From Book to Film 2025: The Last Unicorn (1982) 4K Restoration
- Sat, Aug 9
- Sun, Aug 10
Director: Arthur Rankin Jr, Jules Bass Run Time: 92 min. Rating: G Release Year: 1982
Starring: Alan Arkin, Jeff Bridges, Mia Farrow, Robert Klein, Tammy Grimes
Country: United Kingdom, United States, Japan
Language: English, German
From Book to Film 2025 | Free with your library card
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About the film:
From a riddle-speaking butterfly, a unicorn learns that she is supposedly the last of her kind, all the others having been herded away by the Red Bull. The unicorn sets out to discover the truth behind the butterfly’s words. She is eventually joined on her quest by Schmendrick, a second-rate magician, and Molly Grue, a now middle-aged woman who dreamed all her life of seeing a unicorn. Their journey leads them far from home, all the way to the castle of King Haggard.
“The Last Unicorn will endure as a film for reasons both intellectual and aesthetic. It’s full of rich ideas and revisions of outdated, sexist stereotypes, and thereby feels more modern than many animated classics.”
—Alex McLevy, AV Club
About the filmmakers:
Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr. co-founded the celebrated animation production company Rankin/Bass. Rankin produced and directed while Bass produced, directed and wrote music for some of the longest-running, universally adored animated holiday specials, including Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) and Frosty the Snowman (1969), as well as The Hobbit (1977) and weekly series like ThunderCats (1985-89). Rankin/Bass’s stop-motion “Animagic” process imbued their efforts with a level of wonder and technical finesse that was underscored by the charm and genuine warmth of their stories. Rankin/Bass produced an enormous array of animated projects between 1964 and 1987, as well as several live-action features and TV films.
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