Timewaster's Guide Archive

Departments => Movies and TV => Topic started by: fuzzyoctopus on August 15, 2004, 05:49:22 PM

Title: The Last Unicorn
Post by: fuzzyoctopus on August 15, 2004, 05:49:22 PM
They recently released the 1982 cartoon on DVD.  I know it was recently, because a year ago (the week after we got married) I was looking for the DVD, and learned it was only available in region 2 DVD.  (If you look it up on the IMDB, you'll note the cover they show is the German one, because that's the only one that was available!)

Then hubby and I were at the new video store last night and they had a copy of it on DVD for $7.  Needless to say, I had to buy it.  Much better than the German DVD rip that I downloaded last year.  This is such a good movie.  I remember watching it on TV as a kid, and thinking it was the saddest story I'd ever seen.  Of course I loved it.

Still do.  And it's still horribly sad.  But that's the kind of melodramatic person I am/was.  I'm excited to see what they do with the live action remake (scheduled for 2006, the lazy slackers...)  The best part is they're using many of the same actors!  Mia Farrow, Angela Lansbury, Rene Auberjonois & Christopher Lee.
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: Eagle Prince on August 15, 2004, 06:30:00 PM
I also bought this on dvd a few weeks ago.  I was just wandering through Walmart and saw it for $10
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: Entsuropi on August 15, 2004, 07:52:45 PM
Damned if i know what you are talking about, but oooh. Rene Auberjonois (Constable Odo) and Christopher Lee (Saruman)? Man, that should be able to best even the Odo -  Quark relationship.
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: Peter Ahlstrom on August 15, 2004, 08:55:27 PM
This was the first Studio Ghibli movie, before it was named Studio Ghibli and before Miyazaki came aboard. It's definitely a classic.

I had no idea they were even doing a live-action version. Same actors? That is definitely something to look forward to.
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: fuzzyoctopus on August 15, 2004, 09:03:12 PM
Yeah, Angela Lansbury, Rene Auberjonois & Christopher Lee are all cast to play the same parts - respectively, Mama Fortuna, the skull, and King Haggard.  Mia Farrow is playing Molly Grue this time around, which I find to be delightful.

Apparently Christopher Lee is a huge fan of the book, and when they did the recordings for the first movie, he would bring his copy with him to badger the writers/directors into not leaving out specific things.
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: Tekiel on August 15, 2004, 11:25:24 PM
Live action?!  That's definitely something I have to see.  I remember having nightmares about the red bull (we were driving in a car and it was chasing us).  

That is (and will continue to be) a great classic.  Now that it's out on DVD I will have to go and buy it.  Thanks for the heads-up!
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: EUOL on August 15, 2004, 11:54:13 PM
We had that movie when I was a kid, and boy--I just didn't get it.  I think it was over my head, and that confused me.  After all, it was a cartoon, so it was supposed to be for kids, right?  
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: Spriggan on August 16, 2004, 01:40:22 AM
Isn't Jeff Goldbloom in that?
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: Fellfrosch on August 16, 2004, 02:57:27 AM
I shudder to imagine a live action version of that tree.
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: Tage on August 16, 2004, 01:16:04 PM
The movie poster on IMDB prompted a slight flicker of memory, but I can't recall anything specific about that movie. I did a quick search on the web and couldn't find anything. Anybody got a web site I can go to and perhaps have my memory jogged?
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: Slant on August 16, 2004, 07:25:26 PM
There are sites out there where you can download entire movies and I am certain you can find Last Unicorn.  If you actually want to do it the hard way, you can always drive down to ye local Blockbuster and check in the family section.

I saw Last Unicorn about the same time I saw Wizards, and Wizards won by a landslide.  Last Unicorn wasn't terrible, but I found it sort of bland.
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: fuzzyoctopus on August 16, 2004, 07:39:02 PM
It was animated by a team of Japanese people.  We could have a TWG viewing!

Or, now that I have a legal copy I could give you the DVD rip I have on disc.
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: stacer on August 17, 2004, 08:51:57 AM
I vaguely remember trying to watch it, and not being too impressed, but I was sure it was a live action movie involving Christopher ... what's his name? The one who played in Back to the Future and Taxi.

At any rate, I must not have seen it. Anybody know the unicorn one I *am* talking about?
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: House of Mustard on August 17, 2004, 11:37:24 AM
Christopher Lloyd.  I have no idea of the movie, though.  I looked at him on IMDB, but didn't see anything Unicornish.
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: Peter Ahlstrom on August 17, 2004, 04:34:25 PM
Legend? Did that have Lloyd in it? It had Tom Cruise...and unicorns...

My family rented that years ago and had to turn it off halfway through.

The Last Unicorn was produced by Rankin/Bass, the same people who were responsible for all those stop-motion animation Christmas specials like Rudolph. The animation was done by Topcraft, the studio that later did Nausicaa and later became Ghibli, same studio that did Mononoke and Spirited Away. As far as I know though a Japanese dubbed version of The Last Unicorn was never made.

(Rankin/Bass and Topcraft also did The Hobbit and The Return of the King, and some of the people involved went to the studio that did Thundercats and Silverhawks.)
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers on August 17, 2004, 04:41:31 PM
Lloyd was not in Legend. I have refrained from my opinion of The Last Unicorn, but I can't with Legend. Legend was pure crap. It was worse than Krull.
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: Slant on August 17, 2004, 08:28:07 PM
The only good thing about Legend was Tim Currey as Sata... umm, I mean "Darkness."  Tom Cruise was woefully miscast and that ten year old kid frolicking around in nothing but a tiny leaf speedo was just plain wrong on too many levels to even think about.
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: fuzzyoctopus on August 17, 2004, 08:30:14 PM
sorry stacer, you're obviously thinking of something extremely unconnected.
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: stacer on August 17, 2004, 08:34:31 PM
I'm sure someone at some point when I was a kid recommended The Last Unicorn to me, because I seem to remember renting this movie I'm remembering, thinking it was what was recommended to me. Big surprise that it wasn't a cartoon, and it was so bad we didn't finish watching it. Someone killed a unicorn in the woods, it involved Christopher Lloyd somehow, but can't remember how.... Perhaps as a father? And it's not Legend I'm thinking of, which also involved a dead unicorn in the woods, didn't it?

The world will never know.
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: 42 on August 17, 2004, 09:24:54 PM
Actually, the director's cut of Legend is pretty good, in part because it doesn't resemble the original. Mostly cause they put the plot back in and got rid of the Flash Gordon soundtrack. For some reason they thought that cutting out a half-hour of footage and having synthasized music in original was a good idea.

There are some simularities between the Last Unicorn and Legend. The writers for Legend and Ridley Scott were trying to use as many "classic" fantasy elements as possible. The Last Unicorn is definitely full of classic elements, particularly pertaining to unicorns.
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: fuzzyoctopus on August 17, 2004, 11:39:29 PM
Quote
I'm sure someone at some point when I was a kid recommended The Last Unicorn to me, because I seem to remember renting this movie I'm remembering, thinking it was what was recommended to me. Big surprise that it wasn't a cartoon, and it was so bad we didn't finish watching it. Someone killed a unicorn in the woods, it involved Christopher Lloyd somehow, but can't remember how.... Perhaps as a father? And it's not Legend I'm thinking of, which also involved a dead unicorn in the woods, didn't it?

The world will never know.


Is this like that Frazz comic where he tells 8-year old Caulfield to read "The Little Prince" and Caulfield instead reads Machiavelli's "The Prince" ?
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: Fellfrosch on August 18, 2004, 03:18:50 AM
I absolutely hated the original Legend, but the new director's cut is, as 42 says, quite good. It's really so different you have to see it to believe it.
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: Peter Ahlstrom on August 18, 2004, 03:37:45 AM
Huh. Maybe I'll have to give Legend another look. Do they still kill a unicorn in the woods? That's when we turned off the original.
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: Mistress of Darkness on August 19, 2004, 12:41:51 PM
Good movie, great book. Peter S. Beagle has an amazing way with language. I wasn't thrilled with his themes in his other novels.

Tage: The Last Unicorn is about a unicorn (protectors of the forests) who hears a rumor that she is the last and goes looking for the rest of her kind. A wizard turns her into a human to protect her from the red bull, a magic beast controlled by the wizard who has captured all the other unicorns. She falls in love with the wizard's adopted son, they defeat the wizard, and free the unicorns.
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers on August 19, 2004, 12:47:43 PM
who, if I remember, then inexplicably turn into whales.
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: Brenna on August 19, 2004, 02:01:05 PM
turn into whales?  I don't think so.

They go off and spread around the world--they go back to their forests.

Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers on August 19, 2004, 02:41:33 PM
ok, then wt heck did *I* see?
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: Brenna on August 19, 2004, 03:03:43 PM
I have no idea.  Perhaps you were remembering the part where the unicorns are trapped in the white froth of the breakers (well, trapped in the sense that they were too scared of the Red Bull to come out of the water)?
Title: Re: The Last Unicorn
Post by: The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers on August 19, 2004, 03:09:49 PM
c'est possible. Or maybe I'm just high. Never know with this medication.