Starring: Alan Arkin, Jeff Bridges, Mia Farrow, Tammy Grimes, Robert Klein Directed By: Jules Bass, Arthur Rankin Jr. Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Audience Rating: G (General Audience) Binding: DVD Format: Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC Label: Lions Gate Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: February 06, 2007 Running Time: 93 minutes Theatrical Release Date: November 19, 1982
Description: Brought to life by the luminary voice talents of Jeff Bridges, Mia Farrow, Angela Lansbury and Rene Auberjonois (STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE, "Boston Legal"), this animated treasure is the story of a lonely unicorn who sets out on an extraordinary quest to find her lost brothers and sisters. Along the way she meets a colorful cast of characters, including a bumbling wizard who magically transforms her into a beautiful damsel. When a handsome prince falls in love with her, he challenges the evil foe who holds her captive. But the task proves harder than imagined, and the unicorn soon discovers that real magic comes from believing in the impossible. Featuring songs performed by America.
Amazon.com: A story line that truly deserves the A-list treatment, The Last Unicorn is memorable for its attempts to stay faithful to its origins, the Peter Beagle novel of the same name. The animation is vintage Rankin/Bass, and that's too bad; but there's an undeniable strength in this tale and telling. A unicorn (Mia Farrow)--she believes herself the last--searches for any others of her kind, while avoiding the malevolent Red Bull, the agent believed to have destroyed the rest of the herd. Along the way, she is mistaken, ignored, attacked, and obsessed about, finally finding help from a magician named Schmendrick (Alan Arkin) and a knight named Prince Lir (Jeff Bridges). A haunting film that pays homage to mythology and the people who love it. --Keith Simanton
Wonderful, but another site is better this newest version is stunning, now with better picture and sound quality. Unfortunately, and not many people know this, the author of the book and writer of screenplay Peter Beagle does not earn a single cent off of the sale of this movie, except through a special website. [...]
Good Animated Quality This is the Last Unicorn which had "re-runed" on several channels, including Disney a couple years back. Nothing much has changed from that, other than the quality of the videotape.
The quality of the videotape is a grade up compared to the VHS and television versions, which have been grainy. The pictures are clear and crisp, a nice added touch yet stays true to the quality of the film itself (no deleted scenes). For some reason many of the 2004 reviews have stated that the quality is bad. This is inaccurate when comparing the DVD's picture quality to the trailer feature of the disc and the original VHS. This dvd has been played on a 2009 Xbox 360.
The only audio-availability on this dvd verison is dolby 2.0 and 5.0. The subtitles are for spanish and english, but the audio output is in english only.
As for features there is not much to offer. There is an interview of the author concerning the making of the book, the "lost chapters" of how the book truly started and a boring game of the red bull.
Some reviews have been about censorship of the movie, or in other words "edited". The movie from the television version has not been edited from its origin (as far as television re-runs go) and infact yes, there is one swear word. When the hunchback henchman is talking to Fortuna in front of the harpy cage he says " I don't care how many damn spells you got on her, get rid of that harpy!"
There are no deleted scenes or plot-breaking edits that would truly affect the entire quality of the original story-line itself. The impact of these edits aren't very important for a couple of word changes like "hell" or whatnot as there was little offensive words to began with. As an example of a "stripped" movie, try Once Upon a Time which was suppose to be the original Windaria. Now that's a censored version. As for TLU the harpy is still as ugly, naked and vicious as it was in the original.
This is a good dvd to get if you want the movie itself, however it is lacking in the "goodie" department as far as concerning special features.
I love this fantasy film If you like legends and fairy tales, this is your movie. I think that both adults and children can enjoy this animated film. I first saw it in my teens and enjoyed it very much. Mia Farrow does the voice of the unicorn, the main character. However, if you aren't an imaginative person, you probably won't enjoy this film.
Lovely and exciting production An all-star animated film with a wonderful and captivating story for the whole family. Piece of trivia: The voice of the tree belongs to Nellie Bellflower, an actress when this was done, but now a film producer, having produced "Finding Neverland" and "Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day".
The Butterfly did not need new lines This was the first movie I remember watching as a child and both the film and the book remain my all time favorites. I loved the soundtrack, the animation and the characters. I remember naming my first stuffed unicorn "Amalthea" after this film.
I saw this DVD on sale at the grocery store and snatched it up, eagerly waiting for the day that my daughter would be old enough to enjoy it.
It sat in the box for close to a year. While at an endurance ride, it began to rain and my student and I ran home to get this DVD to watch on her mom's laptop in the camper. All of us visibly cringed when we watched the bad redubbing of the same butterfly scene over and over again as he continued to ramble--horrible editing! "Now THat I'm A Woman" should have been left out, or at least grafted more smoothly into existing footage. Several scenes, such as when Amalthea looks at her reflection and unicorn paintings and the scene where she and King Haggard converse on the parapet are ruined by bad dubbing and editing. I've seen community college broadcasting students do better editing jobs.
However, there are a few scenes that are somewhat interesting. One where Schmendrick overhears Lir calling him "that ridiculous magician" and the Midgard serpent in the carnival.
Story is excellent, characters are truly unique, soundtrack is emotionally charged (I often cry) but there needs to be a "cleaned up" DVD release. I would also love to hear commentary from Peter Beagle and the cast and crew.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
