The Last Unicorn (film)

The Last Unicorn
The Last Unicorn
	Promotional film poster
Directed by	Jules Bass ; Arthur Rankin Jr.
Written by	Peter S. Beagle
Produced by	Rankin/Bass
Music by	Jimmy Webb ; America (band)
Distributed by	ITC Entertainment
Release date	1982
Running time	92 min.
Countries	USA ; Japan (animation)
Language	English

The Last Unicorn is a 1982 fantasy film, based on the novel written by Peter S. Beagle, and adapted by him for the screenplay. The film is an animated movie produced by Rankin/Bass for ITC Entertainment. Although officially produced by an American company, the film is an important transitional work in the development of Japanese anime, since most of its animation was subcontracted to the Japanese company Topcraft (whose main artists shortly afterward became the core of Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli).

Synopsis

Template:Spoiler In an enchanted forest, a unicorn realizes that she is the last of her kind and decides she must embark on a quest to learn what has become of the other unicorns. The Unicorn discovers from the addled dialogue of a butterfly that something known as the Red Bull has herded all of her kind to the ends of the earth. Venturing into unfamiliar territory beyond the safety of her forest home, she begins a journey to find them and bring them back.

Along the way she is captured for a time by the witch Mommy Fortuna, who is keen-eyed enough to recognize the magical creature where others see only a plain mare. The Unicorn is put on display in the cages of the witch's Midnight Carnival. She escapes with the help of an incompetent magician in Fortuna's employ, Schmendrick, and later gains a second travelling companion, Molly Grue, the care-worn lover of Captain Cully of Greenwood Forest.

When the Unicorn nears the seaside castle of King Haggard, supposed keeper of the Red Bull, she comes face to face with the fearsome charging beast and learns she cannot withstand him. At the last moment before her final surrender and capture, she is transformed by the effort of Schmendrick's unpredictable magic into a mortal woman. In this human guise, the Red Bull is uninterested in her and departs.

Schmendrick, Molly Grue, and the strange young woman proceed to Haggard's castle and seek entry. King Haggard is at first unwelcoming; when his suspect gaze examines the curious young beauty, Schmendrick identifies her only as the Lady Amalthea. The maladroit wizard requests that the three of them stay there as members of Haggard's court, only to be told that all of the royal complement has long since been dispatched: the only remaining occupants in the gloomy castle are Haggard, his adopted son Prince Lir, and four ancient men-at-arms. Haggard, for his own dark interests, consents to lodging the trio, replacing his more competent on-call wizard with Schmendrick, and setting Molly Grue to work in his scullery.

Becoming gradually forgetful of her original identity and the purpose of her quest, Amalthea feels more human with each passing day, and eventually falls in love with Prince Lir. Caught in a complex web of newfound emotions, she struggles with thoughts of abandoning her quest for the sake of mortal love even as she continues to seek an answer to the fate of the missing unicorns. Haggard confronts Amalthea in private conversation, hinting at the location of the unicorns, yet from the waning magic in the woman's eyes, he has doubts regarding his previous suspicions that she is more than she seems.

Solving a riddle to find secret passage through a broken clock in the castle basement, Schmendrick, Molly, Lir, and Amalthea confront the Red Bull in his lair. The fiery creature is no longer deceived by the woman's false human form and chases after her. Endeavouring to assist her escape, Schmendrick reverses the transformation spell, turning Amalthea back into the Unicorn, but she is unwilling to leave Lir's side. The Bull drives her toward the ocean, just as he earlier drove all the other unicorns, but Lir comes between them and is killed. Grieving, the Unicorn turns defensively on the Bull and forces him into the sea. Carried on the white surf of incoming tides, the other unicorns emerge en masse from the water, causing Haggard's castle to collapse into the sea as they rush past. On the beach, the Unicorn magically restores Lir to life before she, too, departs for her forest.

Schmendrick assures Lir, now the king, that he has gained much by winning the love of a unicorn, even if he is now alone: "She will remember your heart when men are fairy tales in books written by rabbits."

The Unicorn briefly returns to say goodbye to Schmendrick, who laments that he has done her wrong by burdening her with regret and the taint of mortality, but she thanks him nonetheless for having helped to restore unicorns to the world, and though she is the only unicorn to feel regret, she is also the only unicorn to know love.

Themes

The Last Unicorn deals with themes of loss, redemption, immortality, identity, roles, and truth.

Immortality

Only the Unicorn and the Harpy are immortal. Other characters seek or gain immortality by proxy. The Tree, when animated by Schmendrick's magic, tells him, "There is no immortality, but a tree's love." Schmendrick tells Lir of the immortality the prince has won by winning the love of a Unicorn: "She will remember your heart when men are fairy tales in books written by rabbits."

The Unicorn chides Mommy Fortuna for taunting the Harpy, saying, "Your death sits in that cage, and she hears you." Mommy Fortuna is untroubled: "Oh, she'll kill me one day or another. But she will always remember that I caught her, and I held her prisoner. So there's my immortality, eh?"

Identity

The Unicorn starts out certain of her identity; it is the mortal characters who reveal their wisdom or foolishness by whether or not they recognize her. But once she is transformed to the Lady Almalthea, she begins to lose her sense of self, and it is the mortals who must remind her of her true identity as a Unicorn. She tries to reject her immortal self when she falls in love with Lir, but in the end, only as a Unicorn is she able to save the man she loves.

Schmendrick is seen only as a bungler, but aspires to become a master of true magic. Eventually he achieves this identity.

Lir begins as a cipher, but his love for Lady Almathea leads him to become a hero. He must embrace this identity to serve as a catalyst in the rescuing of the Unicorns.

