There was a strange trend in kids movies of the 1980s, a trend that many of us look back on in either joy or confusion. A trend that may have had a hand in shaping the modern animation landscape. Kids movies in the 1980s got darker and more intense. Why this happened I am unsure, but if I could guess, I'd say it was a response to something, to what I would not know. This trend seemed to really begin in 1982, when movies like The Secret of NIMH and The Dark Crystal were released, movies with G and PG ratings with more of an edge to them. The Secret of NIMH is one of the earliest of these movies, but I think The Last Unicorn was also an influence in this trend as well.
The movie is based on the book of the same name by Peter S. Beagle, who also did the screenplay for this movie. It is nice when an author gets some creative control of their property when it gets adapted. I've been meaning to get a copy of the book but I've never gotten around to it, next time I'm at the bookstore I'll pick up a copy. Anyway, the movie follows the titular "Last Unicorn", as she leaves her forest to find others, after she is told of a Red Bull that chased them away. In her travels, she comes across a struggling magician named Schmendrick and a ragged maiden by name of Molly Grue. That covers about the first two-thirds of the movie, the last third has the Unicorn turned into a human, and while at the castle of King Haggard, she begins to become more human than Unicorn. It works, nothing about the plot is wholly special, but it works. Granted I could be missing a lot of subtext, there is a lot that could be said in regards to the book and film being allegory, satire or commentary, but I am not well versed to understand any of it. The other thing of note is that this movie does have a few musical montage transitions in there. I think these mostly serve a nice, pleasant and more calming moments as a breather between darker scenes like the Midnight Carnival or more intense scenes like General Scully.
The music is rather nice I'll say. The music was composed by Jimmy Webb who is most famous for songs like "By The Time I Get to Phoenix" and "MacArthur Park". The music was performed by the band America, most known for the god-awful song "A Horse With No Name", with orchestral work done by the London Symphony Orchestra. Oddly enough, the combination of America and the London Symphony Orchestra lead to some honestly really beautiful tracks. I can see why the title track was covered by Kenny Loggins, Loreena McKennitt, even Ninja Sex Party did a cover of it, and yeah, it's a really beautiful track. I also really like "Man's Road" I think that song is just as good. Unfortunately, we get some singing from the cast, specifically from Mia Farrow and Jeff Bridges. I can at least see someone really liking Mia Farrow as a singer, but to pair her up with Jeff Bridges. I love Jeff Bridges, but he is not a good singer, like, give me Christopher Lee's power metal album instead.
Speaking of the voice talents, this movie has some solid talent behind it, Mia Farrow, Alan Arkin, Tammy Grimes, Jeff Bridges, Angela Lansbury, Christopher Lee, and as a casual Deep Space 9 fan, a cameo by René Auberjonois is gonna make me happy, and being a Disney Duck nerd, a Paul Frees cameo also makes me happy. Most of the cast do good jobs in their roles, Mia Farrow, Tammy Grimes and the cameos do good jobs, Christopher Lee kind of suffers from the same problem as Orson Wells in the Transformers movie, where I'm not exactly sure if his performance is good or if it's just the voice. Alan Arkin is mixed in this movie, on the one hand he does give a much more flat read than some of the others, but on the other hand, it kinda works, and he does put some flare and actual acting into his reads. Either way, he does a better job than Jeff Bridges. Again, I love Jeff Bridges, but this is probably his weakest performance, it's flat and unconvincing. Some actors just don't translate into the booth very well, which is why a lot of animation fans ask for studios and the big heads to be more respectful to voice actors. Sometimes we get a Hank Azaria or a Patrick Warburton who can do both, but other times, we get performances like this.
I can't say that the animation is bad, it looks nice and has a really nice palette to it. The Red Bull just pops against the darker blues, and the forests look so lush and pretty. Some of the backgrounds look like really nice paintings, and the character design is very interesting. I do think that you could identify these characters if they were in silhouette. However, the character animation is... a bit limited. This was a Rankin/Bass production, and yes, that is the same Rankin/Bass behind those stop motion holiday specials. It looks like the budget for this film was 3.5 Million, which is actually very little in the scope of animated movie budgets, like Disney spent 140 million on Treasure Planet, The Nightmare Before Christmas was made on a 24 million dollar budget, and even Kiki's Delivery Service is estimated to have cost 800 Million Yen, which is over six million USD. So yeah, character animation and lip synch aren't the best, 3.5 Million dollars is less than what Peter Pan was given. That being said, there are way worse animated films out there, and it's really only noticeable if you're actually studying animation, because when I watched this film before taking my animation courses, I had no issues with it at all. Also, how does a skeleton blush when it has no blood to rush to its face? That was a weird animation choice.
Taking a critical look at things can be tough, especially when you're looking at something like The Last Unicorn. It's a good movie, I'd even say a really good movie, but it does have some flaws. However, a solid B average is still a good mark, I don't expect straight A's from every movie I watch, so while I do have issues with the animation and voice acting, on the whole they weren't awful. There are movies where the animation was just horrid, and where the actors were miscast and gave dreadful performances, on its own, this movie does not stick out as anything too bad. It's a charming movie that I think would be a good watch for a slightly older demographic, but maybe you can get away with showing this to younger kids too. Just keep in mind, there are somethings that aren't suitable for children in this movie. I think despite the issues I have with it, I can still give this a recommendation, this is one of those movies I do believe is worth watching, and for what it's worth, I am glad I watched it. Now to read the book.
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