It’s all magic fairy dust and pink sparkles here, because The Last Unicorn is the Greatest Movie EVER!
Review in a Nutshell: The Last Unicorn is a beautiful and sophisticated children’s film that deals with some surprisingly complex themes. Perhaps the film’s greatest weakness is the soundtrack, performed by America.
This movie contains:
Pirate Cats.
Unicorns in the Sea Foam.
I don’t care how many ‘bestiality’ jokes Sean makes, I think Lady Amalthea is pretty.
SATAN.
ERRATA: Mia Farrow was actually in Supergirl not Superman; Peter Beagle is in fact still fighting for his residuals.
The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast 
It is a crime that Christopher Lee doesn’t get top billing here.
Ha. I remember years ago, I made a joke about how this movie was an allegory about the U.S. in the Vietnam era. Nixon was the wizard holding back the Unicorns (hippies) and the skeleton was a broken LBJ. I don’t remember what the stump hat lady was but I had that angle figured too. I expect this podcast wil be a delight.
Sup /Goober/. Ever walked through the desert on a horse with no name? Have the nights been stronger than moonshine?
I know the Last Unicorn podcast has been a long time in the making. So… how long until a podcast about Adventures in Babysitting? Or maybe Electra?
If you want an uncut version of the film in widescreen, Paul, you’ll need to get the R2 German edition (Die letzte Einhorn) which is in the OAR, remastered, and has the German and English audio.
Hey, I’m a fan of America’s “Tin Man.” “Oz never gave nothin’ to the Tin Man that he didn’t already haaaaave…”
In a fight between The Last Unicorn and Fern Gully, who wins?
I can’t really make fun of Paul’s manliness for liking this film, as though I have never seen The Last Unicorn, I do have every album Kylie Minogue has recorded.
When I first saw this film, some years ago during Christmas, I was convinced that the characters, or at least Lady Amalthea herself, were designed by Leji Matsumoto. Hell, Amalthea is a dead ringer for the genuine Matsumoto blonde, only given realistic proportions. All she needed was some fashion of Oedipal subtext and everybody would be set!
Unicorns can indeed be badass http://pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF103-Nice_Shirt.gif
Interesting, haven’t seen this one but you guys definitely made it sound pretty good, for what it is…speaking of another somewhat unusually mature movie that, just maybe, should be reviewed at some point…have any of you seen The Flight of Dragons?
I’ve seen Flight of Dragons many, many times, but unfortunately the film does not have an American DVD release yet.
I’m actually surprised to hear that there is a strong love for this film out there, as I remember it as being only meh.
My Mom took my sister and I to see it in the theater when it first came out and while I remember watching it, none of the details really stick out in my mind.
ketsuronqed,
I see what you’re saying about the similarities between the character designs for this movie and Leiji’s designs. Although, the only thing missing would be if Amalthea’s male companions were designed to look like Harlock and Tochiro.
Paul, my wife and I were both shocked at two things in this podcast.
1. You were engaged!
2. You might of held hands with a girl!
Ehh, don’t say “super-gay” or use “gay” as an adjective – even if you perceive it as such. You two’re intelligent, you’re better than that. I do realize that you were saying that ’cause this movie’s “FAB-U-LOUS”, but it still annoys me.
ANYWAY, it sounds to me like Paul got the same reception over this movie that I did when I suggested we watch “House of 1000 Corpses” in English class. I was protesting how incredible it was, and the rest of my pretentious English class was all: “you’re so-o-o weiiird”.
ALSO, how did you not mention that Angela Lansbury does a voice in this?! Or did you…? I have a crap memory. Angela is great, I watched a lot of “Murder, She Wrote” when I was a kid and I burnt out the tape I had of “Bedknobs & Broomsticks”.
Oh, and I totally remember the “Supergirl & Super-Horse” bestiality storyline, I’m such a nerd…
“I know the Last Unicorn podcast has been a long time in the making. So… how long until a podcast about Adventures in Babysitting? Or maybe Electra?”
I love “Electra” AND I demand that you do what this person says and do an “Adventures in Babysitting” episode.
– Zac
Zac, let’s not play Word Police, please. I understand where you’re coming from, but Sean and I are not using the word “gay” as a pejorative, merely as a descriptor. Remember, I’m the podcaster that’s known for reading homosexual subtext into pretty much everything. I wouldn’t do so if I had a problem with members the gay community. I’m of the opinion that making words taboo is what gives them their power to shock and to wound.
Also, I combined your two posts into a single post. I hope you don’t mind.
I am an absolute sucker for obscure animated films that were not created in association with Disney. I might have seen this movie when I was younger, and on my animation binge. Cartoon Network, for a time, was good for those seemingly obscure movies that didn’t make it very big in the theaters, like Prince of Egypt, El Dorado, and The Iron Giant (of which you did a podcast, and I adore you for). I will probably have to go out of my way to buy this DVD now.
