Episode 32-The Last Unicorn (1982)

Happy Spring, O Loyal Listeners! It's April, and we are absolutely feeling our Spring Fantasy, so all the movies we discuss this month will be 80s FANTASY CLASSICS. We are starting off with one of THE most traumatic films of the decade (at least for Saysha), The Last Unicorn from 1982! We are SO back to viewing movies that Melanie has never seen, so gallop back into the past with us as we discuss unicorn ennui, animal cruelty, the incompetence of Men, being really bad at your job, middle age regret, femme fantasy character supremacy, settling for a guy just because he is *there*, and the inescapable knowledge that you are in a rotting mortal body! Yayyyyyy!!!

Please leave all thoughts, feelings and grievances at VHSsisterspodcast@gmail.com

IG: @vhssisterspodcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Welcome to VHS Sisters, a nostalgic movie podcast with two actual real life sisters. I'm Melanie and I'm Stacia. Get into some comfy clothes, grab your favorite beverage, and come hang out with us as I forced my little sister to watch all the movies she missed growing up. Ah, eternal spring. Listeners, it's April. We're finally here. We're in a new month. It's a new vibe. And we have a brand new theme for you here on VHS Sisters. And it's not about Melanie. Damn it. Unfortunately, my idea for April is well, I was trying to because we it was Melanie's memories in March. There was a lot of alliteration in March. And February was just love month. Now, initially, I had wanted to do fantasy February. Oh. But I was I was a generous big sister. Wow, not like it's not my podcast, too. Yeah, no, I know. I'm I'm I'm it's you know what? Relationships, it's a give and a take. Compromise everyone. I don't mind love month at all. I feel like we made some good emotional breakthroughs in that. We did. Yeah, I definitely fell out of love with the idea of love. I mean, I think ruined it. Yeah, I mean, I think we had a chance to unpack the fact that women are sort of socialized to focus on romance, perhaps too much. Yeah. Although I will say, you know, it's starting to get a little warmer. It's starting to be springly. I'm like, ooh, maybe I'll wear a cute outfit and maybe someone will notice me. You know, I'm wed, but I'm not dead, is all I'm saying. As I was saying, listeners, in April, we are going to be diving into fantasy fully. I was thinking spring fantasy. Is that a thing? Sure. That's my whole life. Yes, we're, you know, we're we're still in Aries season. The flowers are a bloomin'. We're ready to feel, I don't know. I'm I'm speaking for both of us, but I'm ready to feel fanciful, to put on a frock, to touch a mythical creature who is real or not real. Ooh, yeah. Go go to Renfair, maybe see a magician. Go see a magician who's better than Schmendrick, the magician. We're gonna we're gonna get into Schmendrick. Um fucking Schmendrick. Schmendrick Lamar. Oh whoa! That way, that is the that is the Melanie crossover that I was hoping you'd bring. I've never thought of that. That's so funny. Listeners, today we are talking about the classic, one of the great fantasy classics of my childhood that Melanie has never seen up until yesterday. We are talking about The Last Unicorn from 1982, which is a Rankin Bass animation classic. And for those of you who don't know, Rankin and Bass did a lot of stuff in the 60s and 70s, a lot of stop motion animation type stuff. And I think most importantly, maybe for people who listen to this pod, the animated hobbit from the 70s, which I don't think you've seen yes. Yeah, because you're not, I mean, you're a Lord of the Rings girly, right? Yeah, but I'm not like uh I'm I don't know all of the lore, like the deepest lore, right? Like you don't know the names of every elf. I just know Aragorn's my husband. You're like, I I know I want to smash Vigo Mortensen. It's so hot, and he's like such a great guy. It's awesome. I wonder if he's a Capricorn. You know what? You know what we gotta do? This is our internet god, yeah. Hey Siri, what's zodiac sign is Vigo Mortensen? Uh, it's saying Sagittarius, it didn't speak to me, but is that true? I could see that for him. That's that's a problem for me. He he be traveling. Let me check out his birthday. No, he's not. You know what he is, though. A motherfucking Libra, like wow, Siri sucks. Oh, you're saying my Siri? Yeah, I mean, like, and just in general, like how how are you gonna give me Sagittarius and it's actually Libra? Yeah, not even, you know, not even close. Not even close, nowhere close. Yeah, I I see that, yeah. Big, big Libra energy. So, anyway, how did I get on? I've not seen the animation, The Hobbit. You've not seen the animated Hobbit from the 70s. Yeah, it's it's pretty that was one of the, you know, not to sidebar too hard about The Hobbit, but that was another animated movie that like haunted me as a kid. And this movie, The Last Unicorn, I was like, how can we not start Fantasy Month with this? Because it's animated, it's fantasy, it's from the 80s. It was intensely haunting for me. This is another one of my first uh movie memories and a hardcore musical memory because of all the music in it. A lot of I don't know. We're we'll we'll start to discuss how you felt about that music. This is Melanie's first time ever seeing The Last Unicorn, which I would say is pretty it's for for those of us who grew up in the 70s, 80s, 90s who like fantasy, this is like a classic. Although I do think I'll just say, and like, you know, we can we can of course rate at the end like we always do. It's a pretty uneven movie, but I think that there are some gems in it. What do you have any memories of the last unicorn? Not one, but I feel like the Femme unicorn design, like that kind of looks familiar to me. Like maybe I've seen that before. But I mean, she's kind of classic, it's just like a white unicorn with purple eyes, you know. But she's very, very beautiful. So, but I I don't have any other memories of this movie. Like I wasn't sure what to expect. Yeah, I think the design is based off of the famous tapestries with all the unicorns on it. Yeah, the one at the cloisters at the Met. Yes, and The Last Unicorn, or it's called like the hunt of the unicorn or something like that. There's a whole bunch of them. There's a bunch of them. And there was a book that I checked out multiple times from the McDonald's library where we grew up that was all on unicorns, like unicorns depicted in art. That was all it was. It was this big art history book, and I must have gotten it like every other week because I was obsessed with unicorns. Of course, you know that I love the movie Legend and all the unicorns and those. And this was just like there's something about unicorns. I I wouldn't say I was like a horse girl growing up. Horse girl adjacent. Yeah, I mean, we weren't rich. Like, I mean, I grew up around horses. Like my dad had a farm that had horses on it. I rode. I mean, I did like 4-H stuff. Does that make you a horse girl? I think maybe it makes you a farm girl. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, yeah, no, we're totally farm girls. Yeah. Horse girl has like sort of a white waspy connotation to it. And it's like, yeah, like girls in Connecticut like have a horse, right? Yeah, people have like a wardrobe of just riding pants and jackets and stuff. And I can't relate to that, although I do like the style. I love I do love the style, yeah. And I had, I didn't have like, I don't know if you remember there was like a horse girl series of books. Do you remember that in the 90s? It was just called Horse Girl. No, that that's like another thing. There's like a more modern movie called Horse Girl. But no, it was like, I'll have to, I'll have to look it up. God damn it. And I'll have to find no, no, it's fine. It's fine. I always had a lot of different toys as a kid, and I would keep them all in shoe boxes. And like I had Lion King, 101 Dalmatians, uh SeaWorld, like tons of Orca whale stuff, if you know anything about me. And then um, I also had a huge thing of like horses, which I loved. They were all so pretty. And I used to know like names of horses and stuff. They were very fascinating to me. There was a series in the 90s and very early 2000s, it would have been done by like 2000 called The Saddle Club. I do feel like I remember that, but I don't I don't I don't wasn't like a watcher of it. Yeah, it was it was a book series, and it was like it was like babysitter's club. Like if you went to the library, there were like a hundred of them. And it was just like one of those like serial girl novels that you could get into. So that being said, I was never like into that kind of horse girling, but I did have My Little Ponies. I had Shera and Shera's Crystal Castle, and she had a flying horse. So it was like I loved horses that were like mythical, and unicorns were definitely a part of that. And I have very strong memories of like watching this movie as a little kid. I remember maybe it was my first movie that I cried at because I cried at the end. There are some very like emotional parts in it, and there are some now that like me as an adult woman, like they hit harder in a certain way, especially with like the human characters. But I just remembered being like as a kid, and I'm talking like five and or six years old, just being like so invested in the plight of being the last unicorn and being a person who doesn't fit in with like any community. And she's kind of a loner. She's a loner. Yeah, I feel like so the unicorn who she's known as just the unicorn, also later Lady Amalfia, who is voiced by Mia Farrow of Rosemary's Babies fame. She I think she does a great job voicing it, by the way. She does. Um, yeah, she's kind she's like a very kind of like haughty character. She's not like, I don't know. I she's she's very distant and kind of cold and doesn't like connect well with people. And I think they do a pretty good job at like establishing that unicorns are like very non-human. Like there's nothing, they're like aliens, right? They're like this mythical creature that like you know, even like in legend, they say, like, yeah, you can't touch it, you know, it's it's just something to not be touched. Well, my favorite part is that men can't see them, which I'm just like, well, now I'm interested. Yeah, yeah, there's some cool stuff in there that's like written very well. And I don't know if you know this is based on a novel. Okay, which I have right here. Listeners can't see. Wow. But really good. I think the book is better and kind of breaks it down a little bit more. It's written by Peter S. Beagle, who yeah, he was a big uh fantasy writer. He wrote this in the 60s, it was like '68 and it was in development for years. I think I think Disney wanted to adapt it, and he was like, No, I'm good on that. But with Rankin and Bass, yeah, I think he was just like, okay, I think they can get like the whole fantasy of it all. And he actually helped write the screenplay, which a lot of authors don't always do. Yeah. So what you're seeing that happens in the movie is pretty much what happens in the novel. Like you could read it and be like, oh, okay, I remember when this and that happens. Even the parts that I hate, like uh the butterfly guy. Oh, I fucking hate him. He's just playing games. I'm tired of this butterfly in the beginning. I'm just and he never comes back, thank God. But you you'll deal with him in the beginning, and he is a piece of work. Yeah, the butterfly is like he's in the book too. I think he's meant to sort of be like the author stand-in or self-insert in a way, because like, yeah, the he the butterfly's annoying. I mean, you know me, I hate a joke character, right? It's like he's the Jeremy of the movie. He's he's the Gurky. He's the Gergie. Yeah, no, he's just there. And and like uh upon this last rewatch, I was like, why is the butterfly here? Like, we we already heard from the two hunters, like she knows what's happening. So basically, it gets like said again. It's like, oh, you are the last unicorn. I guess the butterfly does say, Hey, there's a thing that's called the Red Bull. You should look, it will give you wings, it will give you wings. It's the Red Bull, and watch out for that. So he was he was he gives her a little information, it gives her a little information, but like the whole way he does it is annoying. He's sort of like this hippie, like he's he's the character in the movie who's like aware that he's in the story in a way, and he's like from the future, so he's like singing