The Last Unicorn (1982)

The Last Unicorn (1982)

Directed by: Jules Bass, Arthur Rankin Jr.

Starring: Alan Arkin, Jeff Bridges, Mia Farrow

Ah, Rankin Bass, animators most well-known for their stop-motion holiday specials like Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman, which are classics, obviously. Also, they did some more traditional animation, like The Last Unicorn and that terrible version of The Hobbit. I bring this up because The Last Unicorn is basically the same exact movie as The Hobbit, except for the story, obviously.

The Last Unicorn is about… the last unicorn in this vaguely defined fantasy sort of world. The unicorn sets out to find others of it’s kind and runs across a guy who wants to be a magician named Schmendrick (Arkin) and the two of them go to the king’s (Christopher Lee) castle for no reason. Schmendrick turns the unicorn into a woman so the king doesn’t use his huge red bull to put her in the sea along with all the other unicorns. It doesn’t make any sense, don’t waste your time thinking about it. Anyway, the prince falls in love with the unicorn lady and they all go to fight the bull and free the unicorns.

There’s a very weird mythology in this movie, but it’s at least unique, so it’s got that going for it. What it doesn’t have going for it is the amazingly ugly animation, which is just like The Hobbit (I guess I’m going off the assumption that you’ve seen that, since you’re on the internet you must be a huge nerd, and I’m pretty sure every nerd has seen that thing). All the people look like they were carved out of wood or something. At least the creatures look demonic enough, I guess.

Other than the bizarre, choppy animation, this movie has the number one flaw from The Hobbit: A plethora of obnoxiously terrible songs which bust in over whatever may be happening in the movie, regardless of whether it makes sense or fits the mood or anything. Also, the movie just plain doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. So there’s that, too. I guess it’s weird enough that it’s worth a watch, but I wouldn’t give it much more credit than that.