The Last Unicorn: Death and the Legacy of Fantasy
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ธ.ค. 2020
- 2020 really got me making an hour-long video essay about mortality in a 1980s children's movie about unicorns, huh?
00:00 - Intro
05:16 - Making the Unicorn
14:54 - Story Breakdown
24:20 - Memento Mori
37:09 - Deaths and Legacies
47:52 - Outro
i did a super bad job of explaining the whole "on 2s" thing so uhhh no worries if you're confused by how i explained it. anyway, here is a list of the sources i used for this video; next time i think i'll try to add in-video footnotes or something:
- "The Unicorn" by Nancy Hathaway
- "The Anti-Consolation: Boethius and 'The Last Unicorn'" by Alexandra Hennessey Olsen
- "'Two Sides of the Same Magic': The Dialect of Mortality and Immortality in Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn by Geoffrey Reiter
- "Humankind and Reality: Illusion and Self-Deception in Peter S. Beagle's Fiction" by Richard C. West
- "Innocence and Experience and the Imagination in the World of Peter Beagle" by John Pennington
- "Fantasy and Medieval Iconography in The Last Unicorn" by Noelle Taberham
- "Virgin Whore" by Emma Maggie Solberg
- "The Unicorn Tapestries" by the Metropolitan Museum of Art
-The Last Unicorn Book vs Movie
• The Last Unicorn Book ...
![ทททททททท #27 [หลุยส์ เค โตมายังไง ณ สระบุรี]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/CaKoYw_Xmtg/mqdefault.jpg)
hi everyone! so this video kind of picked up steam this weekend, and i just wanted to say i'm so incredibly grateful for all of you who watched it! all the likes and feedback are so awesome, and i am so glad this movie resonated with so many people in the way it did with me :) i am working on a second video essay that will hopefully be out in the next few weeks. (and thank you to all of you who subscribed to my tiny baby channel! i hope to add several more videos in the coming months.)
Wow really, I just saw this yesterday. I hope to see more, it's always great to find more TH-camrs who are willing to take deeper dives into narrative studies.
It also helping me push forward on my first video essay about exploring a deeper story in a neglected kids film. The script is writing itself, but I'm so worried about the audio portion.
@meow mama I just found out about that movie a few weeks ago, that is so weird.
Great video
I want to watch it now
Great video! Subbed.
Also, is it just me or does that tree look an awful lot like 🍒🍆?
was just happy to see someone even mentioning flight of the dragons, its fav cartoon from my childhood.
"Don't run from eternal things.
It only attracts their attention."
- the Last Unicorn
"Never run from anything immortal, it only attracts their attention."
Haunting line
That was referenced in a Bleach fanfic
WHICH WAS EPIC
YORUICHI AZTEC BANKAI!
"You must never run from anything immortal it attracts their attention."
Say it louder for the people in the back-
Molly getting angry at the unicorn is one of those scenes that can feel kind of powerful as an adult, but will go over your head entirely to a kid who doesn't understand how it feels to get older and lose that spark of innocence.
Very true!! Seeing it as a child I understood that Molly was angry, but didn't understand why. I recently re-read the book and when I got to that scene, I remembered the movie. It was only then that it struck a cord in my heart. 😭😭
I remember feeling very sad for Molly watching that scene as a kid. I didn't *quite* fully understand why she was so distraught, but I was so sad that she had waited so long to see a unicorn, and had eventually given up.
That is probably one of the most real scenes in any animated movie we've ever seen, and we grew up with Last Unicorn. So poignant.
Exactly!!! When I was a kid I used to not like molly because I didn’t understand why she was mad until I was older
This is also a discrepancy with the book. In the movie they don’t explain why she says this and it’s fair to interpret it as simply a sadness at past youth, but in the book it is more specific. It is told that there was a tradition where a bride proved her virginity by calling to the forest, and if a unicorn appeared, that would prove her “purity”. In the book it is implied that the unicorn didn’t come for Molly in her youth and she became an outcast.
I always liked the irony behind this movie. The unicorn searches for the other unicornes because she doesn't want to be the last one, but in the end she will still be alone for she was a woman and now knows emotions and mortality. So she started alone and in the end is still alone. I love this movie.
Yes 👏🏽
The part where she talks about how she can feel her body dying around her, especially in the book, where the concept of a human form is so foreign to her that she ends up clawing at her skin to the point of it bleeding because she doesn’t know how to cope, that stuck with me.
Thank you. Literally my favourite part in the film growing up was her transforming into human and saying I can feel my body dying all around me and the pain in her voice and how terrified she was it stuck with me to this day! I loved this film growing up it was perfect to me.
Maybe because we can all relate the feeling to the actual human experience of not quite fitting into our world?
People are obsessed with calling any kids movie that isn't pure sunshine and rainbows disturbing, dark, or traumatizing. I'm really starting to think the internets reactions to these movies is just exaggerated.
For me the movie was traumatizing
I had to sleep with lights on the next days
BUT im not the only person in the world. Every kid is different and parents schould treat them so
Some kids can handle such movies others not
For example i always loves coraline but a lot of kids called it too scary
Same, and i mean, I enjoyed the movie when i was a kid, I never associated unicorns with pooping rainbows BS. Except the scene with the skeleton, that's was what i was afraid of
@@ms.pirate when the harpy ate the witch it spooked me a bit but other than that I loved it as a kid.
Honestly everyone needs a bit of negative emotion to truly make something feel genuine. This can come across as violence, fear or just something uncomfortable but you need that element. If you don't have that then its liable to come across as toxic positivity
@@caleviwin i mean, same! I loved the movie too!
Shmendrick wasn't cursed with immortality because he was bad at magic, he was cursed because he was so incredibly powerfull that one lifespan would not be enought to gain controll over all the magic he had. That's also why he seemed bad at it.
Makes so much more sense because I always considered transformation magic to be high level magic that’s unstable. The fact that it can be performed so well by someone terrible at magic I assumed that the writers didn’t understand that there is a sort of a universal standard in writing when it comes to skill needed to perform magic. Thank you for the information!
Yes! And we don't learn this in the book at the midnight carnival. It's at the very end, when they're already in the bull's cave, that he reveals this.
It's my favourite twist in the book, since it casts such a new light on so many situations and conversations that happened before.
Fun Fact, the magician he replaced at king Haggard's castle actually knew Shmendric's teacher. Together they were magicians of significant reputation.
Yup!
Honestly the scene that stuck with me as a kid wasn't any of the "terrifying" stuff, but the scene where the unicorn wakes up and realizes what Schmendrick did to her to save her. When she cried, "I can feel this body dying all around me!" it struck me to my core. I realized that, as a creature with an immortal body, she could literally *feel* the process of her human body slowly aging aka dying. It struck me as horrifying, that she would have to endure that feeling.
Another thing that stuck with me was when she told Schmendrick at the end of the film, "I am no longer like the others, for no unicorn was born that could regret. But I do. I regret," and she later thanked him for that. It made me realize that even painful experiences can be valuable.
Honestly this movie, and later the book, has shaped much of how I see the world. It's become such a comfort read that I have entire pages memorized. This may sound hyperbolic, but I honestly think I would be a different person had I never seen this movie and read the book.
I agree. This was one of my favourite movies as a little girl, the other being the Lion King. That line about regret, I remembered asking my mother what regret was, what did it feel like? She was almost hesitant to explain and had difficulty conveying the concept to me. Looking back, I realized I was like the unicorn before she left the forest, not understanding my own mortality or the pain of regret. I've often felt this movie was about the journey from the innocence of childhood where everyday stretches into eternity into the knowing sadness of adulthood, where each day feels like only a few hours.
@@jancole6910 YES EXACTLY!!! It so perfectly conveys that transition from the innocent ignorance of childhood to the painful wisdom of adulthood.
