The Last Unicorn
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The First of the Last

If you grew up with a fondness for classic animation, you should still remember one story in particular:  When the last eagle flies over the last crumbling mountain, and the last lion roars at the last dusty fountain… 

She's in the shadow of the forest, and she's old and worn.  Regardless, she is what she is: The Last Unicorn. 

The movie adaptation of Peter S Beagle's world-famous fantasy novel was animated in 1982, and is still cited as a must-see for anyone seeking a cartoon movie a little more substantial than Disney.  Although not as gritty as Martin Rosen's animated versions of Watership Down (released in 1979) or The Plague Dogs (1982), which are also films cited for adults, The Last Unicorn does contain thought-provoking themes such as illusion versus reality.  The Unicorn's journey is also laced with Biblical parallels.  

Although The Last Unicorn isn't often referred to as anime, much of the animation was subcontracted to a studio in Japan--namely Topcraft.  At the time, Topcraft contained much of the core talent that would later form Hayao Miyazaki's renowned Studio Ghibli, and it's not hard to see how The Last Unicorn inspired the almost supernatural-looking animation in Miyazaki adventures like Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. 

The high-quality animation is one of the reasons behind The Last Unicorn's longevity, so to speak.  The movie hails from an era where computers and cels almost never mixed.  As we're bombarded with full-length 3D features and major animation companies like Disney stop trying to write decent stories and instead blame poor box-office performances on a "decline of interest" in 2D cartoons, there's a certain comfort to be had in rich hand-painted backgrounds and characters.  It's not to say Pixar doesn't exhibit Total Awesomeness with movies like Toy Story or Cars, or to go as far as some purists and declare all 3D animation to be soulless, but it's easy to miss the days when studios made cartoons for the sake of art, and not to market toys to children. 

So The Last Unicorn may indeed be the last of her kind.  Not just in her rare animation, but in her story presentation, too.  Peter S Beagle's book is simply a good piece of literature for such an adaptation.  It's a fairly quick story, simply told and contains characters who are full of life and in fact define themselves brilliantly with a few lines of dialogue whereas typical novels struggle for volumes.  There is a standard fantasy setting involved, with haunted castles, riddles and dragons, but the atmosphere doesn't feel "chained down" like many fantasy stories that struggle for pages to create a world and explain it in detail to the reader.  Even a quality story isn't a guarantee of a perfect movie adaptation.  The aforementioned Watership Down was beautifully animated, but the book clocks in at over three hundred pages and content had to be sacrificed.  Viewers who aren't familiar with the book might feel left behind with the movie's rapid pacing. 

But all of Beagle's magic is intact in the animated movie, and even enhanced with the addition of details such as the implementation of the Unicorn Tapestries, a 14^th century weaving that narrates a hunt and capture of the elusive beast.  The tapestry works well as an accompaniment to the mystical visuals in the movie, but is also interesting for the parallels between the story in the movie and the story behind the tapestry.  In the years before the Church put strict restrictions on how Christ could be represented in artwork, the unicorn, seen as a symbol of purity, life and resurrection, often represented him in stories and art, including the Unicorn Tapestries.  The Last Unicorn herself is a reluctant Saviour of her kind, much as Christ is viewed as the Saviour of Man.  She is hesitant to leave the safety of her forest, but when she receives word she might be the last of her kind, she knows she has to find out what happened to the others. 

Fans are already familiar with the characters she meets along the way: The bumbling sort-of magician Schmendrick, the homely Molly Grue who declares it would be the last unicorn in the world who would finally come to her, the honourable Prince Lir, and his sour adoptive father, King Haggard.  The Last Unicorn is transformed into a human woman, "Amalthea," by Schmendrick so she might escape the wrath of the Red Bull, Haggard's furious behemoth that drove the rest of her kind into the sea.  Amalthea's transformation brings to the forefront questions of mortality and identity; she's safe from suffering the same fate as her brethren, but she slowly loses her true self as she experiences emotions. 

Price Lir falls in love with Amalthea as can be expected of  a hero with a sword, and his infatuation supplies the chemicals for what's probably the movie's only downfall … bad songs sung between the characters, perhaps to make the film more appealing to children.  But the movie's most interesting character is arguably King Haggard, voiced by Christopher Lee and animated as he's portrayed in the book: Not necessarily burning with evil, but sad, defeated and hard, with only his captive unicorns bringing him joy. 

King Haggard's greedy exploits would inspire an animated cousin.  The physical design and personality of Mr Burns, the millionaire bad man from The Simpsons, is based heavily on Haggard's lean, buzzard-like features.  In episode #85, "Rosebud," Mr Burns spends an unfulfilling birthday pining for his lost childhood toy.  Not even a special version of "Happy Birthday" performed by The Ramones can cheer him up, nor can the remarkable birthday gifts he receives--including a unicorn. 

There have been rumours of a live-action adaptation of The Last Unicorn, but it's been stuck in Development Hell for a while.  Given fan whispers of the movie starring a bunch of computer-generated horses, it might be for the best if Japan and America's collaborated version of the Last Unicorn remains exactly as that--the last.