Better Late Then Never

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

This movie isn't really for youngsters under 12 due to perverse contents, involving profanity, depictions of human breast, animal decapitation, and human deaths. And the MPAA rated this film "G"!? Seriously!? MPAA should have known better by rating it higher, such as PG. It would have been better if it was given a PG-13 since some contents on this movie are way over the heads of little ones because little children don't deserve to watch movies with adult contents.

The Last Unicorn is an oddity. It's certainly a darker movie than others aimed at kids, though it is hardly dark enough to affect adults. It doesn't look bad but has hardly aged well, all things considered. It tells its story pretty effectively but is slow and frankly pretty boring.In my opinion, the biggest flaws with the movie are results of the time in which it was made. The '60s, '70s, and early '80s are widely acknowledged as a lousy period for animation, and The Last Unicorn suffers from just about every cliche we've come to know from that time: flat visuals, jerky character movement, limited facial animations, awkward voice acting, bad music, and more.The film's animation is pretty good for its time, but I can only say that in reference to the period in which it was made, rather than strictly its age; for example, 1959's Sleeping Beauty used a similar animation style to much better effect. I also do not feel that the soundtrack, performed by the rock band America, has aged well at all. The film grinds to a halt each time a new song starts, and none of them help move the story along. This film has no reason to be a musical, but it is one, despite the fact that the leads aren't very good singers when they join in.Of course, it isn't all bad. While I do have issues with the animation overall, there are glimpses of something really interesting. The story book style of the visuals is distinctive, and the simple, single-minded drive of the lead is strangely engaging. I believe that The Last Unicorn would benefit from a remake. There is interesting material here; it just isn't being used to its full potential. Instead, the film stands as an example of a pretty good movie from a poor environment.

In 1982 I was 10 and saw this movie when it first came out and I still recall how enchanting this film is. It's a beautifully mesmerizing animation and story. I love unicorns - and I think this movie is one of the reasons I still love the magical mythological creature. This is one of those films that is great for watching with your kids.If you enjoyed this movie then I would recommend to you the following films that are sorta similar to this film and you may enjoy: "The Secret of NIMH", "The Black Cauldron" and "The Hobbit (TV Movie 1977)".They do not make films like these anymore. These old classic drama animations are some of the best you will ever see.9/10

I first heard of this film 10 years ago when I read a review of it in my favourite preteen/teenage magazine Mizz at the time. Upon looking at the Release Dates here on IMDb, I saw that it wasn't released in cinemas in the UK, just on DVD and perhaps video as well. I watched this film for the first time today whilst renting it from LoveFilm and it completely enchanted me.The backgrounds are detailed, even though some of them consist of simple colour schemes such as shades of pink and purple and shades of green while a lot of the human characters' faces were straightforwardly designed with basic lip-sync. Some of their features are more detailed such as their hair and their hands. The most intricately-designed characters are Mommy Fortuna and Amalthea, who is beautiful whether a unicorn or a human. As for the animation, it was consistent for the most part but was flickery at times and slow in the black and white flashback of several unicorns. On a more positive note, the animation style was unique compared to other works of animation I've seen even though it looked a bit Anime- like to begin with. Other positive aspects of this film include the funny Butterfly character (despite him only appearing for a few minutes), the well-known voice cast; the dialogue that was dark, moving and funny in parts; and the soundtrack consisting of tense, poignant and whimsical background music. The best songs in the film are 'The Last Unicorn' and 'Now That I'm A Woman.'To sum up, this is a beautifully-made and underrated film that I have never seen as a child and was well worth the watch. 8/10.