Honestly the interesting interplay of mortality and immortality, blatant use of the characters KNOWING they're in a fairytale world, and the entirety of King Haggard were extremely influential to me. While I prefer scifi usually there is nothing quite to the level of the classical mood this story puts me in.
That's how I feel about Watership Down. I watched that movie so many times, and I've read seven paperback copies of the book to shreds.
Everyone says it's such a traumatizing movie for kids, but it never bothered me. I think I may have first seen it as young as five.
I think movies made specifically for children nowadays insults their intelligence and capabilities. No, Watership Down was not a children's movie, it's just an animated movie. And I think same with The Last Unicorn.
Along with The Dark Crystal and Time Bandits, those were all my favorite movies growing up.
A horrible, beautiful moment in my memory too. Only second to the "Where were/How dare you" monologue. Which pains my heart even to this day.
I adore the design of the unicorn in this movie. She's just so ridiculously beautiful, elegant and graceful, with a strong sense of strength, dignity and power emanating from her. Her body is well-defined and muscular, without losing her curvaceousness or breadth.
Okay I understand the point you're making and I agree, but I *hate* how this is worded.
Based horseshagger
Are you describing the curves of a magical horse-like creature? (⚆_⚆)
@@AwesomeYena Obviously
@@MDonuT-of7px based bronyposter
I find it highly ironic that Unicorns are seen as exclusively feminine these days. Because prior to that first line written in the cabin back in the 60's. Unicorns were almost exclusively considered to be masculine. Or at least referred to as such. They were noble defenders of maidens, saviours and healers. Beagle in part has left his stamp on the world in helping shift that understanding to something beautiful and gentle.
I like both concepts to a degree so long as either isn't oversaturated in marketability. Murder-horses were always fun to think about.
I agree! Heck, its one of the reasons why the MC of my fantasy series is a male unicorn with a knight in shinning armor motif. 🗡
Unicorns themselves aren't feminine. They were meant for feminine.
👁👄👁
They have always been masculine. Feminists just appropriated them in the 2010’s.
The last Unicorn is a masterpiece and so is the last unicorn song that goes with it.
And the book
America is a severely underrated band
@@gaziibo2336 I agree
Nahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
@@bobbybillytommy4566 I never read the book unfortunately. But this movie is very special to my heart from childhood.
I love how in the book the unicorn is hinted at fighting a dragon and winning and then later when Prince Lier tries to romance Lady Amalthea with the head of a dragon and she's unimpressed
One thing I'm disappointed with from the book to the movie is the loss of the servants/warriors from th castle, I loved them so much, they were so cute with Lady Amalthea
Yes!
The unicorn fought the dragon, yes. But she didn't kill it, and it would not have killed her. They are immortal. They know each other's names. Fortuna's carnival is the first time we ever see Unicorn meet Seleno, but Unicorn instantly recognizes her and knows her name. Amalthea was not impressed by the death of the dragon, she mourned for it. Its immortality was stolen just as hers was.
@William Barnes It does state in both movie and book that the withering look she gave Lir made him feel sorry for ending the dragon's life, which always clued me in to the mood of Amalthea as well as the scene.
So in the end it states: One mortal life fully lived in love and regret is more worth than thousand immortal lives filled with no friends, no sorrow, regret, love and less.
@Doofus But life is not beautiful when you can't feel that it is beautiful. Those unicorn feel nearly nothing but are merely living on. Life is only beautiful because you feel love and more. So rather waste a life filled with love (human) or lives filled without love (unicorns)?
@Doofus You do you. And I always say: "You can't miss what you never had". Being born a unicorn you will never miss feelings and love. But by my experience as a human, I can at least say for myself, love is way too great to live without it. Just like the last unicorn having to know what love is and not being able to be with her prince.
And with deep fear comes deep joy. So I take all the fear in the world, just to be in love with my partner and feel joy with the people I love. But that is just my thinking. I can understand your preferences.
Wouldn't a thousand immortal lives be the same length as 1 immortal life?
@@EccentricGentelman And why would you ever bother wishing for more of nothing?
@@williambarnes5023 I don't follow.
I never thought this movie was too dark nor scary. Not even my 6 year old self. I always loved this movie
When I was young, I did not understand what the story was about, I just watched it and enjoyed most of it. The only things that scared me were the harpy and the red bull. But I'm all grown up now and I've over come those scenes, just like I was able to over come Disney's the Legend of Sleepy Hallow. I've read the book, (actually the comic) and I can't decide if the book is better or the movie.
Same here! " The Last Unicorn" is a film I watched so much more often then any disney movie I owned as a little kid, same also went for "The Flight of Dragons"! Still have my original VHS, still in working order :)
(Funny how the scariest film for me as a kid was "The Neverending Story" because of that darned wolf, lol.)
@@Silly_Gamer_Neko The wolf's name was Gmork, and yeah, he used to scare me as a kid too.
the only part of this movie that scared me as a kid was the Red Bull... idk why but it did
I've always loathed the crappy production of Rankin Bass - Heck, the lord of the rings they did were considered the 'gayest movies of all time' for decades. But the story I loved, and America's poignant delivery of the titular theme sends a sword of ice through my heart to this day, so many years later.
The scene where Molly Grue confronts the Unicorn is one of the most underrated moments in cinema.
It still makes me cry
I get chills just thinking about it.
and it’s amazing why as well. from my obsession with these types of literature and entertainment which is raw and terrifying with its themes and experience, her backstory is right along with it. also these voice actors are the BEST
In the books lore at a ceremony for the couple the unicorn eas called to prove the woman was pure. So since almost all were rounded up suddenly all women were not marriage material
I cry every single time! It’s so moving. As I grow I see the scene differently every time. From childhood to teen and as an adult the scene would hit me differently.
One of my favorite details about this film is how passionate Christopher Lee was about the whole project. He reportedly loved every moment of his involvement in it, for instance he would slip in-character as King Haggard during meetings and suggest tweaks to his dialogue to make it flow better.
Haggard was a perfect adaptation. Between the design, expression, and Lee's performance, there is no beating Haggard for best adaptation, aside from about 90% of The Princess Bride.
It's really telling that I can read lines that are only in the book and still hear Lee's voice saying them.
@@TheQuashingoftheTub he absolutely made the role his own
Ĺike in princess Alisea, when he did something than 100%
same guy who read rthe entire LOTR catalogue annually to prepare for his part in the movies. thats how actors adapting literature ought to be.
One detail I love is when, just before Shmendrick turns Amalthea back into the unicorn, he and Molly and Lear argue on the beach - the things they say just seem so raw and real to the way we speak in intense moments
"Do something, you have the power! I will kill you if you don't do something!"
"I cannot! Not all the magic in the world can help her now"
"Then what is magic for??"
I just love Molly in general, such an unusual kind of character to see in a children's movie
They're a perfect trio.
Lir and Schmendrick are both very good deconstructions of a story's narrative.
Lir feels he HAS to do something because his role compells him to, Schmendrick feels he can never manage anything because his circumstance and the narrative prevent him from feeling he can take matters into his own hands, and Molly's the girl who says "screw it I'm making an annotated version f*ck the story it makes no sense-"
This plus their constant acknowledgment that fairytale lands and worlds just have their own rules regardless of the people living between the lines is great.
Unicorns in mythology are really agressive, like... they're wild horses with a horn and were thought to be something that should be conquered so I'm not surprised that The Last Unicorn was dark.
Unicorns have been so over saturated by media that I’m sure any real ones would not be recognizable
AndreNitro X1000 Hehehe which is what both the book and film talk about, hehehe
I agree mostly, except the "should be conquered" part i disagree on
I remember reading someone saying that old mythology unicorns were basically pissed off murder machines.
