The Last Unicorn Ruined My Life | Hellvetika
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- If you're depressed today it's probably because you saw The Last Unicorn as a child. Let's dive into why I was watching this movie at 5 years old and the ways in which it irreparably scarred me.
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"I can feel this body dying all around me!"
Nothing like an animated children's film to make you confront your mortality for the first time
Well now we got Puss In Boots: The Last Wish to do that for the new generation.
Unicorns are immortal. Humans are not immortal. So an immortal entity will probably feel differently being in a mortal body.
You know, modern family films are really missing this existential dread and despair thing
only 1982 kids remember
I'm a 2000s kid and I remember watching this multiple times, I think I just didn't think about the messed up stuff and liked the unicorn...
Idk Coco was pretty heavy and Soul is pretty heavy
It's missing the maturity that the oldies have they never talked down or sugar coated things. That is why this The Secret of NIMH and yes even Watership Down the plague dogs we're good films....though Watership Down and Plague Dogs can be traumatizing to some kids.
How much does a holocaust?
Molly's tantrum is a pretty powerful scene, in the book/ other short stories in the series a young maiden is required to call a unicorn to prove she is a virgin before getting married. (In the book and mythology unicorns are drawn to virgins) It can be interpreted in her scene as her screaming about "where were you 10 years ago, 20 years ago? Where were you when I was new?" As when she was a young virgin maiden she called for a unicorn, but since they were all gone none came. Obviously with the medival time period this is set in this would have caused her a lot of trouble/ being unable to get married.
...I am pretty sure only princesses are asked to have a unicorn lay their head upon their lap before marriage, to prove they are virgins. So... If anything, Molly Grue is angry that she is not a princess... and of poor status, as evident by her being part of the band of idiots when the book first introduces her....
Molly was a camp follower of Captain Cully's. I'm pretty sure she was sleeping with him. That would have been expected of a woman traveling with bandits, that she'd be the lover of one of them. And since Molly mostly scolded Cully and mostly mothered the others, she was probably Cully's girl.
@@sarahbaiocchi oh for sure she was definetly cully's girl. I was just thinking for a possible story before she was with cully.
@@CakeShake22 I can see how that could've happened. Poor Molly, if that was the case.
I got the impression by the "10 years ago, 20 years ago" line that she knew a lot of men like Captain Cully in the past as well.
I watched this movie at six or seven, and I absolutely loved it! I think that children need to understand sadness, fear and melancholy before they experienced it in real life, what better way to do it that with a animated movie.
I have never stopped understanding it :(
I think Lion King which wasn't made intill the 90's did a good job explaining death and sadness just fine without traumatizing kids...
Absolutely. We who sought out complex stories like The Last Unicorn were exposed to dark emotions as children so we could be better able to recognize and cope with them as adults.
@@kitty86lala1 Pretty decent film, I love the lion king also. But if you found the last unicorn traumatizing, you may have been an under developed sensitive snowflake.
@@callunainsolitus5539 but yet you seem very sensitive about my opinion 🤔🤡
The last unicorn made me feel deep deep sorrow and a little depression as a CHILD! I've always been one who gathers toward sorrowful or melancholy things~~~and although I appreciate this side of me, I can recognize this movie being a huge part of it, the shaping of me.
So true I felt the same but never knew how to explain how I felt
I would rent this movie obsessively from library like every week as a child. I'm starting to realize why I am the way I am.
I'm also getting a tattoo of the harpy and the unicorn with "we are sisters, you and I"
omg I'd love to see your unicorn tattoo!! (If you're comfortable with that)
That sounds so amazing!
“We are two sides of the same magic” ☺️ ☯️ love it!
In regard to Molly's meltdown: Imagine if you looked forward to prom your whole life, but you never got to go when you were in school. Then the first prom you had a chance to go to was as a chaperone, at forty-five. Now up that to the point of it being supernatural. I kind of don't blame her. She might've been holding that in for a while.
Omg due to covid this is happening to me in real life
@@lunasmith9367 hey fellow class of 2020/2021 member! maybe we’ll get to plan a recreation of prom as college students
This is an incredibly juvenile and misguided way to view molly grue's meltdown. Her life was full of abuse and the only thing she looked forward to was the possibility of a unicorn... that is a lot different than wearing a pretty dress for a shitty prom. Wtf.
@@callunainsolitus5539 Congratulations on missing my point entirely. Guess what? I had a very terrible life, full of abuse, neglect, isolation, and exploitation, and I missed out on so much that most people take for granted. But if I got something special that I'd always wanted and dreamed of, I wouldn't have a tantrum over it happening when I wasn't young and innocent anymore, and then be over it in less than a minute, *just because I was abused*. There's more going on with Molly than that, obviously.