all these modern songs. I'm like, get out of here, you're like ruining my immersion, you know. I'm I'm yeah, I'm done with this guy, but yeah, like you said, he he leaves and he never comes back. But that's all in the beginning, right? And then speaking of you see about the music, you see that most of it is written by America. Well, it's performed by America. Oh most of the songs are actually written by a guy named Jimmy Webb, who is he was like a huge American songwriter. He wrote things like MacArthur Park, Wichita Lineman, Up Up and Away in My Beautiful Balloon, like tons of like pop hits of like the 60s and 70s, and like everybody from like Linda Ronstadt to the Supremes, Carly Simon sang his stuff. So like he mostly wrote it, but America, I feel like they because like the last unicorn ended up on one of America's albums. It I think they're I think they're like very much associated with this movie, and everybody thinks that they wrote it. And it's such like it's such like a 90, even though it came out in '82, I always feel like it's such a 70s feeling kind of it does. Yeah, when the 80s were still the 70s. Yeah, I it's like I forgot to ask mom if she remembers this movie. Well, I asked her yesterday, and I mean, I just told her what I was watching, and she goes, Oh, okay. Like, I don't think she registered what it was, but maybe if she like watched a little bit, she would probably remember. Yeah, she doesn't remember me sobbing my eyes out when I was five. She remembers that all the time. She she never stops talking about it. But yeah, I think the music from America is one of the best parts of this movie. Although I do think there are too many songs in this. I wasn't sure if this was a musical or not. And I was kind of like, oh god, here we go again. Another musical. It's it is and it isn't. Like, there's a lot of songs. I do like most of them. I like, of course, the title song, which is so like haunting, that iconic last unicorn song. I like the song when they're traveling, it's like on the road song. Uh, there's a couple other ones. I don't like the love duet that happens later. Oh my god, it's so bad. It's really bad. It's so fucking bad. I was waiting for that to end because his singing was so ass. Yeah, let's we'll we'll have a whole discussion about Jeff Bridges and the voice work he does with Prince Lear. That's a whole other can of worms. Uh, but yeah, like what did you feel about the music? I mean, were you vibing? I was vibing. You know, I was going for a ride. I I liked all of the background music more than the actual, I guess, songs sung by the characters. Yeah. Like I preferred, I think they should have just stuck with either one or the other, but because truly, this movie, I mean, so much happens. Like, I had paused it a couple times to just like get up and whatever. But like, I'm like, oh, it's only been 30 minutes and all of this has happened. I thought I was halfway done. Like it just kept going. Yeah, they really, yeah, they really pack it in and it's kind of like a funny structure to it, too. It's very like questy. It's it's a it's a very DD kind of movie. It is, yeah. I think there's a point where Schmendrick is like, Well, you can't come with us. We're on a quest. Yeah. And I was like, Yeah, yeah, my little guy. There can only be so many parties in this quest. Well, which is weird because it's like, I mean, he's the spell caster, right? And then you have a unicorn. It's like you you need a human fighter, too. That's like a classic combo. Like, just let Molly in to the to the group. It's it's very like, okay, we're all like going on this journey together and like stuff happens, but then like it's like a road movie. That's what I'm trying to say. It's it's it's very much like Pee Wee's big adventure in that sense. Yeah, it's like, okay, and then this happens, this happens, we meet this character, this person leaves, but this person comes with us. And yeah, it's so yeah, you're digging the vibes, just the general like fantasy of it all, the music. Yeah, the plot's pretty simple. Like in the beginning, we have this unicorn who is supposedly the last unicorn, the last of her kind, as many people say to her or around her. As I say, the fo the forest that she lives in stays in perpetual spring because she's there. And like the hunters go into it and they're like, Well, why do you think that nothing in here ever dies or the trees never, you know, shed their leaves? It's because she's here. And I'm like, Oh, that's cool. Yeah, I love, I mean, initially, like the art of the forest is really beautiful. The design of the unicorn, like you said, you know, she's got like this sort of like long, almost like a lion-like tail. She has a tiny little head, and her hair is all over the place. She's very like an anime princess. She is, yeah. She's very petite princess. Yeah. I don't know if you remember, not to do another book sidebar, but do you remember the serendipity series, the Stephen Cosgrove one? I'll I'll send you some. These are like some great childhood memories, but there was like a whole series of children's picture books that remind me a lot of this. Everything's like a Pegasus or like a magical like mermaid thing, or a or a bunny, like a magical bunny. Like the early 80s were really a great time if you love this like whimsical dark fantasy, because it's got beautiful visuals, but also like very dark subject matter. So she sets off to go discover where all the other unicorns have gone. And she's going for what seems like days, weeks, months, because you know, a lot of like weather changes happen. She's like going over like desert, you know, they're just throwing her in any sort of animation. So she's just going all types of places and she stumbles upon this like cute little village, perhaps. There's a farmer and he wants to capture her. And he's like, Oh, who let this beautiful mare out? You know, and she he can't see that she has a horn because he's a guy. And I didn't quite I it's funny because when that happened, I didn't quite understand. I was like, she doesn't have a horn right now. I'm like, did they the animation team just accidentally not put it on? Like, okay, like I can kind of see that later. We find out with the uh I don't even know what her name is, the witch lady, mama, mommy