The part where unicorns can be drawn out by a virgin maiden of pure heart, is more well known.
It's not really aggression. It's a rejection of impurity.
The pursuit of a unicorn is a metaphor for union with Christ. Unicorns are one of the main symbols associated with Jesus allegorically, primarily because of the supposed immortality and healing ability of their horn. From there flows the need to pursue them, and the attraction to virginal purity. Enlightenment is difficult to find when deliberately sought but more easily found in innocence of superfluous sin; at least in a moralistic medieval context.
Anybody claiming nowadays that "The Last Unicorn" is too traumatic for children obviously hasn't watched Coraline.
The other mother tho-
At some point, the Last Unicorn canbe scarier than Coraline I think. I mean, Coraline's whole world and atmosphere is gothic and scary. The Last Unicorn is supposed to happen in an enchanted place, with Fantasy, Magic and Wonders. To see this theme being twisted into such a dark story is unsettling.
@@manonpavllptdr Coraline's world was whimsical and then turned ugly.
@@thesisypheanjournal1271 You're absolutely right, but even the "beautiful and magical" parts were kinda creepy and disturbing
Heck, hasn’t watched the earliest Disney animated films - Pinocchio, Snow White, Bambi...
As a German growing up with Das Letzte Einhorn in the 90s, I will be eternally grateful Christopher Lee voiced King Haggard in German aswell. His voice and pronunciation/accent in the role always enchanted me as a child, and keeps doing so as an adult. It's the perfect fit.
Yeah, he did great job.
Ich konnte es nicht fassen als ich das gerade im Video gehört habe. Ich wusste weder, dass er die Rolle im Englischen gesprochen hat noch, dass er fließend deutsch sprechen konnte.
It’s a good movie. And I always stood unapologetically by that statement. Which as a young man wasn’t always easy. But I recognise quality when I see it.
His unicorn monologue is my favorite in the entire movie. “The first time I felt it, I thought I was going to die”, “nothing makes me happy but their shining and their grace”, “I am truly young in spite of myself”. I love these lines and Lee did such a beautiful job capturing his character.
The Last Unicorn imo is in the same category as Coraline, both are scary and nightmare fuel, but that's part of why they're so good. Movies like these teach valuable lessons, the characters are in really terrifying circumstances, but they survive them nonetheless. I think that's a great example to show kids, especially kids who may be in terrifying circumstances themselves.
Something about the kids already knowing dragons exist, and fairy tales saying the dragons can be slain...
holy shit, the last unicorn being a proto studio ghibli movie makes so much sense. The last unicorn and Nausicaa of the valley of the wind were my childhood
I just read a little more into Topcraft, and my mind was further blown that after its bankruptcy in 1985, half of it not only became Studio Ghibli, but the other half at the time became Pacific Animation Corporation, which made Thundercats!
Right, that blew my mind. I only watched Nausicaa recently, but I felt like it had a very similar feel/vibe to it as The Last Unicorn. Wild.
The opening of Last Unicorn (based on the Unicorn Tapestries) is very similar IMHO to the opening credits of Nausicaa with its murals (and to an extent the woodcut opening of Laputa).
Also so many bonus points for the connection to Belladonna of Sadness
This explains why I saw so many Last Unicorn cells when i visited Nakano broadway in Japan a few years ago! I took photos because I'm a fan of the show and it was cool, but I had no idea why a bunch of art cells from the film were being sold at a specialist auction house in a totally different country. Now I get it.
@@leonie7754 Ah man I'd love to see the photos! As a kid I had some idea there was an anime connection because (I woulda been five or six) the look kinda reminded me of Sea Prince and Fire Child th-cam.com/video/HbwbhxnQWhU/w-d-xo.html which I knew was Japanese
King Haggard's motives are terrifyingly realistic.
He is desperate to feel happiness to the point that he acts in an utterly selfish and childlike way.
The darkest reaction to chronic depression.
Yup. He wasn't sinister or evil in any way - he was simply human.
@@WobblesandBean I think his actions WERE sinister and evil, but I agree that they were founded in an all-too-understandable, and very human, painful existence. Hi, I'm Sarah and I hold suffering people accountable for their actions. :P
Alongside Frollo from Hunchback.
Word!
To me, The Last Unicorn is more about innocense lost. The innocent don't understand regret because their lack of self-awareness and so not understanding how their actions relate to consequences. Unicorns are the embodiment of innocense ( equated with childhood and especially virginity in medieval culture) that is never lost. But in order to save them one of their "people" must sacrifice her innocense because the cynical, selfish world of humanity has tried to steal and lock this beautiful innocense away in a prison. Mento mori is part of this recognition of the flow of time outside of the magical, timeless, immortal world of unicorns that exists in the world of humans for it is the ulimate "ending" of a person's story that an immortal simply can't understand. Only in the cynical world of humans do you need heros to act as beacons of hope. You (and The Last Unicorn) do a great job of asking whether this desire on our part for the immortallity and endless joy of innocense the medieval version of unicorns represent is really something to be yearned for.
Japanese animation in the 80's often dealt with real-life struggles, grief, losing loved ones, facing incredible odds, and rarely getting a moment's rest. It taught a whole generation of Gen Xers that life isn't all rainbows.
And thats why we're all depressed ;p
@@Mugthraka Yes and no, for the good that darker animation brough when it shattered the pink-colored illusions about life, it also didn't help preventing hope getting (almost) killed.
Think about it, if everything's dark and awful all the time, why caring, why doing anything at all?
For as much as "there's darkness" was a necesary message, it quickly spiraled into "life _is_ darkness", while also very conveniently forgetting the part about moving on from said darkness...
I think every single human knows at this point that we're on a living Hell, without the obvious being repeating over and over. How do we fix it?
Too long, didn't read: too bleak, stopped caring.
@@Mugthraka Gen zs have more of that than us Genxers. Gen zs were sheltered too often. They could've have it better watching these types of films. The generation after the Zs... lost cause. Families sheltering these kids too often. I feel sorry for them.
@@LadyCoyKoi Uhm, buddy, what are you even saying?
Legit, Lockdown was bad, but it didn't killed the internet, *this movie is on TH-cam even*.
Or are you coming with the Boomer mentality of "kIdS tHeSe dAyS wItH tHeIr sAtAnIc pHoNeS"?
Lol no, try being a mexican kid playing outside *WITHOUT* being kidnapped and recruited, not by Dr. Halsey, but by a Drug Cartel (that is, assuming they don't need a sex slave or organs for the Black Market instead) (I'm assuming you're on PC).
I'm assuming this wasn't written by an A.I., I'm also not making an r/ihadastroke joke, but you're making it hard...
Not only animation. Have you ever read the manga Tokyo Babylon by CLAMP? It follows a young onmouji and the people he helps, and a lot of the stories involve death, depression, and other dark topics. I highly recommend reading it.
Out of all the characters I think the unicorn has the worst fate. She will never die, forced to remember her friends forever despite the fact they forgot her the moment they passed.
In the book it's clarified that immortal beings aren't born with the ability to regret. So normally an immortal being wouldn't be affected by that. So it's even more tragic because, as she says in the movie, she's the only unicorn in the world who understands regret.
They forgot her? I think that only applies if there is no afterlife.
There is no greater curse than to life forever with regret, eternally haunted by that which could have been but never was and never will be. It is a fate I would not wish upon my worst foe.
@@moonlady3000 Yes, they don´t have the ability to regret. But the last unicorn gets it, because she was human for a while. She now knows regret.
