My Thoughts on The Last Unicorn
I watched the Last Unicorn with some friends a while back and I couldn't stop thinking about it. I ended up spending several weeks writing down a thorough analysis of the film in an attempt to articulate my thoughts. I will share just the conclusion of my analysis:
Let me start by saying: I can see why this movie has a cult following. There is a lot to love.
For starters, the art style is beautiful. I find the scenery and backgrounds to be particularly stunning. There is clear inspiration from historical medieval artwork, and a part of me wishes they had leaned more in that direction, but it looks great either way.
The soundtrack and musical motifs are also excellent, and it adds a lot of charm to the film. The main theme is used in several scenes to great effect.
While the art style is great, the animation is… serviceable. Many animations are reused, with characters bobbing back and forth between the same key frames. There isn't really any moment where the animation stands out, and at times it can appear a bit clunky, especially when depicting animals. Movement is sometimes sluggish, and scenes have a tendency to draw out just a bit longer than they should.
A common critique of this movie I've seen online is the weak performance of the voice actors; and I have to concede that it's a mixed bag. However, it is not helped by the unusual audio mixing and animation. In many scenes, characters’ voices become so soft that it's difficult to understand them. In other scenes where a character is meant to have an emotionally charged reaction, their facial expressions and body language fall flat. In some cases, the character's head will even be facing away from the camera, depriving the viewer of any visual indicators of how the character is feeling in those moments.
When it comes to the voice actors themselves, I do not take issue with the people they selected. Shmendrick's voice is underwhelming, but it doesn't strictly break my immersion, and it kind of grew on me after the first watch. Pretty much all the other characters deliver their lines well enough, in my opinion.
A major outlier of the voice acting is the performance of Christopher Lee as King Haggard. If I had to attribute one single scene as the one responsible for prompting me to begin this whole endeavor, it would be Haggard's confrontation with Amalthea at the top of the tower. Incidentally, the dialog is almost entirely transcribed from the book, with some abbreviation, and, combined with Lee's stellar performance, it impressed me enough that I did more research on the movie, leading me to find and read Beagle's original work (great read btw, would highly recommend). Christopher Lee is King Haggard. Period.
The story, as portrayed in the film, is flawed, but not entirely broken. The greatest offenders are usually just bits of confusion here and there, although the plot breaks down considerably towards the climax, which feels somewhat rushed. Issues aside, the story has a clear direction, with interesting characters and a (mostly) satisfying ending.
I'd be happy to read what other people think about this movie. It's one of those imperfect gems of animation, I think. Perhaps in a different timeline it would have been much more successful.