fortuna. That's mommy fortuna, mommy fortuna, which is a great stripper name or a drag name. Oh my god. Yeah, mommy Fortuna is like she can see, yeah. Most men can't see. Schmendrick can see, yeah, because he's down. He maybe no, I'm gonna say perhaps he is an effeminate sort of magician. And he's saying Schmendrick really I don't know if Schmendrick would be like canonically gay, but he does give big bi wizard energy. He does, yeah. He definitely does give bi energy. I know, like I feel like Schmendrick is like he has the potential to be like a total hottie. I think Alan Arkin, who voices him, I will say, like, the men in this movie don't really bring their full voice talents. That's just my opinion. Like I feel like, and like just the way it's animated a little bit. Except for Christopher Lee. Oh, we'll get to that. That's yeah, he not in the same category as these other men. He's not, he's in his own world, Christopher Lee. I do want to talk a lot about Christopher Lee. Yeah, Alan Arkin voices Schmendrick, who's sort of like an incompetent guy, but has aspirations to be a great wizard. So I love that. Like Schmendrick's a cool character, yeah, because he's just like an illusionist. Yeah. He's like, and I I love that trope. He's like he wants to be great, but he's sort of like a schlamel, if you will. He's just a fucking loser. He's figuring it out and he's definitely faking it until he makes it. Yeah, which we've all done. So yeah, I think you're you're right in that. Like maybe he has some sort of feminine energy or he's more in touch with that side. So he's able to- Well, because he possesses magic, like we as we do see, he does have some talents. But you know, because he has that magic ability, perhaps he can see magical creatures. Maybe, yeah, because yeah, the regular old NPC farmer couldn't sense her magic. She's so pissed. Yeah, you couldn't catch her either, thank God. And she just like leaves and he's like, Oh my god, like, yeah. She's like, How can you not see that I'm a unicorn? Yeah, I love how offended she gets, as if like to be a mare is like the worst thing. She's like the fashion girl who goes back home to Ohio and is like, you don't even know what my life has been. You don't even know this is Tori Birch or whatever. Exactly. Yeah. So she eventually gets captured by Mommy Fortuna, who is voiced by none other than Angela Lansbury. Yes, it's a very star-studded voice cast. It really is. Yeah. Of course, we know Angela from one of our other VHS sisters films, Company of Wolves, and like so many other movies and murder she wrote. Oh. Which is always on. So like sometimes I will watch these movies on like sometimes they're available on Tubi or they have like dedicated channels. Yes. I'm always seeing Angela Lansbury. I I grew up watching Murder She Wrote a lot at Grandma Carol's house. And I will say there was a time I went through a lot of insane phases in Deep Quarantine. And one of I I did have a murder she wrote like three months where like that's all I want. I mean, it's it's very soothing to have on. And I was like, watch it. It's really, it's it's good. It's isn't it basically like law and order? Nah, well, you know, the premise, right? Angela Lansbury's sidebar. Uh yeah, it's about a writer whose name is Jessica Fletcher, and she's in this little town in Maine, and it's so cute, but also it's like the most dangerous town in America because like every week there's a murder. Oh shit. Like it's like, oh, the fisherman got murdered or whatever. So it's like cute, cozy murder mysteries. But then, but then she like travels, she'll be like, I have a niece in California, and then she goes to like a drag bar in San Francisco to sell the murder. That's great. It's really good. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, Angela Lansbury, icon legend, diva of all time, mother, mother. Uh, yeah. So she plays she literally plays a mother, Mommy Fortuna, who is like she also like Schmendrick, has some magic, but is just like it's again, it's sort of like a cheap illusion magic. So she has this, she calls it like the Midnight Circus, which I think is so cool, but it's also sad because she has all of these like sad old animals that she's like magicked into thinking, like every so everybody who sees them who wants to believe thinks they're like actual mythical creatures. Yeah, and that's just like a lion with like a sad, sick lion with like a spell on it. I know. I I always get so sad thinking of those animals because we've discussed this in pod before. Like, I don't like cages and zoos and sideshows or circuses or anything like that. I do like it though, because like when shit goes down, it seems like all the animals escape. And I'm like, oh, okay, good. Right, right. Well, she she helps free them, Miss Unicorn. Yeah, Miss Unicorn saves them after like Schmendrick comes up to her. He's like, I know what you are. I'm gonna bust you out of here, girl. Let's go. There's also like a very scary harpy there with like three titties. Oh titties just out with the three tits, is disgusting. I'm like, what is happening? Why does she have to have three boobies? And I know that like everyone designs harpies a little bit differently, like thinking of Baldur's Gate, you know. Oh yeah. Where they they kind of have more like human faces and you know, with the wings and everything, but she looks just like a vulture, you know, a creepy old vulture with uh three boobs. With with three boobs. Yeah, the harpy is like go ahead, go ahead. I was gonna say, well, Miss, I keep calling her Miss Unicorn. I know it's Lady Amalthea. Amalthea. Like Amol, like I'm going to shop to the mall, and then Thea. Thea. Amalthea. It's kind of a sick name, honestly. Like for all those bojos naming their kids like Rock and River and shit. Give them Amalthea. Amalthea, yeah. That shit will rock. That shit will slap in preschool. Speaking of cool names, yeah. The harpy's name is Seleno. And she's a real harpy who was captured by mommy Fortuna. And and yeah, the unicorn ends up freeing her too. And like there's this all this talk, it's like, oh, you're the opposite of me. And we have to both exist in the world and stuff, which is cool. It's it's very cool. Yeah, it's like much like I mean, I keep bringing up legend because of