And yet I believe she will forever to thankful he Magician for letting her experience it all. For now she is much more wiser than the rest of her kind
The deadpan delivery on "...unicorn frappuccino, which looked and tasted like a jar of sand art" made me laugh
WHY ID NO ONE TALKING ABOUT THAT
Ya hilarious
As a kid, the parts that stuck with me as being mildly disturbing were how, when the harpy kills Mommy Fortuna, Fortuna just stands there with her arms wide open, excited to he horribly killed.... And how the unicorn was the only one of her kind who could feel regret. I sure loved this movie as a kid, though, even if the themes were a tad on the heavier side. It's a moving and beautiful story.
I'm just kinda shocked people found this scary, this was my favorite childhood movie.
Actually it was ...kind of. But based on the atmosphere. And it's Just ..a reason why movies for Kids aren't Just for Kids everytime. Especially ghibli movies (since the Studio from the Last unicorn later became the ghibli Studio)
For me it was that Red, aggressive bull, hunting the unicorns thst scared me
The vulture with 3 naked pendulous breasts coming down and eating a carnie did it for me.
Also the red bull scenes were ominous, but I think there was a music effect involved.
It depends on age too. 5yrs or 8 yrs or 11 yrs
Same. The only scene that really stuck with me was the fantastical scene where the unicorns are stampeding in the waves.
It's crazy, when I was a child I always felt bad for the bull. Yes he was scary but I rather cried when he was forced into the ocean
It has adult themes to be certain, but I also never found it frightening. I have always preferred serious stories to traditional Disney "happy" ones, it was the main reason I got into anime, and before it, movies and series like this one. If you have never seen them btw, I recommend watching the anime adaptions by Toei of both Ningyo Hime (Mermaid Princess) and Swan Lake. The latter in particular has always been a favorite of mine. If you like unusual movies in general, I recommend checking out The Black Cauldron too, mentioned in this video.
Ah, you got a clip where Molly says "Damn you" in her speech when she first sees the unicorn! I finally feel validated! I had this movie on VHS as a kid and I knew she said "damn" in that part but when I bought the movie on DVD the word had been cut out and I thought I was going crazy because no one else remembered her saying it.
The Blu Ray has the audio correctly and uncensored.
My DVD copy has it censored too. Actually, I have two copies. One completely muted the line and the other repeated "Where have you been?". Either way you can still lip-read "Damn you".
Our VHS definitely had it uncensored, but some of the songs were truncated. "Now That I'm A Woman" was reduced to a brief instrumental bridge and I didn't know it existed until DVD. There've been so many different releases.
I watched this movie sooo often as a kid (with the cursing bits) it feels so weird not hearing it in other versions. Glad some clips are still around :0
Huh. I'm going to have to check my iTunes version for that...
I was shocked as well when the dvd goes silent for the cursing. My husband, who has no nostalgia for any movie, would have forbidden it from being played if he had seen the VHS version. Now my child adores the film aswell, so I guess it was for the best.
The most traumatic part for me was when she was talking about her flesh rotting when she became mortal.
same...
Yeah when she’s screaming “I can feel this body dying all around me!” I always tear up.
That line is one that stuck with me since hearing it. Even when I didn't fully understand all it's implications it still stuck with me. It's a stunning line.
I remember being so alone when my dad died. Kids movies left me feeling hollow and broken. There was no magic, no heroes, no happy ending in the real world. There was only pain, loss and loniness.
Then there were films like The Last Unicorn, Castle In The Sky, Princess Mononoke and Flight of Dragons.
Movies that showed death and loss as a part of life, a cycle instead of a finale. They gave me the space to process my grief and understand that I wasn't alone.
Kubo and The Two Strings, Del Torro's Pinocchio and The Fantastic Mr Fox are more modern examples with the same spirit. It's sad to see them labeled as "too dark/weird for kids"
Kids experience loss, death and pain as much as anyone. But we deny them the terms and tools to process these feelings, just to make ourselves feel better.
Me: "Oh, I remember The Last Unicorn as a bit dark, but I enjoyed it when I was a kid! Wonder what this video says..."
The video: *immortality and death, the fear of dying and the fear of living*
For some reason mommy fortuna’s death and the Red Bull weren’t scary to me, but damn if I wasn’t terrified of that skull screaming UNICORN UUUNICORN
This.
This is the one.
I can hear it clearly in my head reading this...
For me, it was that flipping tree...
My dad quotes that part all the time haha
It filled me with existential horror lol
Some people assume that everything animated is made for kids.
Now let's watch Watership Down!
I will never forget the trauma from watership down as a kid omg
Heh. Show them Heavy Metal.
Please NOOOOOO!!!!! 😱😱😱😱
*quiet chanting* plague dogs plague dogs
The rabbits suffocating, crawling to get out, eyes glowing red as they wriggle against each other for air... But the entrances are blocked. I could cry just thinking about it
The Last Unicorn captures existential dread in such an incredible way
I loved the conversation between Molly and the cat. I loved his point that cats aren't really fooled by illusions as where humans insist on enjoying being fooled by illusions.
And that no cat ever truly gives a human a straight answer. We're not worthy of it.
As a child whose childhood started with this fucking movie, I can confirm, I love it. People think its just weird but they don't understand. The magic in the animation, the beauty of the unicorn, each character unique, the scenery that feels so peaceful, the calm in the unicorns eyes, the iconic moments such as the skeleton i like to call "sassy skeleton", and the deep meaning in it. To me, looking back at it, although I didn't think this as a kid, this movie had a message, especially at the end, that things change, and so you have to move on, and things that once were important, have to be acknowledged and grateful for, but move on. Even in the weird animal zoo boobie bird old hag scene(idk what to call it), even the hag herself talks about how people believe what they want to believe and see what they want to believe, and even draws parallels to zoos and how the animals aren't as happy there. And another thing, I'm not gonna say that all the women in the film weren't sexualized cuz that's just not true, but what I am saying is that many of the women in the film weren't picture perfect, like the old hag, and the supporting woman character(i forgot her name) has the same scraggly hairstyle the whole time. And when the unicorn is in human form, the sexualization and general sexism is less than other, the only main sexualization scene is when she's just been turned into a human and she's fricken naked, but shmendrik is respectful THE ENTIRE FILM, and than there's the old fuck corpse guy who gives off rlly creepy vibes but still treats her as the unicorn creature she is, not an object. So food for thought, or should I say BUFFET for thought, I like to write a lot.
Amen !
Boobie bird old hag = harpy. Part woman & part hawk/eagle type of bird, they’re a pretty interesting mythical creature! Anyway, I enjoyed your word buffet. I also love this movie and you described part of its charm quite well.
@@VeryBlueberrry OMG thanks so much. For some reason I forgot the name but that’s what I call it anyways In my head. looking back I typed A LOT but I’m glad you enjoyed it!
schmendrick drinks respect women juice
yessss someone said it !! i so agree, i feel like growing up on these types of old, not-so-sugary films gave me a serious fascination for them that i would rather die than be without. so sad they don’t make them like they used to.
Now I can decide that The Last Unicorn is my favorite Studio Ghibli movie.
Its not studio ghibli, though..?
@@G60176 The video explains that Studio Ghibli was formed by Miyazaki out of the remnants of Topcraft when they closed.
@@WannabeAltruist ok debate: did you say it was a ghibli movie or a tophat movie? (The op said "now i can say its my fav ghibli movie" which, uh, ok, the super western one huh? Oookaaaay. Anyway.)
@@savantofillusions Preach, brother GenX. Preach. Don't forget Heavy Metal. Remember that weird claymation piece The Adventures of Mark Twain?
@@alexanderwerewitch Yeah it's objectively not an actual Ghibli movie, lol. Saying it's their favorite might even be bending the truth for the sake of the joke. But hey, if they prefer the more western influenced movie that's cool. It does have an interesting blend of eastern and western animation styles.
That last line from the book gave me chills. Really makes this movie 10x sadder knowing that in the end, her friends all have died and her existence has all but faded away
The last line on this video hits hard enough for us watchers to realize the true fate of life...