Cast

A c t o r	R o l e
Alan Arkin	Schmendrick (voice)
Jeff Bridges	Prince Lir (voice)
Mia Farrow	Unicorn / Amalthea (voice)
Tammy Grimes	Molly Grue (voice)
Robert Klein	The Butterfly (voice)
Angela Lansbury	Mommy Fortuna (voice)
Christopher Lee	King Haggard (voice)
Keenan Wynn	Captain Cully (voice)
Paul Frees	Mabruk (voice)
Rene Auberjonois	The Skull (voice)
Brother Theodore	Ruhk (voice)
Jack Lester	(unspecified - voice)
Edward Peck	(unspecified - voice)
Don Messick	The Cat (voice)
Nellie Bellflower	The Tree (voice)
Kenneth Jennings	(unspecified - voice)

Music

The film's music was composed and arranged by Jimmy Webb and performed by the group America. The title song has been covered many times, including by Kenny Loggins on his Return to Pooh Corner album, and by the German group In-Mood.

The title track plays while the scenes from the Unicorn Tapestries form a backdrop for the opening credits. The tone is wistful, and the themes are of loss: "When the last eagle flies over the last crumbling mountain/And the last lion roars at the last dusty fountain .... And it seems like all is dying and would leave the world to mourn" but also of hope: "Look and see her, how she sparkles -- It's the Last Unicorn/I'm alive! I'm alive!"

As the Unicorn leaves her forest on her quest, we see a montage of her journey, with the seasons passing, to the strains of Man's Road. We hear In the Sea as Lir undertakes his quests to win the love of Amalthea. The theme is of mystery and myth and of seeking the unicorns. The use of the song is ironic, because at this point in the film Lir does not yet know Amalthea's true identity as the Unicorn.

Now That I'm a Woman and That's All I've Got to Say are the songs sung, first separately then together, by Amalthea and Lir as they discover their love for one another. Amalthea sings of the strangeness of her new life, Lir of the inadequacy of his attempts to find ways to express his love.

DVD Releases

File:TLUnew2.jpg

U.S. 25th Anniversary DVD edition

In its DVD releases, the animated version has enjoyed considerable success with a cross-generational mix of old and new fans, selling more than one million units in the U.S., Germany, the UK, France, Australia, and New Zealand between 2003 and 2006. In Germany, the movie has come to be aired yearly on German television as a Christmas special, which explains why the German DVD is issued in a Christmas present themed slipcover.

The first U.S. DVD, released in April 2004, was made from poor-quality masters and the video and audio both suffer. That release was also pan-and-scan, and not the film's original widescreen ratio of 1.85:1. In addition, at least some copies were from a manufacturing run in which two instances where characters say "damn" have been muted. (This was done to appease the store buyers at Wal-Mart and other mass distribution outlets, some of whom had received complaints from parents.) Due to these factors, many fans have preferred to buy the digitally remastered German DVD import.

A "25th Anniversary Edition" was released in the U.S. on February 6, 2007, produced using the same digitally-restored masters used for the German edition. It has audio and visual quality superior to the original U.S. release, and is in 16:9 widescreen format. The new DVD edition includes a featurette with an interview with the author ("The Tail of the Last Unicorn"), as well as a set-top game ("Escape from the Red Bull"), photo gallery ("Schmendrick's Magical Gallery"), and the original theatrical trailer.

Some film purists have criticized the 25th Anniversary DVD release over the continued censorship of language (several "damn"s have been muted) and the fact that it runs at 4% faster speed than the original release (thanks to the fact that the DVD was made from German PAL standard masters, which have a different frame rate than American video). Others have stated that the anamorphic widescreen transfer and improved sound and picture quality are worth these changes.

Conlan Press is offering the special edition DVD for sale. Due to ongoing contractual disputes, none of the proceeds of DVD purchases through other sources will reach Peter S. Beagle (though this may change if the dispute is resolved). However, because of the special agreement Conlan Press made with Lionsgate Entertainment, more than half of the payment for copies purchased through Conlan Press will go to Beagle. In addition to the standard version of the DVD, Conlan Press offers the option of purchasing individually personalized autographed copies.

Legal controversy

In 2005 Peter S. Beagle discovered that Granada International, successor to ITC Entertainment in terms of control and ownership of the animated feature version, had sold at least 900,000 DVDs and videotapes of The Last Unicorn worldwide without paying him his contractual share of the income. When negotiations with Granada over this issue failed to yield any results, a public campaign for support was launched on Peter's behalf by Conlan Press. That campaign is still ongoing, and fans from 36 countries have so far signed up to help make sure that he is paid what he is contractually owed for the film from these sales, other distribution, and merchandising.

Conlan Press's website stated as of June 12, 2006 that an unnamed "eminent third party" was engaging in negotiations with Granada to see that Beagle received fair compensation. In December of 2006 Conlan Press indicated that the negotiations are still continuing in what appears to be a positive direction, and that they hope there will be definitive news soon.

Trivia

The film's opening is visually inspired by the Unicorn Tapestries from the 15th century. Additionally, close inspection of the Tapestries mounted in Haggard's Castle reveals those originally sourced tapestries adorning the wall in one room — see the scene featuring Amalthaea's song.

In the Unicorn's search for answers from the Butterfly, he misquotes Deuteronomy 33:17: "His firstling bull has majesty, and his horns are the horns of a wild ox; with them he shall push the unicorns [sic], all of them, to the ends of the earth." (RSV) In the King James version, this verse is rendered: "His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth."

Christopher Lee also provided the voice of King Haggard in the German version.

External links