership Down" in this category of super nostalgia inducing films, but I've seen that one several times in the intervening years, so watching it now doesn't have quite the same punch as seeing something you haven't seen since you were little.[/quote]

Watership down was so fucken violent...it was just too dark for me when i was younger, evil rabbits coming to chew my ears off nightmares.

wasnt john ritter in the last unicorn as a voice character?i think he was the wizard.
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I think your talking about "Flight of Dragons" which ritter plays the main character and is my vote for a walk down nostalgia lane, its one of my favorite animated movies even to this day, if only for James Earl Jones as the villian...goddamn DOOOOOOM! and the kick ass Sir Orin Neville Smythe. now if only that was on DVD.
 
All this speak of nostalgia...

My vote goes to Sword in the Stone. Pure hilarity and amazing voice work.

I still cry at the dish washing scene. Oh Lordy.
 
[quote name='Strell']All this speak of nostalgia...

My vote goes to Sword in the Stone. Pure hilarity and amazing voice work.

I still cry at the dish washing scene. Oh Lordy.[/QUOTE]

Higitus figitus, migitus mum, prestidigitonium! One of my all-time favorites!
 
[quote name='Tybee']I'd also put "Watership Down" in this category of super nostalgia inducing films, but I've seen that one several times in the intervening years, so watching it now doesn't have quite the same punch as seeing something you haven't seen since you were little.

Another film I would very much like to track down that I've only recently remembered is "Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure." That movie was trippy. I don't remember a lot about it, except the stuffed camel they meet up with and the giant mountain-sized monster made of candy that tries to kill them or something. It's not on DVD, though.

EDIT: But it IS on Google Video.[/quote]


yeah that raggedy ann movie was the shit. especially the candy monster who wanted a sweet heart to control his urges lol classic weird shit. i wouldnt mind getting my hands on that either. ive also been on the lookout for Witches Night Out and Really Rosie. both of those are very hard to find old cartoons. i got a copy of the really rosie a years ago for 40 bucks and of course it crapped out on me. i lucked out a while back and landed a copy of the Black Cauldron ( a highly underrated disney films).
 
since alot of you seem to be hip to old odder cartoons heres one ive been trying to locate since i was a kid. it used to come on late night on a show called night traxx where theyd show alot of uncensored weird stuff. all i can remember of this film is theres these aliens and humans. the aliens are giants and the alien kids would go to sleep and their minds would enter these bubbles.


the bubbles would go into the heaven and land on naed stone bodies male and female alike. theyd dance together and what not and now the hmans got up there somehow and popped all the bubble heads and the alien kids woke up bllind and screaming. do any of you recall ever seeing anything like that and if so whats the name of it.
 
[quote name='lokizz']yeah that raggedy ann movie was the shit. especially the candy monster who wanted a sweet heart to control his urges lol classic weird shit. i wouldnt mind getting my hands on that either. ive also been on the lookout for Witches Night Out and Really Rosie. both of those are very hard to find old cartoons. i got a copy of the really rosie a years ago for 40 bucks and of course it crapped out on me. i lucked out a while back and landed a copy of the Black Cauldron ( a highly underrated disney films).[/quote]

Hmmm...You do know The Black Cauldron has been available on DVD since 2000, right? "Secret of NIMH" is another one I key on from youth (I remember going to see it with a bunch of other kids for my birthday party), but that's also readily available on DVD and not that obscure.

The thing is, I can't imagine kids' films this dark ever being released in today' day and age. I mean, if the Moral Majority somehow managed to overlook the witchcraft in The Last Unicorn, they'd certainly be up in arms about the breasts and innuendos.

I think we as a society have moved backwards in some ways.
 
I had to watch this movie in Drama once because we were supposed to do a play on it (ended up doing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). Don't remember much about it.
 
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