"The cage that traps her, one that will exist long after her forest has vanished and all the stars in the night sky have burned themselves out."
As a female equestrian, there's one thing I also feel is important to the conversation about unicorns and femininity...and that is that horses, a previously heavily masculine and military-associated animal, became to be seen as a "feminine" thing after the military's horse Cavalry was disbanded in the 1940s. As for the unicorn, for centuries, it was the royal emblem of Scotland and its Kings, a masculine power symbol to counter England's lion. After WWII, in the 1950s and 1960s, equestrian sports were opened to women, and they went from being heavily male-dominated, to heavily female-dominated, up to 80-90% women. However, sexism and misogyny against women riders culminated in horses and unicorns being now-coded as "feminine".
This is interesting, I can´t blame men though. I like horses, they are cool, but tanks are cooler XD
That's really intresting, thank you for sharing this knowledge!
i was definitely a "horse girl" as a kid, and i remember all my girl friends were too--meanwhile, i don't think i knew any boys who (outwardly) liked horses. i actually didn't know that history about horses and femininity! (admittedly i am now an adult who is terrified of horses. not for any traumatic reason, they're just so much bigger IRL compared to the ones i had on wall calendars!)
@@chromalore
Growing up in the 80's, I was one of the few boys who was into horses and unicorns - but that might have been because my family, while fundamentalist and very backwards in a lot of ways, were opposed to gender stereotypes.
Have you seen Wildfire, by the way? It's a children's cartoon made by the same writer. And you can see hints of a better story in the title song.
Has nothing to do with sexism lmao
The last unicorn fills me with a sadness and yet happiness I cannot explain.
Same
me too, i always cry watching it
This was pure 80’s.
Being rated G yet being very dark and mature.
Loved the ending, as well as the theme by America. Both still hit me in the feels to this day though
The last unicorn is what I call the feminine melancholy; aging, loss of youth and beauty, love and regret... things young girls who grow into women feel in a level no one else does. Like when you get your first menstrual cycle, you become a woman, and not by your choice.
Why am I not surprised that Christopher Lee is fluent in German and voiced both the English and German versions of his character...
Rip a legend
You shouldn't be surprised. He was in the RAF Intelligence and SAS in WWII. It was only normal he'd learn German for that
and he doesn't even have an accent - I watched this movie as a kid and never even realised he was in this until I saw this video
being a spy does benefit later in life.
@@why_karlaly u are right he does not have an accent, but he speaks in a very unusual way. I always noticed but did not think much of it since it was so fitting for the charakter.
Fun fact about Molly. Back in the day sometimes there was a ceremony before a wedding where the bride had to sing a song and if a unicorn apeared it'd mean she was pure of heart and a virgin and was therefore allowed to marry. I dont quite remember if that was a "princess only" sorta thing, it might have been, but that might've been what Molly was talking about when she asked the unicorn where she had been.
I heard that if a person sees a unicorn at a young age, they will be happy for the rest of their life. So when Moly was furious, saying "how dare you come to me now, when I'm like this?!", I interpret it as she missed her chance at living a happy life. Now grown-up it hits differently and truly sad.
The old myth was that only a pure hearted virgin could summon/tame a unicorn. They go into the forest and sing, if successful, the unicorn would come and lay its head in the girls lap. That is how, in the unicorn hunt paintings, they caught and killed the unicorn.
Its in the book as well. I really think that's why Molly reacts the way she does. Molly sang, the unicorn didn't come, and thus Molly was abandoned. At least that's what I believe...
I think in the book that Molly believed very fervently in the existence of unicorns and she continued to throughout her life. She was raised on stories of unicorns coming to young, beautiful, pure maidens and so she believed that one would come to her because she was those things, but as time wore on she felt she became less and less worthy to see one. She still believed in them though, unflinchingly it seems because she is the only non-magical person who sees The Unicorn and IMMEDIATELY recognizes her for what she is. We know this to be true because she says, "If you had waited as long as I have to see a unicorn." or something to that effect, and that's one of the beautiful things about this story, is that it states that unicorns can come to people who are not "perfect". Molly is upset because she thinks that she's not worthy enough to see a unicorn now, she's "old", "ugly" and not a virgin anymore, and that's why this part is so beautiful. The Unicorn lets Molly touch her, hold her, cradle her, when before she clearly didn't let anyone touch her if it could be helped. She acknowledges Molly's pain and even comforts her "I'm here now.", she signals to Molly that the woman is still pure in some ways, she can see her and she wants her to come with her and stand by her side for the journey.
@@ggilbert8967, you are so damn right. And it's a very mature statement for a "kids' movie". You are not perfect but you are worth what good is coming your way.
The Gravity falls portrayal of a Unicorn is a pretty good interpretation
It's kind of weird that unicorns are normally shown as friendly, when you consider what they are.
Horses: wild or domesticated, and temperamental even when the latter
Fairies: not evil, but flighty, unpredictable, can be helpful, but also screw with people for amusement
Unicorns: fairy horses.
Hi, I'm actually crying. This video helped me unlock something I was missing for the stories I'm writing, and understanding my mental health in relation to death/dying.
My appreciation for this video cannot be expressed in words beyond that.
Honestly same in some ways.. essally for one of my oc's.
Never thought of unicorns as girly but then again, I grew up in germany with a fairy tale where a unicorn was trying to kill a tailor by impaling him... you know things for kids
Next on the sewing channel...
@Shiohane "Das tapfere Schneiderlein" "The brave little Tailor"
My grandma's grandpa was from Germany and he'd give her watered down beer for breakfast.
oo that reminds me of this kids storybook game for "girls" that my mom got my sister, where it was just full of fairytales from around the world they were all sad, and gruesome stories my sister and I loved them.
@@dragonofepics7324 my brother always got the foam on top of the beer
Shmendrick is right you know. Life is beautiful because it ends. A flower is made all the more precious because it fades and every moment is priceless because it will never come again. And to him an immortal life is the cruelest curse of all because it never ends.
The unicorn on the other hand has always been an immortal and knows no else until Shmendrick's spell. Now she is the only unicorn who knows what it is to be mortal. She alone has experienced mortal existence and all the emotions that come with mortality. As she says herself unicorns do not feel regret, yet she experiences it. Not only that, but she is the only unicorn to have experienced love. Mortal love with all the pain and joy it brings along with the knowledge that it would eventually end.
In the very beginning of the film we get a glimpse of what her immortal life was like. She lived in a forest that was always spring and was pure and beautiful like her. Death did not exist in her forest and all was perfect and unchanging. This seems to symbolize her innocence, naivety and ignorance as she is even unaware that the other unicorns are gone. She was eternally the same unchanging with no need to worry about the well-being of the others until she found herself completely alone. She didn't even really seem to care that they were gone at first until it slowly dawns on her what being the last really means. Being the last means that someday the unicorns will end. It is that realization that terrifies her to the extent that such a self-absorbed creature as a unicorn sets out on a journey to seek for the others, doing something so completely against her nature as an immortal.
And in the end she can never return to that innocent childlike state for she has been forever altered. She is now alone an immortal who will exist forever with all the regrets and memories of being mortal. She will exist forever with regret in her heart and in some ways that is the final death the death of innocence.
That’s really beautiful
As a child, I was terrified of the red bull, but still asked my parents to rent this video all the time. I had nightmares about the bull, but could not get enough of the unicorns.
When I grew older, the novel became one of my favorites, a book I read at least once a year.
It was either the 20th or 25th anniversary of the film release, and my local theater was doing a showing with Peter Beagle in attendance. He signed books and had a Q and A. When I handed him my book I informed him that the bull haunted my nightmares for years as a kid.
His reply? "Good, kids need to be scared every now and then."
I'll never forget that.