She makes it clear that she only wanted to meet a unicorn as a lovely young maiden -- just like it happens in fairytales. Meeting a unicorn doesn't get you jack shit on paper, and was no good to her in middle age. It wouldn't have improved her life in any practical way no matter when it had happened. But if it had happened to her as a maiden, it would've made her FEEL like the kind of pure, delicate girl that a unicorn would be compelled to visit in a story.
Fate introducing her to a unicorn as a burnt out middle-aged woman feels like she's being mocked: exactly what she wanted, but nothing like she imagined. Like having your first kiss with someone you don't like in unromantic circumstances or only getting to go to a prom as a chaperone.
And that's why she gets over it so fast. It's not about abuse, it's about disappointment. And that's something that feels the same to anyone who missed out on something they'd dreamed of, regardless of whether there was trauma in their life.
PS: as someone who's been through Hell and isn't on the other side of it yet, I really wish self-riteous, very-online folks would stop appropriating outrage over fictional abuse and trauma to try to bully unsuspecting people for disagreeing with them on the internet. It's a movie about a magic pony, touch some fucking grass.
@@callunainsolitus5539 Ok
The unicorn regrets her love lost, the loss of innocence she was forced to trade for knowledge or mortality and that she ultimately had to give up her human life in order to save the others. It's a complex and rich story that Disney could never hope to match with their bland and risk free sugar coating of every story they adapt.
Yes, exactly! This!
Thank you for giving me actual words to (finally) describe what I felt as a child when the movie was over: "she regretted the loss of innocence she was forced to trade for knowledge."
I knew as a kid that this was one of the messages of this movie, even though I wasn't articulated enough to express it, and I remember thinking "wow so this is gonna be it: thats how loosing my childhood will feel like.. (the regret to exchange innocence for knowledge.) - Thanks for spoiling the feeling of one of the main bummers that come with this life you weird, beautiful, scary & sad movie!" - was the first real downer of my life really ✨😅✌️
you missed the point of the "duet". i took it as Amalthea not having the best singing voice because she singing from a hurt place. and the book specifically mentions that she had never heard her voice before so when she spoke she startled herself. i doubt she would have mastered singing sometime during her mission. and Lir. oh bae Lir. he was a hero, not a singer! his voice was raw emotion. Amalthea inspired Lir to get out of his comfort zone to try to woo her. Jeff Bridges's voice was perfect for that. he wasnt supposed to be an amazing singer. thats why i love about this movie too, the the music. it goes with the theme of the movie. its not supposed to be perfect and polished. its supposed to be real and emotional.
Jeff Bridges actually didn't do a bad job. But Mia Farrow just has a weak voice.
I'm super late, but the unicorn had heard herself speak before. The book says that she hadn't spoken for so long that her voice startled her, and she continues speaking throughout the book as well as the movie.
The movie is 100% fine, you just were exposed to it like three years too early.
Agree
I agree. I watched it with like 8 or 9 and it was totally fine for me.
I was 3 or 4 when I first watched this. 30 years later, it's still my most favourite movie.
@@DarkChaos87 I remember that I watched it many times, and I guess I liked it, but I was really confused because I was so used to the disney formula that the pretty girl and the pretty guy end up together. I also was 5 years old, but even when I was 8, it didn't become my favourite movie, it was watching it thinking I'd understanding now that I'm almost an 8 year old wise adult. I did not.
And now I suddenly have these movie reviews in my feed with the bigboobed tree and turns out that wasn't a feverdream. Fascinating, that part makes just as much sense to me as it did when I first saw it.
Edit:
Oh another thing that bothered me as a kid, appearently all that the unicorn needed to do, was to use that horn of her and make it glow so the red bull would run into the water. Why did her horn suddenly glow? And the red bull is made of fire but keeps being in its fiery state in the ocean.
I got it for my 7th birthday and I wouldn’t say it left me emotionally traumatised or anything but 1) I didn’t _get it_ until I watched it again at 20 and 2) being 20 I still cannot watch the skeleton scene - even though it was fine as a kid, just a bit scary - or have anything to do with skeletons visually. Ive narrowed it down to being because of this movie. I can do blood and gore or watch surgeries just fine, but a movie scene with skeletons or stationary plastic model in a classroom (let alone real remains in a museum)? That would be a big nope.
When I was a kid I became kind of depressed as soon as I went to school. I'm autistic, and I was the first open case in my school, so, as you can imagine, things didn't go well.
