Last Unicorn, The
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Wikipedia-Article "The Last Unicorn"
The Last Unicorn is a fantasy novel written by Peter S. Beagle. It has sold more than five million copies worldwide since its original publication in 1968, and has been translated into at least 20 languages. In 1982 it was made into an animated movie by Rankin/Bass for ITC Entertainment, with a screenplay by Peter S. Beagle based on his own novel. Although officially produced by an American company, the film is an important transitional work in the development of Japanese anime, since most of its animation was subcontracted to the Japanese company Topcraft (whose main artists shortly afterward became the core of Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli).
The film's music was composed and arranged by Jimmy Webb and performed by the group America. The title song has been covered many times, including by Kenny Loggins on his Return to Pooh Corner album, and by the German group In-Mood.
Finally released on DVD within the last five years, the animated version has enjoyed considerable success with a cross-generational mix of old and new fans, selling more than 600,000 units in America, Germany, England, France, Australia, and New Zealand between 2003 and 2005. Peter S. Beagle is currently in a public conflict with Granada International, successor to ITC Entertainment, seeking to be paid what he is contractually owed for the film from these sales and other distribution.
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Story and Themes
The story is about a unicorn who realizes that she is the last of her kind and then sets off on a quest to find out where the other unicorns have gone. The unicorn hears from an addled butterfly that something known as the Red Bull has herded her people to the ends of the earth. Following this one clue she meets other characters in her journey to find and confront the man who controls the Red Bull, King Haggard. Along the way she picks up two traveling companions: the incompetent magician Schmendrick, and Molly Grue, care-worn lover of Captain Cully of Greenwood Forest (a character who is a kind of satire on Robin Hood). When the unicorn is herself about to be captured by the Red Bull, she is changed by Schmendrick's unpredictable magic into a mortal woman whom Schmendrick identifies to Haggard as the Lady Amalthea. Gradually forgetting who she was, the Lady Amalthea becomes more and more human with each day, and eventually falls in love with Prince Lir, Haggard's adopted son. Caught in a complex web of fate and feelings, she must struggle with losing her immortal self even as she continues to seek an answer to the mystery of what Haggard has done with her people.
The main theme of the book is destiny. The trials the unicorn and the other characters go through are all part of a destiny that none of them can control. The book illustrates it better than the movie as it contains more detail and background on the characters.
- A witch cursed Haggard's castle when he first built it and said that one of Hagsgate (a town near the castle) would destroy Haggard and his castle and thus destroy the town, whose townspeople she cursed with the knowledge that they would only survive as long as Haggard and his castle did.
- Lir was born in Hagsgate and abandoned, then found and adopted by Haggard.
- Hagard sends the red bull to collect all the unicorns in the world.
- The Unicorn learns from a hunter she is the last and she goes to look for her missing fellows.
- She is caged by Mommy Fortuna and rescued by Schmendrick, a man who looks far younger than he is and will be immortal and unaging until he finally learns to control the wild magic within him.
- Schmendrick meets Molly Grue, and through him she meets the Unicorn. The three of them travel together until they encounter the Red Bull.
- Schmendrick has no faith in his abilities but tries to use his magic to save the Unicorn only because Molly believes in him.
- Unicorn becomes human and is dubbed "The Lady Amalthea."
- As Amalthea, the Unicorn is able to enter Haggard's Castle and meet the prince.
- As Amalthea the Unicorn is able to love (something she was unable to do while a Unicorn); and indeed she falls in love with Prince Lir.
- They discover where the unicorns are and how to get to the Red Bull's passage by following clues given to Molly by a talking cat. Schmendrick interprets the clues and uses magic to trick a talking skull into showing them the way.
- Lir, who loves the Lady Amalthaea, follows Molly, Schmendrick, and Amalthaea into the Red Bull's passage.
- The Red Bull realizes Amalthea is the Unicorn and attacks.
- Schmendrick turns Amalthia back into a Unicorn.
- Lir dies defending the Unicorn.
- The Unicorn, who still loves Lir, is enraged. She is finally able to fight back against the Red Bull because she is so angry she forgets she is afraid of it.