the unicorn thing, but there's all it's similar fantasy talk, like, yeah, there's good and there's evil, and they balance each other out and they're both necessary. Yeah. Yeah, it's cool. But the harpy ends up killing mommy fortuna as soon as we meet her, she's dead, basically. Yeah, well, and she's like, I will live forever because the harpy knows that I'm the one who was able to cage her, you know, and that gives me immortality. And I'm like, in a way, it does, yeah. In one bird's head, you know, initially, well, because Miss Amalthea, which was her given name. So Miss Unicorn's not incorrect at this time, but she goes and frees all the other animals, which is so nice. You see, like the sad chimp leaving, and I'm like, oh my god, poor things. And then she's like, I have to free this other one. And I get it, but here comes the bird. Well, the harpy, here comes the harpy, yes, coming to attack her. Yes. After she was freed, I'm like, bitch, come on. So even Schmendrick was like, What are you doing? Like, you need to leave. And they have like the slowest escape scene, they're just walking. And she goes, Well, you can't run from anything that's immortal, they will see you, and uh they make they make a little sneaky escape. And I was like, Oh, okay, that's interesting. Yeah, there's some there's some banger lines in this, and I I feel like, yeah, there's a lot of space in this movie, like there's a lot of like travel sequences or whatever, but like when they get into the dialogue, the dialogue is is really good, and it's all like in the novel. So I do credit that to the original author, Peter Beagle, and the fact that he had something to do with the screenplay. He's just like, you can't cut anything out, we gotta do this whole thing, and they really squeezed it in there. They did, yeah. It's it's a pretty dense movie, it's like almost a tight 90, it's like just over 90 minutes, which is like by like one minute, yeah. It's like just long enough for a kid's movie. Yeah, the animal sideshow. I'm glad it got busted up because I was happy to see all those animals free. It's a lot of trauma. Yeah, and so we've got Schmendrick and the unicorn, they're trekking through the woods, and they run into this band of bandits. Basically, Captain Cully is like the leader of the group of bandits, and he's got a girlfriend whose name is Molly, who's just like there. And yeah, they there's like a little this is like a very DD part of the movie where they just like run into a group of criminals, and in order to like get away from them, Schmendrick with his limited abilities, makes another illusion, which is like, here, let me make like a fake Robin Hood parade. Yeah, which is pretty pretty strong magic, I feel like you know, it was like cast like illusion spells and stuff like that. This is so much more intense than like black cauldron with the dancing lights cantrip. It's true, yeah. I mean, I mean, if you wanted to take it down to like DD speak, that's like major illusion. That's like not it's not minor, it's not like you're doing a little cat who is like you know, running around. It's like you have full full body apparitions. He's rolling 20s. He's Schmendrick roll no for real. He rolled 20s. He's like, Can I see if I can uh trick these bandits with my illusion magic? And then the DM's like, all right, roll for it. You can certainly he'd say, You can certainly try. Yeah, so they're they realize they're being duped by good old Schmendrick, and then to punish him, they decide to tie him up. Do you remember what they tie him up to a tree? Yes, and what somehow becomes animated and is like I I want to call it like a granny tree, but she's got some big old jugs. Yeah, she also looks incredibly phallic, and he's like stuck to her chest. And I'm like, what is happening? Yeah, he gets at this time. He gets tied to a tree, and the tree has also just like the harpy, titties out, full nips. She's freed the nips, they're out there, and he wants her a young human love. She's ready to go. Yeah, and she's I mean, you said she also looks sort of phallic, which is like, don't treat trees are that, right? They like asexual, but it's like the shape of the giant jugs with like you know, the long tree. I'm like, oh, okay. Like, yeah. I drew that. Yeah, like, yeah, I did I I I drew that. Oh my god. I done drew I done drew that. Oh my god, you know, like as a kid, or like on someone's thing, like, ooh, I drew a penis on your paper, and it's just like two circles and a stick, you know. Yeah, drew a lot, drew a lot of dicks for sure. I drew a lot, I was really into like sketching eyeballs, yeah. Eyeballs, I love hands. Yeah, hands are hard to sketch. That's like one of the hardest. That's so cool. You know, we got to get get into some sketching. You know, this is one of those movies that can inspire you to sketch. I feel there's there's a lot of cool art stuff going on. Yeah, I I feel like the animators and I think it's interesting to note too, like another fun movie fact is that a lot of these animators, all the Japanese names you see are from a Japanese animation company called Topcraft. And a lot of those animators went on to work at Studio Ghibli. Oh. So there's like a direct last unicorn to Studio Ghibli pipeline, and I think you can see a little bit of it. Yeah, a little bit, you know, especially like in like the early Studio Ghibli stuff. I'd say more so like the the nature scenes, you know. Yeah, the oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Very much it's like it does have like a Totoro-esque kind of quality to it. Yeah, a lot of beautiful nature stuff, uh, and and weird nature stuff, much like the titty tree. Yeah, for real. Yeah, so Schmendrick gets rescued by Miss Unicorn. We're just gonna call her Miss Unicorn. Yeah, she turns into Amalfia in a little bit, so in a little bit, yeah, but they as they're trying to escape, they run into my favorite character from this, who is who do you do you remember who they run into before they meet the before they meet the bull. Yeah, Molly Gru is her name. I fucking love Molly. Uh she is she is me and I am her. Okay. And especially now. Although at the time it was funny because like I think they're trying to portray her as like this middle-aged woman. I mean, she's probably like 35 or