https://walkingtalkingduck.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/magic-and-unicorns/
I was thinking or writing something about The Last Unicorn, which I watched again after almost 30 years... but I got a bit tired for some reason.
The Last Unicorn suffered, I think, from things lost in the adaptation from the book to cartoon. Of course, when I first saw it back when I was eight, I didn't much care. Magic! Unicorns!
But with an adult eye I see a film that could have been so much more, but didn't, partly because it tried too hard to appeal to a young audience. Though I have never read it, my guess is that the book had a pretty profound theme of the conflict between possessiveness for personal pleasure versus unpossessive love. The theme is pretty much skimmed over in the film, mentioned briefly in stilted sentences, hinting at the depth it could have gone into.
Studio Ghibli might have done a better job. Maybe if part of the story cut out, and the remaining sections elaborated on in greater detail. (How did the young magician Schmendrick realize the best way to use his magic was to let it do what it wills? He suddenly starts using it while the focus is off him and on the other characters, without any explanation how he figured it out!)
The dialog feels like it was dubbed from another language, scenes feel disjointed. I feel like there was a lot more footage that ended up on the cutting room floor that would have made the story flow smoother. Wonder if there is Director's Cut? Some films do feel better with the missing footage put in and the story extended, with scenes made less choppy, eg. David Lynch's Dune.
There were visually stunning sequences: the introduction with the theme I'm Alive! by America, with rotoscoped animals blending into stylized tapestry-like backgrounds:
Some parts were profound: the sad animals in the hag's menagerie in the first part of the film and people not seeing a thing's true worth. And the climactic confrontation between the Unicorn and the Red Bull was both visually stunning and emotionally cathartic, the one scene that stuck in my memory for 30 years, apart from the opening!
I would love a remake, or at least a Director's Cut.
From my old blog back in 2014
https://walkingtalkingduck.wordpress.com/2014/12/09/the-last-unicorn/
I just finished reading The Last Unicorn. On my phone, as the last three books had been, since I cannot find the hardcopy in local bookstores.
I saw a feature animation of it once when I was maybe five or eight, and it had enchanted me completely. The opening theme stayed with me for thirty years even after I've forgotten how the story went. It had been so long that I couldn't remember how exactly the unicorn rescued the others.
So when I found the film uploaded on YouTube I eagerly sat down to watch it.
I was disappointed. The story began well enough, but became disjointed after Momma Fortuna's Circus.
I guess things don't look so good thirty years on . The same thing happened when I watched The Flight of Dragons as an adult. You lose the old magic. It's never as good as you remember.
(Or do you? Maybe it was never that good to begin with, and you didn't know better?)
The ending was magnificent though. That part matched my memory.
I felt something was missing, and when I learned that the film was based on a book, I resolved that I would read it if could find it.
Magic, do what you will!!
I suspected there was something more profound written in the book. A theme hinted at in the film was the tension between possession vs cherishing, and how King Haggard never understood the difference. I also suspected there was more to Schmendrick the Magician's inability to use magic. And how did he discover that really magic does what it would? And Prince Lir, raised by a crabby tyrant, how did he turn out a gallant hero?
So when I found a copy online I could read I went and read it.
It was... magic.
I'm not sure if this could really be called a children's book. I'm not saying there's gratuituous sex and violence; rather, there are subtle themes that take a certain amount of maturity to understand. It's more suited to a mature reader, and I mean that in a good and introspective way.
The book does explicate on the theme of possessiveness vs love, as I had suspected, but also more: it revealed the inner dialog of Schmendrick; it takes him longer to figure out how to work his magic than simply saying "magic, do what you will" as in the film. Schmendrick feels like a failure every time magic briefly appears and fizzles out beyond recall. Not until something truly awes him does he realize what was missing, his character grows like it never does in the film.
Prince Lir, who in the book starts out a bit dumb, doesn't become a hero overnight, but does so in the process of trying to win the love of Princess Amalthea, a long and drawn out process that develops his character. He becomes not only physically stronger but more empathic, more sympathetic. He turns from an mere heir into a hero.
The unicorn, previously callous and unconcerned with the feelings of mortals, learns regret... and cherishes it.
It is a deep book. If it is indeed written for children, those children must be wise beyond their years.
Or do I underestimate children?
Theme "I'm Alive" by America, from the 1982 animated feature of The Last Unicorn: