the last unicorn (1982)

dir. Arthur Rankin Jr & Jules Bass.
screenplay: Peter S. Beagle.
animation studio: Topcraft.
genre: animated fantasy.

the last unicorn is one of my favourite movies. i actually struggle to explain why it is my favourite, so maybe this exercise in making a page about it will help me!

i never saw it as a child, so it is not like it's a childhood fav of mine, nor has anyone recommended it to me, so it's not really attached to a memory or feeling of another person. there is just simply this feeling about the movie and the story that strikes a chord within me. i love old fantasy, folklore, and mythology, especially creatures like unicorns and faeries and such.

it is made by the same people who worked on an animated version of the lord of the rings, which the screenplay was also by peter s. beagle - he is also the original author of the last unicorn! LOTR is another movie series (the peter jackson ones) and story which i adore, and it might be one of the only ones that tops the last unicorn for me.

all the same, this movie feels very nostalgic to me. it is very old school in it's animation, which i think is so charming and beautiful. the backdrops are STUNNING. it just has such an amazing visual direction, compared to a lot of modern animation which is technically stunning, but somehow feels a bit samey and soulless to me.

i built my whole site repeatedly around the aesthetic of the movies, as you can hopefully tell. i'm inspired by the art, and even have a tattoo of the unicorn on my thigh.

the plot follows a unicorn that discovers there are no more unicorns in other forests, and she goes looking for where they could have all gone, as unicorns are immortal. she discovers that the old king haggard has used his monstrous red bull to round them all up captive for his own joy.

during her quest, she is transformed into a mortal human girl to be saved from the red bull. the audio from this scene is viral on tiktok, i think. to me i think this scene is one of the most gutting ones, but maybe my favourite. she is forced to confront a truth that has never been true for her before; that she can now age and die, among other things. mia farrow's voice cracks so painfully when she cries,

"what have you done to me?"

it's not a horror story by any means, but this feels like some sort of body horror to me. humanity and being a human girl is so antithetical to the unicorn, and she is forever changed at the end of the movie when she is changed back. the thought that she has lost all that is magical and mythical about her self, that she can now die - how can you reckon with that thought when it has never ever been a possibility before this point?

“I can feel this body dying all around me!”

while she is human, she begins to forget her quest, and her identity, but still feels adrift and lost in life without understanding why; something is wrong, but she doesn't know what it is. she finds some comfort in the affection of prince lir, the adopted son of the king. she forgets herself when reminded, wishing to remain human to stay with her love, and to die with him when he dies, which... as a borderline, i felt a little too deeply and it's the worst part of the story to me. not in the way that it shouldn't have been written. to me it's deeply wrecking to think of being so entranced with the affection of another person that you forget who you are, and lose all sense of self inside of them.

“It is a good thing that everything dies. I want to die when you die. Do not let him enchant me, do not let him make me immortal. I am no unicorn, no magical creature. I am human, and I love you.”

it's not that i hate romance subplots, and in fact this one is great to me for that fact, that i think it demonstrates that she is not meant for love. she is a unicorn, she is not meant to even feel it. she isn't meant to find an ending within the romance subplot.

“There are no happy endings because nothing ends.”

it is available to watch for free on youtube. this upload is fairly good quality, but if you would like a better quality copy, it can also be acquired pirated elsewhere.