I was 5 when I watched this. I obviously had no idea what the movie was truly about but I think I found major comfort in the depressing tone of the movie.
I think people always expect kids to be happy, but childhood can be terrifying and sad. So this movie kind of validated my feelings when the adults and peers around me would punish me for feeling bad.
I felt similar, I remember how I got so sick of children's media, how everything was sickeningly sweet and happy all the time, how the characters never reflected how bad I felt. How everything was so positive and all about optimism and friendship. This and other things just felt right, they felt refreshing to see compared to all of the mushy happy stuff around. I loved it and the only part that disturbed me, was the line about feeling your body dying all around you, as dying became my biggest fear in life to this day
I saw this movie as a very young child as well and it honestly shaped so much of the lens I view the world through. I feel like I managed to grasp most of the messages emotionally, if not intellectually, you know? Like the unicorn thanking Schmendrick for giving her the ability to feel regret, even though it's a painful emotion. That one scene taught me that even painful experiences can be beneficial to one's personal growth. There was no, "I regret and now I have to get over it so I never feel it again." Instead the unicorn lives with it, and cherishes the perspective it gives her.
A little fun fact, this movie was aimed at an older audience.
The Last Unicorn was made by Studio Ghibli (before it became known as Studio Ghibli) and was meant for adults.
I don't know why they changed the rating, but it was never intended for kids.
No it was Rankin and Bass.
@@HHSDaily Rankin Bass used an animation studio, Topcraft, and after that dissolved, some of the artists later became part of Studio Ghibli.
@@mamakash I stand corrected
This is NOT a Ghibli film, it was animated by Topcraft while produced by Rankin-Bass.
Sorry but this just doesn't sound right to me. I remember loving this movie as a kid and while I hits me differently as an adult I do think not intended for children is completely unfair. It has mature themes but it does that without being profane and delivers something that brings something to the table for most age groups. This was far before Pixar developed the reputation for the same thing.
When I was little, me and my mom were at the store and she’d let me choose a movie. I used to be so into my little pony. My first movie ever was my little pony. (The 1980’s one) so when I saw anything that resembles a horse/pony. I’d instantly got it. That’s how I found out about the last unicorn. Needless to say it also shocked me. It has a long term affect on me. Especially with the messages about innocence, which I grasp more as I get older. I’m 18 now, and I’m aiming to be an animator one day. Thanks to movies like this. I still to this day play ‘the last unicorn’ by America while drawing/animating.
I’m glad some people are there are talking about this movie!
A great film that ruins lives!!!
Was I the only one who watched this movie as a kid and absolutely loved it and wasn’t disturbed or scared at all? It infused me with a sense of wonder that maybe there were still unicorns out there hiding from the mean humans haha. I thought it was so cool. It comforted me.
Omg absolutely this movie is probably the best thing that’s has ever happened to me
This movie completely disturbed me in a totally different way. When I was very very little, my sisters, my mom, and I used to all sleep in the same room with one of the old school tube TVs running all night. I have no idea what channel it was on, but I remember waking up at different times on different nights and just catching scenes from this movie. I had to have been in like preschool at the time. Neither my parents or anyone else I asked at the time had ever heard of this movie, leading me to the conclusion that this was just a reoccurring nightmare I was having, specifically the scenes with the harpy (a bird with dog ears and other unnatural organs eating a woman and glowing red) and the Red Bull chasing the unicorns. I thought this way for YEARS. I didn’t find out it was an actual movie until I was in 10th grade, when I was completely mind blown to find out the thing I thought was cooked up in my imagination was a real movie, that someone made, for children. I’m glad others have suffered from it too though, now I don’t feel so weird about it.
This sounds wild to experience tbh
Dude I had random nightmare scenes of this movie too
I used to watch this movie on repeat as a child when I had the flu for the express reason that it was so dreamlike. The music even has a lullaby quality. I would fall asleep into my fever-induced strange dream world and wake up in the fever dream that is The Last Unicorn. It all melded together until I could barely tell the difference in my heavily drowsy state and somehow I found that comforting lol
I couldn't imagine the pure horror of doing that unintentionally! Your poor childhood self!
I also had bad dreams an memories of the scenes with the red bull after I watched it as a child with 3 or 4 years
There is immense sorrow captured in The Last Unicorn and it heralded the end of an age and departure of magic from the world. As the last unicorn wanders in search of her kin calling out I’m alive, I’m alive.
35 year old gay man here, I have never met anyone who has seen this film. This movie still resonates with me today. Wait, are you me? I think you’re me.