something. I mean, especially in medieval times. Like you were dead by the time you were 50. So an aged woman of 34. Exactly. But yeah, that like I think of Molly, and you know, she's just like she was just running with a bunch of like low life. She runs into this wizard in this unicorn, and when she sees that the unicorn, she gets so emotional. Yes, that scene is very like touching to me still. Like, basically, like she was waiting for this unicorn her whole life. Wow. And she's like, Why couldn't you find me when I was young and I was ready? And now I'm old. Now I'm this. Do you know what I mean? That's what I understand. Young and ready for what? Well, I think this is it's like a really interesting thing, is like I think unicorns are associated with maidens and youth. Again, not to pop back to legend, but it's like the whole thing with Lily and like a virgin can touch them. Like going back to the unicorn book, there's so many images in actual art of like young maidens, like virginal women touching unicorns. And so there's a lot of context, like in these little lines, but basically, I feel like she's distraught because she's like, Well, now I'm I'm I'm old, you know, I'm too like like I wanted to meet you when I was young. So it's just like this, this all this like sort of like middle-aged regret kind of, and just sort of like, I wish I had done this and I wish I had done that. And like the unicorn like represents her youthful dreams. Okay. But I love I love Molly as a character because she's like, she is supposed to be like an older woman, she's not like conventionally attractive, but she still has like this sense of wonder and adventure. And she's kind of like down for whatever. She's like, Yeah, I'm gonna leave my pirate boyfriend or whatever. I'm out. I'm out. Yeah. She's like, I'm at this young twink and his unicorn friend, and I'm down. I feel like Molly need needed like redder hair. I feel like she starts a she has a redhead energy. She does. I mean, I I think her character design was pretty good because she kind of split somebody who fell to the background when we first saw her, and then now she obviously stands out because she's with these two. You know, she's different, but she brings a different perspective. Like she connects with the unicorn on that really deep level, but then she also can like relate to Schmendrick, mostly just like trying to find their way through the world and like relating to him on that level. Yeah, no, she's like she's definitely like the grounding character. And you know, you can tell she's been around the block, she's been hanging around with like rough types, she's been sleeping rough, as they say. She has been. Now she sees this unicorn, she's got to travel with the unicorn, she has to follow her dreams, and they're still on this quest to go find all the other unicorns, and this red bull, and this red bull. Well, yeah, and I think you know, we kind of brushed over it before, but like, yeah, she's trying to find other unicorns. She's heard that the Red Bull is connected to them somehow, and the Red Bull is kept by King Haggard, which is a great name, by the way. The Haggard King. The Haggard King really describes his appearance. We don't meet him quite yet, we're just outside his castle because they also they have another like travel sequence. We hear that on the road song again. It's another like a moment where we see all these beautiful landscapes. But as we get close to the castle, who appears to them? Uh, the red bull, does he not? Yeah, yeah. He pops out. Was that was that like a scary sequence to you at all? I know a lot of kids in the 80s. I wasn't, but a lot of kids in the 80s were like traumatized by that bull. Um, I wasn't so much scared by him. I was expecting to see him, but he did look very like gruesome. He was drooling and ramping up to go like attack, and that that whole thing was a little scary, but it wasn't like, you know, it was well designed. I mean, he's definitely like a big beef boss, you know. He's big boss Bowser. Exactly. And so I was like, okay, he's gonna be a toughie. And so she's trying to run away from him, and uh the whole scene commences and it's like kind of storming out too, a lot of chaos going on as she's trying to escape this bull. And Schmendrick, Molly's like, you have to help her. So Schmendrick jumps in and starts coming up with a little something, something, and she turns into a human. Yes, which like I thought for for sure the horse was dead, like the the unicorn was dead, but like when you look closer, it is a human. And so uh the bull kind of goes away because he's not chasing a unicorn anymore. There's there's just a human there, so yeah, he doesn't care and of course she's like just as beautiful as she was in unicorn form and human form. And I was like, was George or R. Martin totally inspired for the Targaryens based on this female form we see? I I literally looked, I glanced down at my notes and I said, Lady Amalthea is that might be like a bisexual route for me. Also, my obsession with white-haired fantasy characters, period. Yeah, I love I love some white hair. Any white hair character, it's like Astarian and Baldur's Gay Three. I'm like, you made this character specifically for me. He he's bisexual, he's he's mean, he's got uh white hair, you don't know if he's gonna kill you or if he's gonna fuck you. Perfect, and he's a vampire, and he's vampire, so spoiler, sorry. Um, you find that out really quick, right? Quick, yeah, yeah, yeah. The game's been out for like five years, guys. Come on, yeah, fuck off. Okay, it's only been like I think three years. So yeah, she's a human. Lady Amalfia is is the unicorn, and she is gorgeous gorge. I don't know how to describe it. She has transitioned, her body has transitioned, and she has a full 24 inches of beautiful I would say at least a 50-inch weave, yeah. Lace lace front down the back. Yeah, and yeah, no, I I was obsessed, like it was like one of my first instances of being like, I want to look like that, I don't look like that, and I'll never look like that. Wait, I mean, we could bleach bleach your hair out if you really want to and get some contacts, but y'all, I did have a long blonde hair moment in the early 2000s. There are pictures, but I didn't look like like I could never get it that like white blonde. We just need to get good wigs. Actually, let's donate to our wig fund so we can live our fantasy. I have so many wigs that I use for a lot of creative projects. And I mean, I'm talking like the 50-inch lace front, silk human press Brazilian. Okay. All right, yeah, yeah, yeah. We don't that $3,000 Beyonce wig. That's what I want. We're not, we're not getting the little shake and goes that you used to get at Ricky's. No, no, no. I want, I want real, and I want I need someone to install it for me for real. You just you need a wig person. That's what I'm saying. That's that's all you need in life is an assistant. I know at this point. Uh Lady Amalthea, she's a human now. They're able to go to King Haggard's castle. They're like, Who are all y'all? Well, that's where they come up with the name. Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's like because they're like, Oh, I'm Schmendrick the magician, and I'm Molly, the the maid, you know, or whatever, like the the kitchen wench. Right. And this is Lady Amalthea, and she's uh clearly she's royalty. And yeah, there's there's a lot of like weird, there's some weird vibes in King Haggard's castle. King Haggard, who is, as we said before, played by the legendary Christopher Lee. He just gives like a next level performance as he always does. He doesn't even that's what's so great about him is that he probably doesn't even have to do much. He could read the phone book, and you're just so caught up in like what his voice sounds like, his deep, almost baritone-esque voice. He definitely has a baritone, you know, he did some music albums too, right? Incredible, incredible. Like I I bring up Christopher Lee a lot in my real life because he to me is the example of like a life well lived. And you know, we only get one life, and he just he did everything. Like he was like a British special forces guy in World War II. Jeez. He was so well read, he read The Lord of the Rings once a year, like every year of his life. Um, he was later cast in it. Later cast in it and was like fine not he wanted to be Gandalf, but of course it went to his friend, uh, you know, Ian McKellen. And but he was fine playing Saruman. He, yeah, he a fun tidbit about this movie that we're talking about, Last Unicorn. He was a fan of the book. He had read the book, because you know, a well read man, we love. We stand, we stand. Um, he came with all of his favorite King Haggard lines highlighted to the the author, Peter Beagle, and he was like, these are the lines that can't be cut. Like we I have to say these lines. This is a true story. So I love that. Yeah, he was like, I read the book, I love the work. If we're gonna do the movie, I have to say this. And so he gets some banger lines. Yeah, he's just in his castle, he's getting old, he's old, crusty, he's got a very like Nicodemus-like kind of appearance. He's very like knobby and falling apart, falling apart. Yeah, and like his main thing is like, yeah, he's old and he's got some brutal lines. He's like, Yeah, I I captured all the unicorns because like whatever whenever I looked at a unicorn, like I just couldn't be happy anymore, or something to that effect. Like the all the unicorns are immortal, and he is immortal. Like, there's a lot of that's the thing too. Like in this movie, there's a lot of discussion about mortality, like the human condition, and you're in a body that's gonna rot eventually. And like as soon as Lady Amalthea, you know, the unicorn becomes the Lady Amalthea, she's instantly upset, and she's like, I feel my body like like decaying, decaying. And I'm like, oh, like it's so funny. I feel my body rot. It's fucking metal, and it's like, I'm like, okay, girl, same, honestly. Yeah, it's wild. Well, because she's been eternal, you know, she's an eternal immortal being. So to feel what it's like to not be your lifespan is just so crazy fast, and she becomes really like, like you said, upset, and she's kind of like depressed for most of the rest of the movie. She's very melancholy, yeah. And they they come up with this whole ruse. So it's like, okay, we we know that the unicorns are here, we have to hang out in this castle. So there's all this sort of like intrigue, like Schmendrick basically like placates King Haggard and like tells his court magician, he's like, No, I got this. I'm here to like cheer everybody up. Molly's like, I'll go work in the kitchen, you know, we'll make ourselves useful, and it's all just to like basically buy time so they can like figure out the puzzle of this castle because like they don't they know the unicorns are here, but they don't know how to get to them. Right. And then also there just happens to be lucky, lucky us. There happens to be a love interest there whose name is Oh god, Prince Lear. Um Lear. Tell me, we I I feel like we should always talk about like who is hot and who is not in every I I do like that we we can talk about that as sisters. So uh yeah, what did you feel about Prince Lear? I mean, for lack of better options, I'd say he's hot. Yeah, I think the animation style is sort of like it doesn't give me a lot to work with. No, it's sort of like a very sketchy, like Rankin and Bass has like a certain sort of like bizarre style to it. Yeah, it's like I think the the female characters, you know, the unicorn and Molly are all like really cool looking. Um, the vistas are beautiful, but like the men, I'm like, eh, like movie's not about men, okay? It's not though. It's not. You are correct. It is a girls' movie, like through and through. Yeah, it's like we don't we don't center men in this movie, but I feel like if you're gonna go with that, you have to make the love interest like super hot. Do you know because they have sort of like an instant attraction, and I'm just like, we'll just make him smoking hot. Yeah, and I and quick sidebar there has been talk about making this a live action soon, like remaking it. And I do want your thoughts. You can think about it a little bit, but I do want your thoughts over dream castings because you always do such a good job with that. Well, my number one fantasy hottie being uh Henry Cavill. Henry Cavill can't be princely or he's too old. Uh he's fine, whatever. He's supposed to be Aegon, apparently, for