Also, as a kid, I related to the unicorn and her desire for love. Now? At 35 years old? I relate to Molly Grue so much. Where has my unicorn been? Where was she when I was young?
I must have been a strange kid. Even at 8 I thought this was the best movie ever made. No nightmares or any scared moments, just a continuing want to re watch it every chance I could.
Yes
It's been my favorite since I was like 4 years old. I'm 27 now, I get it
I always thought the unicorn's design was beautiful. Ephemeral, ethereal, and unnaturally bright
I feel the tree was always more traumatic compared to the witch's death
I just thought the tree had big mitten hands
As a kid, it flew right over my head. Now as an adult, I always skip the scene cause its so weird. Someone with a smothering fetish had to animate that. No excuse for it lmao!
I've loved this movie since I was a kid. I think my favorite line that I still cling to is, "there are no happy endings... because nothing ends."
Anytime Angela Lansbury is in an animated film, I get excited. Her voice is just so unique and beautiful
Update: RIP
sir Lee also for me, his voice is so magical
I still get all misty eyed when the other unicorns are rescued from ocean. The build and emotional payoff is absolutely priceless
Uf, this really captures what made child me so heartbroken at the end of this movie. Not the deaths or scary monsters, but that the Unicorn had found love, friends and a potential future whose loss she would remember for eternity. Her life as a unicorn seems so stagnant. This may have been the first art to communicate the concept of regret to me.
I rewatched the film several years ago and the end credits sequence when the unicorn goes back to her forest to be alone forever moved me to tears.
That's a brilliant point, and I think you're absolutely right. I was 3 when this came out, but saw it repeatedly on VHS for years after, and I'm convinced this is what taught me what regret was as well.
This was my favorite movie as a kid; I first saw it as a ten year old. It's STILL my favorite movie. The harpy scene always stick with me, not for the death or terror, but because of just how stoked Mommy Fortune is about the entire situation. I never particularly understood why as a kid, but later realized it was because, despite her fixation with immortality, she also had no issue welcoming her death. She, in her mind, made such an impact on her victims that she would always be remembered. And then she is immediately forgotten by the main cast, completely breaking the expectation of "her immortality"
"Not on screen" does not mean not remembered. Even if she wasn't actively recalled ever again, the idea that she shaped an immortal being might be enough for her.
please never delete this video
i would never! :) this took MONTHS so even if i look back and cringe at it one day (i already cringe in some parts, haha), i could never throw it away!
“The last unicorn” was my childhood
Mine too
Same! Great movie.
Me too. It was my favourite movie when I was a little kid. It didn't scare me at all, I loved it!
Same
Me too.
"Everything dies, I want to die when you die!" Amalthea from the movie.
Damn girl. Chill we just met a day ago😂
Book I read awhile back points out the downside of a pairing between an immortal and a mortal, outliving the other. That would also apply to friends as well.
@@brodriguez11000 that would be painful
I really liked the quotes you used from the book and the movie I’d forgotten the almost poetic form of dialogue the author used. One of my favorite lines from the movie was when the unicorn asked Schmendrick after he achieves his dream of being a true wizard if he’s happy and he can only say “well, men don’t always know when they’re happy but I think so.”
She really just dropped a banger outta nowhere and then said cheers.
It's Breadsword all over again.
When I was in grad school, we were visited by Betty Buckley (o.g. American Grizabella in Cats, gym teacher Miss Collins in Carrie, star of stage and screen). I asked her a question of art; where to pull it from, where to find it, what to do when you feel lost. She looked at me very keenly and said "My dear, I see you. And you, specifically, need to read The Last Unicorn. Anytime you see the word 'magic', replace it with 'art'. It is all true." And that is a memory I've held very close to my heart for some time now. Every year, I reread when Molly Grue finally sees the Unicorn, and every year it gets harder and harder to bear. The passage of time is unendurable, and yet so effortless.
Thank you for the deep dive into a work of art. All the critical essays, quotes, images; it's all so good. The title says it all. It is all true.
Watching this movie is one of my earliest memories. My parents bought this movie for me and I had watched it regularly. It never gave me nightmares, it didn’t scare me too harshly. I don’t think I ever truly understood the movie, hell I couldn’t remember the names of the characters. I just enjoyed watching the beats come along.
In a way it feels like that childhood experience mirrors the unicorn herself. Starting off blissfully secluded and enjoying her life, watching people come and go without ever knowing who they are. Only to one day begin to understand them and the lives they’re leading. You just can’t go back to that kid mindset, you grow up and it’s gone for good.
I dunno.
Well said as a child you believe your invincible but as you experience life and mortality you know that you must carry on through life with expectation that death will get you.
I always had an association of unicorns with innocence, so I think what you said is very insightful.
It's true
The Last Unicorn being called dark for a children's film is new to me. It was my favorite as a kid and even inspires some of my writing today. 👀
Okay, I will give the tree the appropriate weird af title lol
Here is Hunters story:It all started when I was a young lynx, growing up in the beautiful Edmonton River Valley… 18,000 acres of beautiful urban parkland that I love dearly and am extremely proud of!
Like my lynx family and friends, I only come out at night to hunt, and on one of those nights I actually came across a bunch of kids playing hockey on an outdoor rink. One look at the game and I was hooked. The speed, the skill, the fun! I began climbing up the banks of the River Valley every night during the winter, catching shinny games with everyone wearing their Edmonton Oilers jerseys, both old and new! It didn't take me long to become a hard-core Oilers fan.
During the winter of 2013 I heard many shinny players talking about a new, world-class building that my beloved Oilers were going to play in. I was ecstatic and knew right then and there that this was my chance to get in on the action.
On the night before the first shovel hit the ground, I packed up my stuff and made my way to 104 Ave and 104 Street, where I built a secret den under the construction site, watching and waiting for this magnificent building to be completed.
Just as the finishing touches were being made to the building, I revealed myself to the Oilers. After their initial shock of a lynx living in a secret den below Rogers Place, they quickly realized how HUGE a fan I was, and how committed I was to the team.
They asked me to be their mascot and named me HUNTER after "Wild Bill" Hunter, the original owner of the Edmonton Oilers.
As the Oilers mascot, I love to get out in the community and help out wherever I can - hospital visits, charitable functions, events & festivals… I love them all! You can also see me at games, doing everything I can to cheer my beloved Oilers to victory.
And our opponents better watch out because I've got a fierce snarl and I'm known to be a prankster to do anything I can to give our team an edge!
I always thought Mommy Fortuna had it coming when the Harpy killed her.
I think it was kinda confusing for a child that she was so convinced nothing bad would happen to her. As a child, you expect the autjority of adults to be true, but hers just didn't work, she just died.
@@TheSorrel Mommy Fortuna knew this would happen. The unicorn tells Mommy Fortuna that the witch's death sits in the cage (of the harpy). The witch agrees, but says that she will live on in the memory of the immortal creatures that she held captive. Since they will live forever, she will always be remembered. Mommy Fortuna doesn't try to run from the harpy because she knows it will capture her. She stands reaching up to it-embracing the fate she choose when she captured the harpy.
Mommy Fortuna always knew she had it coming too.
She expected it “she’ll kill me one day or another” and felt validated that atleast both the harpy and the unicorn would never forget her. Giving her immortality
@@TheSorrel I didn't expect that as a child tbh, I also thought she had it coming lol
This was a very interesting video and really opened my mind up about “The Last Unicorn”, a movie I loved as a kid but didn’t understand the depth of the story.
Same here! I feel that is is what GOOD movies for children are; movies where you can find NEW meanings as you grow older.
@@obsidianagent Exactly! Movies that can last through time are the best movies ^-^
One of my favourite movies.
There is nothing to be gained by wrapping children in emotional bubble wrap. They need to learn that life isn't just cupcakes, songs and glitter. They can handle dark themes, if they were raised to handle them.