- The Red Bull is destroyed and the unicorns return from where they have been trapped in the sea.
- The unicorns destroy the castle and Hagsgate in their escape, but rejuvenate all the rest of the long-barren land of Haggard's kingdom.
Thus the trail of breadcrumbs leads us to the theme of fate. If the Unicorn had never met Molly and Schmendrick, she would never have become human. If she never became human, she and Lir would never have fallen in love. If she had never fallen in love, then she couldn't have saved her people, and Lir couldn't have fulfilled the curse. Shmendrick never would have become a full-fledged (and mortal) wizard, and Molly Grue would have spent the rest of her life as the unhappy companion to Captain Cully, whose band lived like hobos in the woods. But all the unhappy and seemingly unimportant circumstances of their lives allowed them to meet up and accomplish something monumental: the fall of evil King Haggard, and the freeing of the unicorns.
The book is filled with religious undertones and symbology dating back to the 14th century, which it blithely mixed with modern references and deliberate anachronisms. The animated film version's opening hints at this as well, being visually inspired by the Unicorn Tapestries from that time. Also, if you look closely at the Tapestries in Haggard's Castle, he has the original tapestries hanging in a room of his castle (see the scene featuring Amalthaea's song).
Other Versions and New Sequel
The author, Peter S. Beagle, recorded an unabridged audiobook of his novel in 2005 for Conlan Press. That company is making the audiobook available as a downloadable MP3, an MP3 CD, and in an eight CD collector's set (seven CDs for the audiobook, and the eighth containing an exclusive interview with the author).
Thirty-seven years after the book's initial publication, Peter S. Beagle finally published a sequel novelette called "Two Hearts" in Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine, and in a limited edition hardcover from Conlan Press. This story is a coda to The Last Unicorn and a bridge to a full-length sequel novel that is expected to follow some time in 2007.
A graphic novel adaptation of The Last Unicorn has been contracted by Scholastic Press, for their Graphix line. The adaptation will be scripted by Peter S. Beagle, with art by Michael Wm. Kaluta. It is planned for release in 2008.
New Film Development
A live-action adaptation of the original book has been announced as in development for several years, but it is not clear what progress (if any) has been made towards production. A minor controversy erupted in 2005 over the producers' plans to create their screen unicorn by filming trained horses and then using CGI to modify them. This runs directly counter to the physical description of the unicorn in the book, which explicitly states that the unicorn looks nothing at all like "a horned horse," and has thus upset the book's fans.
The Internet Movie Database states that the film is in pre-production and will be released in 2006, with Christopher Lee and Rene Auberjonois reprising the roles they provided voices for in the original animated version (King Haggard and the Skull, respectively). Geoff Murphy is announced as the Director. This information, however, is known to be inaccurate. As of December 2005 the film was still in development, not pre-production. It was not yet fully-funded, did not have a final shooting script, had not been fully cast, and was unlikely even to begin shooting in 2006.
Adding to the complexities of the situation, in the fall of 2005 Peter S. Beagle announced that he was actively seeking a film deal for one or more independent sequels based on new material he was writing (including his already-released coda story, "Two Hearts"). As part of any such deal he stated that he would seek to reacquire the rights to the original, enabling the production of a single unfied multi-film franchise.
Legal Controversy
In 2005 Peter S. Beagle discovered that Granada International, successor to ITC Entertainment in terms of control and ownership of the animated feature version, had sold at least 600,000 DVDs and videotapes of The Last Unicorn worldwide without paying him his contractual share of the income. When negotiations with Granada over this issue failed to yield any results, a public campaign for support was launched on Peter's behalf by Conlan Press.
External links
- The support website for Peter S. Beagle's fight to get paid what he is owed for his work
- Conlan Press, Beagle's affiliated American publisher and source for autographed Peter S. Beagle books, audiobooks, media, etc.
- The Last Unicorn at the Internet Movie Database 1982 ITC Entertainment film
- The Last Unicorn at the Internet Movie Database 2006
- The Last Unicorn's Development Website - the development website for the movie adaptation of Peter S. Beagle's the Last Unicorn
- All Last Unicorn characters fanlisting