The Last Unicorn

Adapted from Peter S. Beagle's 1968 novel, with Beagle writing the screenplay himself. A unicorn hears that none of her kind remain and leaves her forest to look for them. An incompetent magician and a solitary woman join her on the road. The trail leads them to King Haggard's castle by the sea. The animation was done in Japan by Topcraft, the studio that had already drawn The Hobbit for Rankin/Bass. Topcraft was later hired by Hayao Miyazaki for Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, and its core staff went on to found Studio Ghibli. That is why the drawing and the movement look distinctly unlike American television animation of the period. Jimmy Webb wrote the music, performed by the band America with the London Symphony Orchestra. The voice cast includes Mia Farrow, Alan Arkin, Jeff Bridges, Angela Lansbury and Christopher Lee. It did not perform at the box office but became a cult film over time, particularly in Germany. Watchable with a child but not written as a children's film: death, ageing and the price of immortality are addressed directly, and the ending offers no comfort.