The story has messages of courage, friendship, and unconditional love. To really understand the story, we have to read between the lines. People like to have things "dumbed down"
when you get older than 5 and finally realize you watched an old lady be murdered by a triple-breasted bearded murder bird and that the tree had tiddies. My parents too saw a horse on the cover and were like "yeah this is fine for kids".
absolutely loved the music and pretty colors as a child, but wow you really grow and start to understand that mysterious emotion that is loss of innocence and the inevitability of death and sadness in one's short life lmao. also im glad you pointed out the sinister drunk skeleton, for some reason THAT was the part that scared me as a child! so much that i have that entire dialogue burned into my psyche 🤣 still one of my favorite movies of all time
The skeleton was the part that stuck with me the most too!!
I remember I walked in on two minutes of this film in second grade during class and I will NEVER forget what those two minutes did to me as a kid. The scene when the unicorn told the wizard not to look back at the Harpie eating the old woman alive. Those two minutes haunted me for years as a child, until finally I stumbled across it at a dvd store 7 years later and asked my parents to buy me the 25th anniversary edition. I was actually scared to watch it because of the haunting feeling it gave me for so many years. I met Mia Farrow last year at a convention and she signed that same dvd I bought at 12 years old. Im 26 now. This film really has effected my life as a whole.
I'm 37 years old and "The Last Unicorn" depressed the hell out of me as a child. But not as bad as "Watership Down" fucked me up. The Dark Crystal, The Neverending Story and Legend really messed with my head as a child in the 80's and early 90's. Mia Farrow as the voice of the Unicorn was a great choice for that role. But the animated tree molesting the magician was trippy as hell.....
definitely a movie for more mature audiences... I first saw it when i was in my late teens I think.. still one of my favorite animated movies
I watched this when I was a small kid. I was disturbed but also somehow also obsessed. The unicorn and the music just called to me. The vulture and the old lady scene immensely scared me. I would closed my eyes but also forced myself to watch the scene . . . because I was somehow compelled to watch it. It was so different and a lot more disturbing than the princess movies I was obsessed with. Dont know what us was, but it explains a lot now that I think about it lmao
I remember singing along to the songs and having certain scenes that stuck with me through the years. I didnt really "understand" it, but this movie made me feel things.
i genuinely only remembered the red bull and thought this movie was a fever dream until recently
same wtf
Same here! Weird
Also unrelated, it was a Japanese studio that worked on the animation for this.
If any of you like Ghibli out there.... well some of their staff worked on this. So, I'm roundabout in a way blaming this, and Ulysees 31 for getting me into anime eventually.
We are all here because we saw this movie as kids and it haunts and inspired us forever
I was about 5 when I first saw this movie, (I'm 43 now) and my reaction differed greatly from yours, because it was all of the sadness that drew me in, and on some level, I completely understood everything that was going on, and to this day, The Last Unicorn is one of my favourite stories. I've even read the book.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
I watched this when I was 5 and it still remains today my favourite movie of all time
I also saw this movie some 30 years ago when I was very young, around 3-5, and thought it was a wonderful, scary dream for my entire life up until only a few years ago. I am of the opinion that 5 is the perfect age to watch a movie like this. Don't coddle your young children. Get them familiar with the world as early as possible. Let them be frightened safely by a movie before they are frightened in a way that is not just a movie.
Also, Molly's despair at seeing the unicorn, which seems a bit confusing as a child, hits a whole lot different as an adult stuck in the Bible Belt.
I appreciate the deep meaning in The Last Unicorn but seriously I agree it's really not a kids movie. I first saw it as an adult and I think that's the best way. No need to scare the shit out of kids with death and tree breasts.
I hated that scene so much I would skip it.
I was 5 or 6 when I first saw this, and I loved it so much I wore out the tape. Drove my brother INSANE. I got my daughter to watch it when she was about 9, and she adored it as well. She's 14 now, and we still watch it about once a month.
Kids now days watch, in pearson, whit real pearson 's, so, I grow up whit this movie, and loved it so much. Now I see this movie again, and now I feel like really I grow up, this movie need to be seen
apparently, I was a badass kid because I was able to watch this as a kid without it leaving me unhinged.
