Trailer
Plot summary
A unicorn in her forest is told by a butterfly, and by two hunters before it, that no other unicorns remain anywhere. The Red Bull, a malevolent creature, drove the rest of the unicorns away, so she sets out to look for them. The witch Mommy Fortuna captures her and puts her on show in the Midnight Carnival, where ordinary animals are made to look like mythical beasts with illusions. Because the carnival crowds cannot see her real form, Fortuna casts a spell that gives her a second horn. In the carnival she meets Schmendrick, a magician of small talent who works for the witch.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Last Unicorn (1982)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The animation was done in Tokyo by Topcraft, the studio that was later hired by Hayao Miyazaki to work on Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, and whose core members eventually formed Studio Ghibli. Topcraft had previously animated Rankin/Bass's The Hobbit and The Return of the King.
- Christopher Lee, the voice of King Haggard, arrived at recording sessions with his own copy of Peter S. Beagle's novel, in which he had marked lines he believed should not be omitted. Lee, who was fluent in German, also voiced Haggard in the German dub of the film.
- Scholars have documented a large number of queer and transgender viewers finding The Last Unicorn particularly resonant with LGBTQIA+ experience.
- According to Peter S. Beagle, the finished film stayed remarkably close to his original script, but one scene near the end involving an encounter with a princess was animated and then cut from the film.
