Hmmmm...
GOTCHA!!!
Mom? This tastes funny...
First, it’s a splendid and faithful adaptation - something I would never have expected to see. WHile the tale sontains many what we might think of as “fairy tale” elements, it is not really a children’s story. I wouldn’t have imagined that Hollywood could manage such an adaptation without turning it into utter pablum.
The voice acting is also pretty splendid. Alan Arkin is a note perfect Schmendrick the Magician and his delivery is impeccable and inspired. Mia Farrow voices the unicorn’s arrogant innocence well and Angela Lansbury’s Mommy Fortuna is both ridiculous and frightening. The cast also includes Christopher Lee, Robert Klein, Rene Auberjonois and Jeff Bridges.
The story is relatively simple. A unicorn discovers herself to be the last remaining of her kind and sets out to find what happened to all the others. On the way, she runs into a wistful wizard, an acquisitive witch, a disillusioned, middle-aged, Maid Marian-type and a prince for whom the term naïve could have been invented. They will all contribute to the unicorn’s quest while each engaged in quests of their own.
While the movie isn’t a musical, there ar several songs, most peformed by America but with one exception, they are only adequate. The title song, however, absolutely soars and as quaint as America may now sound, I can’t imagine who else might perform it so plaintively and triumphantly. It is almost worth the price of admission all by itself.
And there’s the story that the story tells - but since the part of me that apprehends that and resonates to it does so completely aside of ordinary language, I cannot use words to convey the experience either - at least not very well.
Book and DVD
No trackbacks yet.
the almost 3-year-old in our family calls this ‘the good horse’ movie- when she watches it all the big people in the famiy find ourselves watching it with her- it’s one of the ones that has broad appeal-
i’ve enjoyed the book too, but isn’t it hard to try to get people to read a book after they’ve seen the movie? i usually feel just the opposite, and think i’ve read the book and don’t want to see anyone else’s interpretation-
waiting to see your poncho progress-
stay happy-
Barb - It’s one of my hobbies, looking up the book after I’ve seen the movie. In this case, the book came first and I really only looked at the film because I was curious about how it would have been fouled up (as I was certain H’wood wouldn’t tell the same story Beagle did). It was a pleasant surprise and has become a favorite.
For books that I love, I get very leery about seeing the films that sometimes follow as they so seldom do the novel justice. There have been a couple of exceptions - but only a couple :)
"Morrowind” - Xbox - check
“The Last Unicorn” - book & DVD - check
Could you two slow down a little? My list of things to play, read & watch is getting a bit lengthy!
Bron - LOL!! Well, what can I say...we tend to be media oriented around here :)