To me when she says “I feel this body dying around me” I feel like it was the feeling of mortality. Being an immortal being that had never had to ponder death,or the fear of such now felt the opposite and at full force. After nearly being scent to her eternal suffering she now had to face the one thing she never thought she would had to and the forced new feelings that came with it. That is why I think she never healed from it once a being pure of regret is now tainted with it,it can simply never be or feel the same again. The end sounded like she craved death but knew in her unicorn body it would be something un reachable
Part of recent GTKY party chat had someone ask me, "What's your favorite book?" and I mentioned The Last Unicorn by Beagle. They were young enough (bless their hearts) that they had not encountered this film. I'm so glad for your video, because you presented the resonant bits without spoiling the whole show. I'm going to use this to get Last Unicorn teed up for a movie night. Thanks!
Also, for the record - Molly's speech. When they asked followup questions about Last Unicorn, I rather tipsily, in the fashion of Gen X, responded with Molly's Soliloquy. They were suitably scared away. (Actually they were intrigued and wanted more info. That's how you can tell the keepers, folks.)
The movie was hella terrifying
lol correct
This movie is just gorgeous. I love it so much and my childhood wouldn't have been the same without it
The Harpy subplot is my favorite piece of animated cinema.
You should read the book. As an adult it came across very differently. But it is still sad.
I related so much to Amalthea as a child- I'd start sobbing when she turned into a human during that scene... Relatable.. and still panic about my mortality 💀💀✨
I saw this movie as a child back when it came out...and I cried so hard my mom came running into the living room thinking I was hurt...it took me what seemed like forever to calm down and explain to her what was going on. I still can't listen to the credit song without tearing up.
Same
Something that traumatized me in the book that wasn't really in the movie was the little town near Haggard's castle. The depressing feel of it, the way it felt eternally ruined, all of it hit me really hard as a six year old.
Edit: The town was called Hagsgate. Depressing name, too.
Edit 2: Also, Leir's need to prove himself to his adoptive father is lowkey where I got my fear of abandonment because if HE couldn't be loved, and he was basically a storybook hero, then what did that mean for me?
Ah... the book holds so much that the movie misses entirely. ♥ I'm hoping now that Beagle has the rights back, we'll get to see a live action movie before too long.
I first saw this when I was around 5. It formed the basis for my emotional maturity, worldview and so many other nuances of how I encounter my life that I can't even hope to encompass in some YT comment. This will forever be the most precious addition to my life, and my favorite novel and movie probably til ya boi kicks the can.
I always loved the animations and actually didn't know the title until recently. Re-watching it once I found out and I just absolutely loved it. It is so underrated and left me emotional like back when I watched it as a child.
i don’t remember much about this movie from my early childhood, but what still sits with me is the existential dread, and chills that this film gave me… gonna go rewatch it again lol
I saw this movie in the theater when I was 10 years old back in 1982. It had a profound effect on my innocent mind! I became obsessed with unicorns, and back then, only girls were supposed to like them. I suffered a lot of persecution from my peers because of this but I never gave up my lifelong love of unicorns! I'm 49 years old now, and just discovered your awesome video. By the way, I think the most haunting part of the movie is the opening with "The Last Unicorn" song by America and the depiction of the medieval tapestries coming to life. Can you believe I am stitching a replica of the unicorn at the fountain right now? Lifelong obsession!
I watched this movie for the first time when I was 11 and it made me experience the classic feeling of melancholy or "beautiful sadness". Just the music alone 😭 it makes me tear up even today 14 years later. Yet it's so romantic and beautiful. I was grateful for every single slightly funny scene like the drunk skeleton, because it was a little bit of a comedic relief. The scene where Mommy Fortuna gets killed was haunting though.
The skeleton in the kings castle creeped me the fuck out as a kid 😂 but this movie will ALWAYS hold a special place in my heart ❤️
Was born in 2006 and absolutely adored this movie when I was little, I still go back and watch it sometimes and recently showed it to my little sister. Idk what about this movie was so interesting to me but remember watching it over and over along with Care Bears and the big wish, so many emotions where in this movie that you can’t find in other animated movies. I played this movie so many times that my mom had to buy me 3 dvds because they would break from being played so many time
When I was 3 or 4, my grandfather recorded it on VHS right before he died. It was my favorite movie as a kid. I never got to see the first part because he'd missed the beginning; well, not until I rented it years later.
Man, now that I'm 34 and watching clips, I find it so relatable. Especially Molly Grue's sadness about aging and Haggard's lack of joy (as someone who has struggled with depression throughout the heads).
Anyway, thanks for sharing and keeping the movie alive!
Omg this vid CRACKED me up!!! My best friend and I watched this over and over when we were like 8 yrs old. I can’t believe I forgot the final quote! Though this is an extensional trip for young kids, I honestly think it taught my heart some valuable life long lessons. Oh and no cat anywhere ever gave anyone a straight answer.