Also, Paul, had you shown this in my class, I probably would have all been all ‘NERD’, but then slowly but surely fallen under its spell, and developed a secret crush on you. I was by no means popular, but I liked to pretend that I wasn’t as much of a geek as everybody else. But now, as I’m a grown up lady who is currently in very grown up classes with a binder covered in purple flowers, and filled with Lisa Frank folders (I kid you not), I will allow you to expand my horizons.
“Ehh, don’t say “super-gay” or use “gay” as an adjective”
I concur. In the future, follow my lead and describe these things as “faggoty-ass.”
During the time following my high school finals some 11 years ago, we were also permitted to bring in movies to kill time. I brought in Evil Dead 2 followed by Army of Darkness. Both films were shown in full. How many times do you think they’d seen either? The answer was zero; I was the only kid in class who’d seen both of these films in 1998. And they were known and infamous by then, too.
To quote another Indiana Jones adventure, sir: you had chosen…poorly.
“I concur. In the future, follow my lead and describe these things as “faggoty-ass.””
*cough*dickhead*cough*
My previous comment was childish and didn’t add anything. Therefore, I’ll explain. A lot of gay people have (as I’m sure you know) a pretty shitty life and I’ve been chased across an empty car park by six, burly, scary men whilst they were shouting: “Faggot! Gay ass!” etcetera, so it still hurts my feelings when people use “gay” as a word that is different from it’s two intended purposes (happy. homosexual.).
Whatever, I’m a flighty teen – I can protest what I like 🙂
– Zac
Zac, you are absolutely free to take issue with anything that offends you. But again, Sean and I were not using ‘gay’ as an insult. The Last Unicorn is one of my favorite films of all time; it is also pretty gay. I could say the same thing of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and in neither case would I be denigrating the homosexual population.
I couldn’t tell you the number of times in high school someone used a derogatory slang word to imply that I was homosexual. But I’ll say now what I said then: I don’t feel it is right to demonize people simply because they may be different from ourselves. And I think by saying that there are certain words that people cannot use, or that only certain people can use, or that can only be used under specific circumstances, you grant these words the power to shock and to harm. I have no problem describing something as ‘gay’ if I perceive it to be gay. I am not afraid to use that word, and use it with a directness and honesty that causes some people to shrink. I’m sorry if that bothers you.
Self-censorship is one thing. There are many words that I voluntarily choose not to say, for many different reasons. But please do not tell me what words I can and cannot use on my podcast.
I like how people take great offense to the word ‘gay’ being used pejoratively, but have no problem whatsoever using ‘retard’ or ‘downie’ in the same manner.
It’s offensive to the mentally challenged, maaaaaaaaan!
Cool, I was looking forward to you getting to this film. I had it taped from tv as a kid and watched it over and over. It holds up surprisingly well. There are flaws in the film of course. King Haggard’s banishing the unicorns to the sea still doesn’t make any sense, although I understand his underlying depression more now. That undercurrent completly went over my head as a child.
So the unicorns become sea foam? Huh, for some reason I had thought that since they were immortal they didn’t need to breathe and just walked along the bottom of the ocean like Jason in Friday the 13th VIII. lol
I kind of wish you’d done this movie with your mom. Sean’s complaining was funny at first but got old after a little while. I think you could have gotten more into the themes of the film with another cohost… Ah well, it was still an intersting show and I was happy to finally hear the ‘infamous’ story.
Tom of Finalnd…now THAT is gay.
Errr…Finland, that is.
Never saw this movie, but is very popular with fantasy fans. This was back in the days before kids entertanment (Sorry for my bad spelling) and dumbed down. One film i remember liking as a kid was Watership Down.
The band America was not the worst band to come out of the 70s, there are way more bands that i could think off…
I’m not sure but is Surat calling me out for showing an Indy movie? His posts usually fall in the category of TL;DR and even a short comment like that had me yawning three words in. For the record in my physics class I brought in the Evil Dead movies myself and had the class watch them in full. There is a big difference in trying to make high school kids appreciate campy zombies then there is making them watch fruity unicorn movies. I make no apologies.
Except to Kasey. Sorry for complaining too much. I thought I pointed out enough good points as I could considering Paul has been trying to sucker me into watching this for ten years. He doesn’t like it when I’m enthusiastic for some reason. He wants me to begrudgingly give up a rare day off to do stuff I don’t want to do. Its his third biggest passion after bad movies, and fondling his SF2 Cammie action figure.
Oh and Zac, for the record…I ❤ teh gays. If I was out to hurt their feelings I would stop getting drunk and at drag shows and pretending like I didn't know any better.
Ah censorship. I opt for the explicit tag on i-Tunes just to CMA. But once some little hipster chick took umbrage with the fact that my buddy and I were discussing the Mel Gibson arrest on the podcast. She claimed it was sexist and sophmoric and marginalizing my audience (which is probably nobody). I placated her for a time as she was the finer sex but then again she also took umbrage with being called a chick … so it goes. If you’re not pissing somebody off then you’re probably doing nothing worthwhile. Though, I was offended at how Sean could not appreciate The Ice Pirates. I guess we all have our moments.
Tom Of Finland is manlier than The Last Unicorn ever was.