Thank you for this insightful video. I can't believe some critcs didn't even like the visuals. I think the design is hauntingly beautiful, and the animation - especially of the unicorns themselves - is so graceful and elegant, even if it is on two's. The music is also top-notch, the songs as well as the score. Having said that, I hated the movie on my first watch. It made me feel all kinds of things I didn't want to feel - especially at the end, but once I was able to put that aside, I came to love the movie as the classic and the masterpiece it so obviously is.
You're telling me! The animation WAS incredible. I used to show it to my (now teenage) daughter. I never even heard of the movie until it caught my daughter's eye one day. I gotta say, that I hope they don't try to make a live action version of this movie. I can't even think of a 'human' actress who'd do justice to Princess Amalthea. She'd have to be so beautiful, graceful and elegant it would be like looking at an angel.
This movie is a masterpiece. I truly think that kids nowdays should be exposed to more than just the Frozen movie 7 times a week. Parents are so extremely protective of their kids that they try to remove any kind of “traumatic” stimulus and then when their kids are older the reality will hit them extra hard. I remember watching this as a kid and not even realizing the things we see now with our adult eyes. I just saw a beautiful animal, loved the music and the storyline, enjoyed a little moments of scare. And also the “boobie tree” made me hiccup with laughter. Give your kids some credit - they are not as fragile as you think.
I watched it too when I was a little girl. I saw it again last month and I didn't even remembered the part with the tree, so safe to assume I wasn't traumatized.
People take their children for fragile and frail, delicate little thing.
It'd be nice if kids were exposed to various shows. Nothing wrong with Disney and their happy endings, but sometimes, they should learn that life isn't always sunshine and rainbow, you can't always have what you want.
Ashamed to say I was absolutely terrified of that harpy, it took me quite some time before I could walk in open fields without watching the skies for it. That being said, I really do agree with you. It's funny how people are quick to use "trauma" especially when describing children who are a bit scared of a film or show, I guarantee you it didn't take me long too long to get over it and then completely forget it.
I think that's just a normal part of childhood, and the more parents freak out about such trivial things, the more their children pick up on that and go onto mimic/become even more freaked out by their own reaction. My mother laughed at me when I told her of my fear, it wasn't a big deal.
There are so many important lessons and when you compare these films today to the mush that is "minions" etc... Well, I'd much rather them watch things like this than media today.
After I watched the movie for the first time in the early 2000s, only the red bull was on my mind. I didn't feel threatened by it but he was so scary that I could only remember the bull chasing the unicorns.
A couple of years later I watched it the second time, all this was gone and I could remember the good parts of the movie. I love it.
Admidettly I was exposed to death very early in life with my granddad dieing and in 3rd grade I think my guineapig died. My mom let me choose if I want a vet to check on her so she might get better or if we put her down. The old girl was my absolute best friend and I didn't want her to suffer. She died while we were walking to the vet and I knew I made the right choice to put her down if she made it there.
Being able to make this choice made me grow a lot at that age (I think I was 9 or something). It was really sad and I can cry on command thinking about this day, but just because I miss the little one.
yeah, thats probably why my sister gets scared of everything while im harder to scare
mum kinda changed her ways of parenting, i guess
@@sodacereal8987 same situation ! My sister is very paranoid. She's scared of heights, robbers, puke, the dark, speed... the list is endless. I'm more down to earth, but we weren't raised the same way. It does not restrict to cartoon of course
As a German native speaker it's a real treat to listen to Sir Christopher Lee's performance for both The Last Unicorn and Das Letzte Einhorn!
No matter which version I watch, it always makes me a bit sad since that awesome actor and voice actor is gone. Rest in Peace, Christopher.
@@Karfunkelfuchs He got to live to 93 years of age and had roles in over 280 films. Many of which are very iconic - such as Dracula, Saruman and more. He also was active as singer in heavy metal bands. He may be gone but is certainly not forgotten. He really left an amazing legacy behind.
@@Lesandira Not to forget that this man allegedly hunted nazis. And as another "German native speaker" i can´t be thankful enough.
Yeah, I only watched the German version so far, so the original voice actors mean nothing to me when it comes to the history I have with this movie, apart from Christopher Lee of course. It was the 2nd film I watched at the movie theatre as a kid (first one was Disney's Snow White).
I watched this movie so many times as a kid that I can recite every line. I don't know if it scarred me or not, but even as a kid who didn't truly "get" the movie, I always remembered Mommy Fortuna's death, the Unicorn's transformation scene, and that final pan to the Unicorn's woods. There was something especially about that last shot that always left me sad.
i wonder what the last unicorn would have looked like if Don Bluth did it. Besides secret of NIMH he actually did a lot of adult and fantasy work.
There are no happy ending, bc nothing ever ends.....she will remember you when men are myths written in tales told by rabbits.”
Personal fan theory ahead: Haggrid is the human male the one unicorn was turned onto so long ago. The wizard who turned him did the spell different, so while human, his aging was slowed down considerably. He has lived so long now that nearly nothing holds meaning to him anymore, and he has long forgotten ever being a unicorn. Yet when he sees another he is transported to a time when he was one, but never recognizing that he was one: only that he is free of the burdens of such a subtle magically extended life, and he is happy for those moments. If you think about it , his beard is similar to depictions of how unicorns are portrayed with beards. Yes the story saids that THAT unicorn lived a long , happy life and died, but that is a story, and stories can be altered to better be remembered. Humans love their happy ending after all, and what is happy about a unicorn being turned into a man who grew so old and cold that he never remembered being a unicorn, let alone a warm lively happy man?
I love this. Maybe that’s why his son likes the unicorn so much in her human form. He’s so used to the presence of a unicorn that she feels familiar to him.
I don't understand, at all but I'm here for it.
I like it.
HEADCANON ACCEPTED
That hits deep, friend. I remember watching Mad Max (I forget which one); there's a scene in there, where a kid gives Max this little music box, and Max is working this thing and just staring at it in complete bewilderment. It occurred to me - this character had known nothing but pain, suffering, war, and conflict. He had known it so long and so well, that anything not associated with such - any symbol of peace, love, hope, or beauty - had become completely irrelevant to him.
We all create our own hells.
As someone who's constantly and desperately in search of quality videos that aren't people just vomiting the plot of a show, I thank you for this. I hope to see more from you in the future.
Yo, same. Gimme more, please.
(I can wait though, lord knows how much time, research, and editing she put into this *applause*)
thank you so much! i have more essays in the works. it definitely takes a lot of time to do all the research, but it's so worth it :)
Ugh. Eat socks, reviewers! I love amalthea’s design so much, human and unicorn, and I haven’t even finished the movie. I actually only checked it out because I thought she was sooooo prettyyyyy
That being said, the animation does actually run into creepy, uncanny-valley territory, at points, and could be fixed, but it’s a classic. So. It is how it is and it’s special.
It’s that thing with many claymation projects, where everyone is just
Bad at animating expressions
This was my favourite movie as a child. It was dark and kind of scary, but also beautiful. We had a VCR long before they were common and recorded the movie when it was on TV. I watched it probably a hundred times. Then I got the DVD in the early 2000s. I even cosplayed as Amalthea and met Peter Beagle. I spent several hours talking with him at a convention a little over a decade ago, as he was largely ignored, so I had all the time with him I wanted.I even painted much of the scenery on my son's walls to create a forest mural.
Excuse me, the most traumatic scene in the movie was seeing that poor old sad lion 😭 Mommy Fortuna deserved it
this randomly came in my recommended, but one thing about Molly Grue is that she laments not seeing the unicorn in her youth because there's a folk tale about virgins being able to tame unicorns and she is now unable to because she was no longer "new", a virgin
Nah, it more of the myth that girls that have seen a unicorn will live a happy life. Molly never saw a unicorn despite believing in them thus she concludes that her miserable life is due to her never seein a unicorn
@@smirglepapier531 - Kinda, it's rather that this revelation just hit her now that she finally saw one. She was resigned to a normal, cynical life without magic and now her world changed on a dime.