Hahha, I very very briefly mentioned the tree scene towards the end!!
I grew up with this movie as well, and it has had a massive influence on my life to this day... I appreciate your video, and I hope that this movie gets the recognition that it deserves! ( I know this vid was posted some time ago, I just found it!)
That's not even including the line that haunted ME the most - "She will remember your heart when men are fairy tales in books written by rabbits." It was only on hearing that line that it had ever occurred to little 8-year-old me that not only do people die, but HUMANITY will die, along with all traces of our existence save for a few relics and pieces of rubble maybe, which would one day grind to dust with all the rest. It made the tapestry and lyrics of the opening of the movie make sudden horrific sense - "When the last eagle flies over the last crumbling mountain, and the last lion roars at the last dusty fountain..." - it was showing a picture of a world in the far future when time is so old that meaningless relics are all that will remain of us, and even every living species ever known to humans will one by one die or evolve until unrecognisable, until finally the old red sun in its age will consume itself and disperse, leaving the Earth finally bereft of any organic life to breathe into the universe at all. And the worst part of all was that now that I knew this, I could never UN-know this, and I could never go back to the existential innocence I had before. It felt like cursed knowledge, an epiphany of emptiness and despair.
Yup...The story's entire concept was about wanting to be something else, except for the cat. The cat knew what the cat was.
I remember watching this movie and just weeping. Thus began a lifetime of being able to pick out the most devastating and cry-worthy part of any movie.
This was AMAZING. So glad my sister sent me this video! We were obsessed with this movie as kids but it always left me feeling some type of way.
That's cute! I'm glad
people are sharing :)
This was one of my and my sister's favorite movies. We loved singing the songs. I didn't get to into the existential aspects of it, but it did leave you with a feeling of bitter sweet sadness at the end.
I was obsessed with this movie as a child. I swear I would watch this 3 times a day. I don’t remember being traumatized by it, but the one scene I remember being very vivid and scary to me was when the butterfly was singing and speaking in rhymes to the unicorn, and how he went from scary to normal in like seconds.
It was actually a feel good movie... The optimism and hope resided in the perseverance of all the characters ...IMO
This movie is my childhood...I'm also depressed, but I want to think this was due to more factors aside growing up with The Last Unicorn. I was probably around 3 - 4 when I first watched it, I and adored it. There was something so special about it, at least compared to the other movies I had access to back then. The animation, the music, the melancholic, yet beautiful tone. I remember myself brooding the idea that someday I will die, and while it has always been a dreadful feeling...it has also helped me cope with it as well? I have no idea how much the movie had to do with this, but I have very fond memories of it and keep revisiting every once in a while.
Yes it's a cartoon... no it's not for small children. I love this movie though.
I watched The Last Unicorn far too many times as a child and cried and cried. The flip on that is escaping that sorrow by watching The Neverending Story so I could watch a horse die and cry that the rock biter couldn’t hold onto his friends. That’ll fuck you up really well.
I kind of understood why the unicorn was upset about becoming human, I'm going to quote the unicorn here:
"There has never been a time without unicorns, we live forever, were as old as the sky, old as the moon! We could be hunted or trapped, we could be even killed if we leave our forest, but we do not vanish!"
From becoming a unicorn to a human it basically switched off the immortality, that's why she could feel her body dying. And that's when she started to feel regret and love, something no other unicorns could feel
My grandmother gave me this movie and I would watch it on repeat and I even had the CD I had a obsession with this movie and if I'm honest I still love it- maybe it was because she gave me it before she died and she was my favorite person to exist I dunno-
*I saw this on HBO when it was released on cable. HBO marketed this movie to adults and played it after 9 PM.* I watched it repeatedly while my parents slept. "It's skin is so cold, it burns," was the line that stayed with me.
I absolutely loved this movie growing up. Its a great movie and talks about real things. It doesn't hold your hand like Disney. Maybe I was just a stronger child because movies like this didn't bother me like it apparently did for so many.
The movie was never intended for children. It was originally intended for adults to watch. Peter S. Beagle, the author, even says this..
Exactly
That was amazing! I can still recite Molly Grue's Where Have You Been scene. I remember 'I can feel this body dying'.
Flight of Dragons was good too but not as piercing as Last Unicorn.
Great insights! And trauma, hehe
It was scary but I always really loved the movie a lot. It has been very special to me since the first time watching. The tree did haunt me though.
Have to add: I was 4 or 5 years old too while watching this movie for the first time. It was so special to me that I made my dad carve me exactly this unicorn out of wood. I also remember being devastated about Molly meeting the unicorn. It moved me a lot that she never lost her belief and finally got to meet her. The movie is high key melancholic but full of hope and I always feel very soft about it. It actually comforts me.
