Crappy film

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

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.

I saw this film when I was about 8 years old. SOme of the images are still imprinted in my head. The film is all a fantasy should be: A glorious, beautiful, surreal and sometimes dark and terrifying fairy tale. This deserves to be released on DVD along with it's prequel as they are truly fantastic gems. I don't know if the film would hold up to an adult audience, but it surely made my mind fly at the time.The animation is vintage Tezuka, with the cute puppy-eyed main characters, colorful villains all with a few extra frames of animation (compared to his 1960s TV series, the animation is a step up in quality) All this topped with a imaginative story and haunting score, gives birth to a classic.

My mom gave me a lot of the video tapes she recorded for me when I was very little. I still have this rare gem (on the same tape as Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer). I also have the first Unico movie. Seeing it as an adult gives you a different perspective of it. I loved it as a child and now I watch it with my kids. If you are reading this I hope you can find it. It is a very dark movie. I also think it had a great storyline. Kuruku is positively evil. He really scared me when I was little. I also love Mel (where can I get some of those earphones?) and the little sphinx thing. If you can find this movie and you like animation, treat yourself.

I first saw this movie when it was aired on the Disney Channel back in about 1986. I think many other people may have watched it also, but forgot about it. The evil Lord Kuruku takes a boy Toby on as his magic apprentice (very popular kids movie manuever, see also The Care Bears Movie). Kuruku eventually turns the whole village into living puppets and it is up to little Unico and Toby's sister to help save everyone. This is an excellent movie, but very rare. If you ever do come across it, watch it. It may not be enjoyed by anyone who is not a fan of out of the ordinary animation, but even so it runs for a lot of money on e-bay. There have been many references to deep underlying themes in the movie, such as Unico representing Christ, or some other themes. Well, its really good, I got tattoos of the characters.

(This is a review of the English Language version)To start off with, I love this movie despite a few flaws I will discuss later. The animation, though not really slick, is visually interesting. It has some admirably serious themes (which I will not reveal because it would be a spoiler) and actually has some effective humorous element. (Most Japanese movies' humor does not translate well.)My problems with it? Well, the title character Unico is very insipid and cutesy. I realize that this is a children's movie, but the furriness of Unico somehow doesn't fit the darker nature of the film. Oh, well, he is not really the central character.I would heartily recommend this one, particularly to fans of Japanese animation.