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The Last Unicorn | Year: 1982 Classification: Children's Video Directed: - Arthur Rankin Jr. - Jules Bass Actors/Actresses: - Angela Lansbury - Jeff Bridges - Mia Farrow - Rene Auberjonois A near-perfect adaptation of the original novel! My seeing this movie took a convoluted route. I saw the trailers as a young teenager, never got to see the movie, then found the book lying on a shelf at my summer camp, gathering dust. The camp counselors let me keep it, and I loved every page. A few years later, my local video store got a copy and I finally saw the movie. Normally, after reading the book the movie is a vast disappointment. Not so with this. The movie captures all of the essentials and most of the small details of the novel, and keeps the same energy level and emotions. The fact that Mr. Beagle wrote the screenplay as well as the novel probably has something to do with this. ;-) The characters are very well interpreted and acted, with the best performances given by Angela Lansbury (Mommy Fortuna) and Christopher Lee (King Haggard). Picking Robert Klein as the Butterfly was an inspired choice -- even though it's only a five-minute portion of the film, the producers paid as much attention to this minor character as to the major ones that fill the story. As other reviewers have noted, you get the impression that none of the characters are truly "evil". They simply have suffered bad fortune or disappointment (as everyone in life does at one time or another), and how they chose to react to that is what ultimately shaped their character. This is a nice touch and a welcome departure from standard "black-and-white" fantasy characters. The music soundtrack, frankly, is bland, and many of the songs are unnecessary (the romantic duet between the Unicorn and Prince Lir is particularly saccharine -- yes, I'm a guy, but I'm a married guy with a daughter and thinking of that song STILL turns my stomach). On the plus side, most of the songs were performed by America, and they seemed to understand the music was secondary to the overall story and kept things reasonably muted and subdued. The animation isn't the best. I felt like I was watching "The Hobbit" again, just with a different story. But the animation is just a conveyance for the story, and the story is what is most important here. This is a must-have for any fantasy-lovers video collection. While there is some violence and some slightly scary scenes, it's still a Rankin/Bass animation, and that means that kids won't be unduly frightened. An achievement in animation beyond any others I've seen! I've loved this movie from the time it was released, when I was five years old, until now...The Last Unicorn is one of my all-time favorites. Don't let the title fool you; this movie proves the old adage "you can't judge a book [or movie!] by it's cover." The Last Unicorn has wonderfully complex characters and is beautifully animated. Cartoons aren't always just for kids! This is very artistically done, and I've never met anyone who saw the movie and didn't love it. (That includes my skeptical roommate who thought it looked "My Little Ponyish." She watched it after I bought it--and now she loves it, too.) The soundtrack has beautiful music as well, and it just adds immeasurable value to the charm of the movie. By all means, get a copy of this video and see for yourself. The story is incredibly special, and will stay with you for years. Don't miss out on this one! It's the best accomplishment made in the animation genre that I have ever seen. AVOID This is a very good film that has yet had a decent video release here in the US. This DVD release is a disaster. This particular print has several major defects. First this movie suffers more than most when cutting it from widescreen to full screen. But the pan-and-scan job (the technique used to make a widescreen film fit on a regular television) was also totally botched leaving many scenes showing only half a face or character. There is also many color problems. The print is biased to red. Dark scenes, of which there are many, show a red tint. Related to this is that the greens are subdued. Many objects that should be green show as blue. The print is also grainy showing more video noise than normal. The soundtrack is extremely harsh sounding making it dificult to listen to. I'd recommend you seek out the widescreen version which has none of these problems. Buy The Last Unicorn at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on The Last Unicorn Search with the Priority Search Engine on The Last Unicorn This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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