I watched this movie over and over and over 100 times when I was little girl it never scared me I love this movie
This was the kind of movie where watching it as a young child, there were parts where I would hide because I was too scared to watch (namely the skeleton), and yet I would want to put the movie on every single night anyway. I feel like that says something. By the way, I read the book years later and I love it too - it has some great nuggets that aren't in the movie
The harpie is actually drawn true to mythological specifications. They are meant to be hideous. Molly sold her life to a band of ruffians. In essence, she feels ruined. Soiled. Thank GOD Disney never got a hold of this one and ruined it.
I particularly remembered learning the phrase "damn you" from Molly's ranting upon meeting the unicorn. I don't think I ever got in trouble though despite not knowing that it wasn't a proper thing to say (I think maybe because I never said it out loud?).
It's good you weren't thought policed
as a kid I new exactly what they were talking about I was more sad that more movies weren't like this and didnt cover more topiccs like it and i loved how they didnt shy away from these topics and that your were forced to watch these characters go through all these different emotions and traumas. I was a simple kid but Yes I was very aware off things i probably shouldnt have been aware of at this age.
This movie was my daily obsession from age 3 till i die. I may not watch it everyday like i did when i was young, but i do make a point to watch it to remind myself that life isn't permanent, and that....well we can't all be immortal perfect beings like unicorns.
The unicorn being transformed into a human always gave me trans undertones. She was reborn in "the wrong body" and her reaction to that made me feel scene when I was too young to understand what I was feeling at the time.
We rented this at least once a month along with The Flight of Dragons. Seen both dozens of times. So beautiful and terrifying.
There is a sequel to the book The Last Unicorn & it is called The Way Home. I watched this movie when it came out in 1982 and I loved it. NOW, I had no clue what it truly was about until I became a young adult, and realizing what the story was about devastated me completely. BUT to this day, watching this movie is what inspired me to want to read.
This was my favorite movie as a kid and remains so to this day.
Yeah amalthea’s “I feel my body dying- all around me!” pretty much owns like metal, as a little girl.
I'm 42. I watched this when I was 5 at a friend's house. I remember loving this movie. So many parts stuck with me. I remember the oppression of the unicorns by the bull. And I remember disliking Molly's reaction. I thought she was being self absorbed and selfish.
The thing that stuck out the most though was when the unicorn was transformed into a human lady and me realizing that I was attracted to this naked cartoon character. That was a turning point in my life...
The thing that stuck with me was the tired old lion disguised as a Manticore. Very parallel to my life. It's happy ending is finally going into the woods and dying.
This was actually my favorite as a kid, even with the trauma. I found it's honesty soothing, and while it was dark I thought the way it was dark tried to get you comfortable within some of life's other facets, creating this beautiful duality of love and sorrow, ultimately a bittersweet love letter to life and loss.
TL: DR This film is gother than Tim Burton's films. All of them.
I don't think Molly thinks of herself as old, necessarily, but rather, as someone with a wasted life. She ended up the wife of a wannabe robber, jaded and disenchanted, only to THEN be visited by a unicorn. It must have felt like mockery to her. Apart from the other connotations of virgins being able to call unicorns in the myths mentioned in the book. As for the unicorn being transformed into a human - Schmendrick didn't even plan this, he just let magic do whatever it would do. And even as a kid, I could totally understand the unicorn being very unhappy about that transformation. I mean, back then, sure, I myself would have preferred to be a unicorn. But thinking about it now, just imagine being a magical, ancient, IMMORTAL being, suddenly squeezed into a mortal existence that must feel the equivalent of a mayfly's lifespan. With guarantee that she'd ever be turned back - on the contrary, the chances for that were very slim, and she knew that. I also always loved the cat. And the book is actually AMAZING! If you haven't read it, absolutely do - there's quite a bit more stuff in there that makes the film make more sense. The ending itself also...well, it's bittersweet. Of course, the unicorn regrets. Being mortal has changed her - she has found and lost love, just as she has found and restored the unicorns. Just as you say, love and pain are two sides of the same coin here.
The book is definitely better than the movie. Good as The Hobbit or The Wizard of Earthsea.
@@dworkina.9015I don't know Earthsee, so I can't judge there. As a Tolkienist, I'd say the Unicorn is actually a more faithful adaptation than the Hobbit, but oddly enough, it's one of the VERY few films where I prefer the German dubbing. I think it is quite good, overall, considering that books usually are better than their film adaptations.
