Das letzte Einhorn

This movie is of unexpectedly high quality, mixed up in melancholy and nostalgia, though I don't think I actually saw it in the 1980s. It begins with a power 80s ballad, which the kiddos made fun of, but still very catchy. Schmendrick, the bumbling magician, reminds me of Cedric the magician in Sophia. And the Red Bull looks like the Balrog, not the energy drink. The tale is all a little random and confused, but has some interesting twists like the _adopted_ prince who pushes the unicorn to stay true to her original identity rather than marry him (take note Ariel). Fighting the inevitability of old age and death is another theme of interest, especially through the witch who runs a zoo with magical creatures and the crazy king who hoards the unicorns because they make him happy. Both the witch and the prince (if not the king) achieve a kind of immortality by leaving their mark on the deathless creatures: the Harpy will always remember that she was captured in the circus, and the unicorn will always remember that she loved the prince.

It's also fascinating to me that Hayao Miyazaki worked at the studio which made The Last Unicorn, Topcraft, which made Nausicaa soon thereafter. I don't see that many connections in terms of the animation aesthetics; but I haven't yet seen the Hobbit animated films also made by Rankin and Bass/Topcraft, so I can't comment there.

On a personal note, we watched this in NYC the day we went to Princeton, but didn't pay much attention to it; Seb got the blu ray for his 6th birthday and chose to watch it that night.