The Last Unicorn

Went to the video store the other night and the girls picked up the new DVD release of the Rankin-Bass The Last Unicorn movie. It didn't revitalize fantasy when it was originally released, but seeing it again made me appreciate it for the honest, solid effort that it was. Peter Beagle's mythic style comes through (since he did the script, that's to be expected) and all in all it's a good film.

Which got me to thinking about some test footage of a computer animated unicorn I saw online a few years back. That great flood of fantasy films that was predicted to hit the market in the wake of Lord of the Rings' success hasn't materialized, so I thought I'd look up the Unicorn flick. Naturally enough, I can't find that CGI footage. But there is a Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn developmental website. There is quite a bit of interesting information there. Peter Beagle is apparently writing the new script--which makes me wonder how much he's going to retain from the first version, and how much he's going to change. Since he's the author, he can monkey with it as much as he likes and nobody can kvetch. Christopher Lee and Mia Farrow--who both did voice work in the animated version--are listed as committed to the new film, although they aren't under contract. Producer Michael Pakleppa co-produced the German version of the animated film. Director Julian Doyle doesn't have an extensive directoral resume--his highest profile project was 2001's Quest for the Holy Grail Locations with the Monty Python troupe, which isn't surprising, since he's worked on such films as Jabberwocky, The Rutles, Brazil and a host of others as film editor or in some other technical capacity.

They plan to film the movie on location in Wales and Hungary, and the location and set shots on the website are suitably gorgeous. There's a very interesting section featuring the film's storyboards. The pages devoted to concept art are particularly fascinating, as some of the designs (the Red Bull in particular) distinctly look like they were designed by Wayne Douglas Barlowe, one of my favorite artists ever since I first saw is breathtaking Expedition. I haven't found confirmation anywhere that he is involved with The Last Unicorn, but the art is gorgeous, nonetheless.

The only thing on the site that gave me pause was the announcement the production would use trained horses with prosthetic horns to portray the unicorns. Now, I think CGI is way overused by Hollywood these days, but a lithe, otherworldly unicorn almost begs for the Gollum treatment. The test animation I saw a few years back looked very good (there's horse footage on the current site, but I can't download it to see if its the same as I remember). Plus, the last time I saw horses pretending to be unicorns, in the disastrous train wreck known as Legend, well, they were awful. The horns flopped around on the horses' heads. The horses were way too big and bulky. I'm not saying going with real horses can't work, but they really need to pay special attention to the detail on this one.

Hopefully, this thing will go into production like the site says in time for the promised 2005 release date. There's got to be some deep-pocket benefactor out there willing to back this. Where's George Harrison when you need him?

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