As a child, this movie scared me, now I understand that I was scared because I did not understand the deeper message it was communicating. I just felt sorrow, and I guess that sorrow scared my 5 year old mind. But I still love this movie 💖
Your quote from the unicorn is mouse definitely from the book, not the screenplay. That exchange is softened significantly in the film.
"UNICORN: You are a true wizard now, as you always wished. Does it make you happy?
SCHMENDRICK: Well, men don't always know when they're happy, but I-I think so. And you?
UNICORN: I am a little afraid to go home. I have been mortal, and some part of me is mortal yet. I am no longer like the others; for no unicorn was ever born who could regret. But now I do. I regret.
SCHMENDRICK: I am sorry, I have done you evil and I cannot undo it.
UNICORN: No. Unicorns are in the world again. No sorrow will live in me as long as that joy - save one, and I thank you for that part too. Farewell, good magician. I will try to go home."
She thanked him for the regret because of the love she also got to experience. She likely feels far closer to Molly Grue after her experience and definitely learned empathy for the mere mortals in the world. I appreciate that lesson as well - even with the softer message. (Though, I really do prefer the book.)
That tree f'd my whole childhood up
I watched this movie as a kid, knowing only that the Red Bull was the most terrifying thing I'd ever seen. When I watched it again when I was older... the Red Bull was still terrifying, Hagard was now Chistopher Lee and it made sense he controlled The Devil (Because still terrifying), I finally realized that song in the beginning I thought I liked was the musical equivalent of lying in bed late at night contemplating entropy, the death of the universe, and God, and I uncovered the repressed memory of this movie making me cry when I started crying all over again.
Ha, the "I'M FIVE" had me rolling. I loved this break down of the movie though.
I grew up with this movie, watching it literally back to back for days on end.
- But then I was that kid that made her mother uncomfortable and worried nearly 24/7
I also was watching Nightmare on Elm Street around 6 years old
This movie has since fallen into the dustbin of history, but I fully admit I had no idea what so many of the themes were about at the time. Now, OMG it's so sad. Unfortunately, as we all learn, life can be very tragic. Especially with love.
I'm so glad you mentioned Tiddy Tree because that's literally my favorite part. LMAO
I saw this movie as a kiddo back in the 80s. It's part of what created my personality into adulthood. Lmao We had some wild shit back then!
I shall keep the color of your eyes when no other in the world remembers your name... lol
@@SharpTattoos There is no immortality but a tree's love ❤️🌳
I had forgotten how dark this movie was, thanks for the refresher.
5:00 I remember Molly Grue yelling at the unicorn after seeing her for the first time as a kid and i was always confused by it. I looked it up and according to legend, if a young woman encounters a unicorn, it means that she is going to married/proposed to shortly. The fact that the unicorn came late means that Molly Grue missed her chances for love an romance when she was young and is in regret.
Amalthea has been in my life since 1984. It's both my favourite book and film. Amalthea is scared, but brave. She is elegant, but unsure. To triumph she must lose. She does what must be done despite the cost to her. She is an inspiration. At 43 I am finally getting her tattooed on me tomorrow.
Meanwhile after watching your video, im rewatching it again. I usually watch it once a week anyways. I guess this week will be 2.
I’ve been watching this since I was eight(now 39), and I didn’t really acknowledge the adult themes in this until I was older. Being only eight, I had never felt regret or love, and I wasn’t really aware of my own mortality. For me, the adult themes add a lot more depth to a great story. I love when a fantasy story shows it’s darker side. The word “fantasy” seems to automatically mean happy things for many people, and stories like this show it can be very tragic and full of sorrow. Another good example is The Lord of the Rings. I know this contradicts the word fantasy itself, but being a little more “realistic” makes the characters much more relatable to viewers. We can relate our sorrows, our tragedies, our experiences to what they are going through and become more engaged.
Seriously your sound is like 10x better, thanks for fixing that :) Also this is the weirdest kid movie I have seen .. Greetings from Berlin!!
That's the beauty of fairytales. The old tales are that mix of melancholy, tragedy, and hope mixed for the young and the old. It's ambiguity, and that's why we are attracted to these tales. You may want a happy ending, but one misstep in the Black Forest, and life could become tragic. Why is that to be avoided regardless of ones age?
Honestly, confronting mortality as a child can give us important perspectice and drive to live well.
It’s really an amazing movie. Watching it as an adult is so much more powerful than when you watch it as a kid.
I remember loving the movie so much id check it out at the library least 3 times a month to watch it even though certain parts did seem erie and scary