@@mokarokas-1727 sure, I know. It's just that it doesn't make sense for a whole community (who never saw a unicorn as a whole) to just treat one (1) girl, Molly, different because she wasn't able to tame an unicorn. Because no girl/woman was able to tame said unicorns. And that was what the original comment implied.
Totally agree on the revelation of the real existence of unicorns hitting Molly anew.
I agree with your original assessment. There are myths from the Middle Ages of virgins being the way to tempt a unicorn into leaving the forest. It doesn't seem like Molly was specifically expected to do this, but rather that now that her life had passed and she had grown up and lost her newness, she was no longer pure.
"Where were you when I was new?" Her own loss of innocence haunts her.
@@smirglepapier531no they’re right. That’s mentioned in the book
This is not just _a_ movie from my childhood, this is _the_ movie from my childhood!
Same!
I first found this movie as a kid digging through old VHS tapes. It had no label, it had been scratched off. So, curiously I popped it in to the player. Looking back the whole thing seems like the beginning of a fairytale, young child finds mysterious tape, plays it and gets transported to a magical world. No such fantasy came to pass, but it certainly felt like it! It quickly became one of my favorite movies, I watch it all the time. This video was a joy to watch, well done!
Me: minding my business
TH-cam: wanna unlock a forgotten memory from your childhood?
ikr i just remembered about this even though i watched it 20+ times not joking
"There are no Happy Endings because Nothing Ends" Schmendrick, I love that line so much it is one of my favorites from the book. The Last Unicorn is a masterpiece of literature because it is so aware of itself. It is aware of the nature of Heros in stories as well as the nature of Legends and Myths. I love it
As a child I was addicted to the film. I always thought it had something creepy and sad about it. As I got older and watched the movie, I was always very sad, almost depressed for reasons I didn't know. I had thought about life and the meaning of life, but didn't quite understand why that always happened after watching the movie. Your video helped me a lot to understand better
"Now I know that I could have walked through the walls." - that line hits really hard rolling into middle age. Feeling like childhood and youth have left you, with aging and death the only route available; it's a wonderful reminder of the true freedom we have to deviate from the rhythms, paths, and conventions that bind us.
Lol I'm austrian so I speak german and I always loved the voice of king haggard. This movie is on tv every year on christmas and I always watch it. I love everything about it, the music, the voices, the fairytale vibe and the weird animation. The only thing that deeply disturbed me was the scene with the tree.
Christopher Lee did amazing voicing the character.
You get this as a Christmas movie?! Lucky. Ya, that tree scene was weird.
his accent is insanely good. i had no idea it wasn't a german actor.
Lol in some ways that tree was a lot more unsettling than some of the other stereotypically scary stuff in the movie. Just a really frickin’ weird scene, it kind of squicked me out as a kid.
That tree made me so anxious as a kid that I could not sleep that night but loved the movie. 😰
The Dark Crystal & The Last Unicorn were both my favorite movies as a kid. I've pretty much had a near lifelong fascination with existentialism, spirituality, the macabre & the ambiguous.
Thank you so much. I'm born 1984 and watched this movie every christmas since then. It is still one of my favourites. I remember making unicorn and red bull masks out of paper and playing with my best friend when we were little children. Many years later when studying philosophy, I started reading childrens books authors for fun like Astrid Lindgren, Peter Beagle, Otfried Preußler (I'm German), Roald Dahl and others. I discovered the philosophical depth of The Last Unicorn, and I still was a unicorn fan my whole childhood into adult life because of this wonderful story and animated movie (I'm a huge Gibli Fan too). Your video is another highlight in my line of wonderful experiences anound this movie. Many, many thanks again :*
Wow, really amazing video. I’ve struggled a lot with death anxiety over the past year. The Last Unicorn is one of my favorite pieces of media, but I never fully understood its message. I suppose I felt sad for the unicorn as a child, but I wasn’t sure why. I now think it’s because to be human is to be mortal, and the unicorn has been cursed with human feelings without ever getting the release of death. I want to read the book again asap. I’ve thought before that I’d much rather be mortal than immortal, and I think this further cements that feeling.
I loved this movie as a kid and watched it many times. From a young age, I never wanted to be immortal. When I read Twilight, I was really horrified by Bella's desire to be immortal and the Volturi in general.
I realize now this movie is probably responsible for that feeling. Death is scary and the idea of an endless void gives me panic attacks. But living forever sounds like eternal torture.
I miss the good ole days of unicorns, the pure white main and coats, magic of healing and making flowers and other plants grow, not afraid to show its dark side in stories, and no rainbows and gumdrops BS.
Yeah. Children need to see both sides. At some point, they have to watch representations of darkness, sadness, frustration and even death. It doesn't have to be traumatizing or horrible, but since they'll cope with it at some point in their life...
I think people are too afraid it might taint they're so-called "innocence",but it won't.
@@manonpavllptdr There's an old French proverb- I can't remember the exact words- but it translates as 'Virtue untested is Innocence.' Of course, 'Nice' was a word which meant 'Stupid' in French...
That's why I like MLP friendship is magic. The main character's house is blown up her pet almost died. All the characters have a me form of anxiety or quark that they have to deal with, and there's plenty of adult humor.
There's a dark side to all the rainbows and friendship. The creator said they were tired of girly unicorn stories and wanted something for families that taught so me more serious lessons at times.
I never owned this movie but I made my local blockbusters a mint as I forced my parents to rent it for me every weekend.
My sister rented every week as well
i also found this movie through my local rental place! my parents grew to hate it and called it "that one damn cartoon that always breaks the VCR" because there'd be black tape flying out the front of it at least once per viewing.
My favorite movie since I was a child. Mom rented it once, and i remember being mortified, but intrigued. It left an imprint. I watched it again as an adult, and it resonated more than ever.
when i was a kid i hated this movie because of how sad it made me, but sometime late last year i remembered it and thought to myself, damn, actually despite its campy-ness that movie was so good. i was also terrified of that skeleton but otherwise the rest of the movie wasn't that scary to me, just really sad.
i think this video is wonderful, it really put into words a lot of my feelings about this movie that i was previously unable to describe. mortality was on my mind a lot as a kid and i was always afraid of dying. all dogs go to heaven was another movie that i hated because of how it made me feel, and to this day i still have yet to rewatch it even though i also can look back and think, huh, that movie was really good thematically. there were other movies that handled the topic death that i loved, but i think the fact that these movies are about the death of the character we are meant to identify with made it a lot harder for me to like it (and also that its kind of the main theme of those movies and not a secondary topic)
For me as German it feels weird to hear all over sudden my native language. I had no idea we share the same VA for the villain. Fan fact: The last unicorn is very popular in Germany as the show always runs on TV on Christmas Eve every year. I basically grew up with it.
lol, I never would have thought to associate The Last Unicorn with Christmas Eve as a non-german
I used to watch it when I grew up in Germany and was amazed when I moved to the states (mid 90s) and no one my age had heard of it (or Nausicaa, Flight of Dragons, or Nutella...)
There are many best lines in this movie, but my favourite is "Don't look back, and don't run. It will attract the immortal's attention."
Also the golden lines are at @18:51 "WHARE HAVE YOU BEEEEN!?"
I just rewatched this movie to feel nostalgia. As a kid I enjoyed the animation style and beauty of it all but when I watch it over time the concept of one’s death and immorality is fascinating. The last Unicorn always gives off that lonely feeling. She was the last Unicorn and now she is the only one to know regret.