Take a look back at an old trailer…
Man, fantasy animation has moved on a bit since 1982, has it not? Voice acting, too. Dear oh dear, but the dialogue is cringeworthy today, isn’t it? Alan Arkin as the second-rate pickpocket might be the most awkward, but Jeff Bridges is a close second with that line about heroes.
Gotta love those on-the-nose lyrics, too: “Look and see her, how she sparkles, she’s the last unicorn!”
Still, we are all precious unicorns, aren’t we?
I predict that in 2982, someone will make a fantasy movie called The Last Polar Bear…
The Last Unicorn is available on DVD in Region 1 and Region 2.
The name “Schmendrick” the magician stuck in my mind for years.
God I loved this movie as a kid. And I think it has held up okay— it’s themes are pretty mature and overall I liked the voice acting (Jeff Bridges was a weak spot, though, I agree). The animation has suffered, however. I wish the live action version would get out of development hell, and actually not be shit.
That was Christopher Lee as the ruined king. Rumor was/is the live-action has him reprising the role, which would frakking RULE (imdb lists trivia that Lee came to the voice reading with his own copy of the book with notations highlighting the things he insisted be in the movie).
Yes, the early 1980s weren’t exactly a high point for animated movies which is why everyone made such a fuss about that Little Mermaid movie that came out at the end of the decade.
However, I must confess that hearing a dragon sound like Godzilla was pretty neat.
But was Alan Arkin’s character’s really that qualified to be near an unicorn because I hear they only like–er, never mind…
Speak for yourself. ;-)
PaulW, I’ve been reading the Live-Action “Last Unicorn” rumors for over 10 years… it’s all just fan speculation. It’d be nice to see this wonderful story retold, but the evidence for a remake’s existence as anything more than fan-fiction is trivial at best.
Let’s get the voice cast together and use Zemeckis’s performance capture to turn them into younger versions of themselves, how about?
Ah – this is one of those films that I loved so much as a child that I can’t actually watch it an adult – it goes into the machine and – ta da! – I am seven years old again. And I am now wandering around the office humming ‘she’s the last. . she’s the last’ which is getting me some funny looks.
Saw it about a year ago for the first time in English, afterwards the German dubbing and, may I say it, I liked the German version better (although it seemed to interpret the characters very differently from the original version). The animation really is a bit strange (I realized for the first time how the characters shift to one side and back again every six seconds), but still, the moment when Molly Grue encounters the unicorn is one of the most efficient tearjerkers for me.
Further plus points: The scenes in the castle are wonderfully gothic, Christopher Lee is cool (he also was Haggard’s voice in the German dub; they knew which actors delivered in the English version …), and Mommy Fortuna’s circus is a wonderful nightmare (blimey, that harpy really rocks!)
We have this sitting on our DVD shelf, unwatched for a while… I’ll have to see it again.
The animation on it reminds me of another Rankin-Bass cartoon that I absolutely loved: “The Flight of Dragons.” Has anyone else ever seen that? As far as I know it was never released on DVD, which makes me really sad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwaZn-8542o
…I am wrong! Warner Brothers made it available just 5 days ago, hurrah!
I was behind it until he said “and the music of America”.
Bluejay: I think there may still be a VHS tape of that on my parent’s shelf. We recorded it off the networks when it first aired.
The Last Unicorn is one of those formational cartoons for me. It’s amazing going back years later and seeing all the big names that I never recognized before. Rene Auberjenois as the laughing Skeleton is a classic as well.
Ironically the German voiceovers make this a much better movie…