Aegon's conquest, and that's like my dream casting for that. Really? Yeah, because he's basically just like wearing the Witcher wig and going over to ride a dragon, and I'm like, fuck yeah. Holy shit. Yeah, he's gotta be mid-40s now. Yeah, that's not old. I know, I know. I mean, yeah, but I know for this, like I'm assuming he would have to be somebody like in his 30s, you know, um, casting. Yeah, who would be like, I was gonna say, like, yeah, he's a prince. He's not even King Haggard's son. He they say that he's his adopted son. Well, I kind of thought, like, I mean, there's stylings, and I know that could just be based on the art, like the art style of this, but it's like they kind of look similar, just like some generic, like skinny white men do sometimes. But um, yeah, not his son. That's his just his adopted son. Yeah, they he says he's a foundling. So yeah. Yeah, I have to you have to tell me, like, yeah, who who would be Prince Lear and who would be Lady Amalthea? Yeah, you'll think about we we can we can maybe finish with that. Or like, or who would make a good Schmendrick? There's uh there's a lot of possibilities. Schmendric Lamar. Schmendrick. That's so funny. I'm I can't believe I've never thought of that until this moment. Uh yeah, so in the movie, Prince Lear is voiced by Jeff Bridges, who, you know, famously, I think is most well known for Big Lebowski, but has done like so much fucking shit. Um, it does not give like a great vocal performance. It almost sounds like he didn't really know that this movie was gonna be that big. It sounds like he's reading off a script the whole time. Yeah, he's just like, oh, okay, the line flip next page, like yeah, he's like he's like, Oh, don't go, lady. I love you. I love, I love you, I love who I love. And I'm like, come on, man. Like I love love. I love love. I wasn't sure who was in love with her more. I thought the dad for sure was gonna, there's gonna be a triangle there for a minute. I mean, there kind of is because he's coveting her for a different reason. Yeah, no, there was that moment I was just like, I don't remember this being that like rapey. Yeah, it's a little, yeah. He comes up to her and he's like, Don't worry, I'm not gonna touch you. But like totally later, he full on like grabs her and is about to push her off the ledge. Right. Yeah, it's it there, there's definitely like a threatening moment later when King Haggard's like, I know what you are, and I know you're lying to me, and she's just trying to play dumb, like she doesn't know what he's talking about. And Prince Lear is like obsessed with her because obviously she's so beautiful, and he like goes the the prince, he goes to like kill a dragon randomly and brings her the head, and she just looks at it like, Oh, that's nice, you know, whatever. Like, I don't know what you're showing me right now. Maybe dragons are seen as like canonically evil everywhere if we're following like DD logic, yeah. Like bringing a dragon head to a unicorn, it's also a mythical creature. I think that she'd feel really bad about that, you know. Yeah, I would imagine so. And it looks like more like a wyvern, to be fair, or a wyvern. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like a little, it's like a little serpentine. Snakey, yeah. It's a little snakey sort of Chinese dragon style, but I do I do love all the creatures in this, by the way. That's like a bright spot for me. Uh yeah, no, our lady Amalthea, she's not interested in anybody. Well, also, too, Prince Lear. I mean, he's probably so desperate because this is probably like the first woman he's seen in like, I don't know, 15, 20 years. Or like ever. Or ever, potentially. Like, I mean, he would have had to, like, depending on when Daddy Haggard found him, you know, he would have had to have had like a nursemaid. I guess. Yeah. I feel like he definitely comes across like pretty, yeah, pretty desperate right off the gap. But eventually Lady Amalfia warms up to him. It like takes a minute. They get to sing a song together, which I was just like, please end this already. It's it's not well done. I'm like, this is just sort of like filler's song, but it has to be like the song that they sing to like bring them closer together because they're realizing that God, it's so bad. It's so bad. Oh, sidebar. Yeah. Look at my notes. Yes, there's a cat in the kitchen, and there's the cat, you know, it's the little kitty cat, and it's a pirate cat, which is so cute. And I'm like, this pirate cat looks just like BB in her old age. Yeah, I was thinking that too. I was like, oh, she has BB's markings. BB is Melanie's cat, by the way, listeners. Yes, yes, Miss BB, Miss Beatrix, Belina, Cato. Cato. Uh yeah, this cat in the movie doesn't have a name. No, no, this is pirate cat. No, he's pirate cat. They refer to him as cat or pirate cat. I'm like, we gotta give him a name. He's like, he's like captain. If you could come up with Schmendrick, yeah, we can name this fucking cat. Okay. Come on, Peter S. Beagle. Name that cat already. Just name it Puss. He's the author of this story is still alive. Oh, well, hey, shout out. Shout out. I know you're listening to this. Great movie and all. Uh, yeah, name the cat. Name the cat. What would you name this cat? Everybody listeners, what would you name the pirate cat? Ooh, good question. Please, please comment your suggestions in our Instagram. Yes, we're gonna make this a sound bite. Please let us know. Please let us know. Yeah, I love I love that pirate design. He's got a little peg leg, he's got eye patch, he's sort of like a dragon-esque cat, too, like from Secret of Nym. He's living for the spite of it. He is. I love his style, and he gives a clue because he speaks in riddles because he's a cat, and that's what cats do. They're very tricksy. He lets them know, like, oh, if you want to find the unicorns, you gotta go down here. It's like this whole little dungeon situation. And so I do want to say the design. I mean, this castle is obviously it's like a seaside castle, it's incredibly wonky and creepy, but I love that the like stalagmites and like the face of the castle, it has faces in it. Yes, like there's a lot of creepy, so it's almost has that, like you were saying for Secret Garden, like that sentient feeling about it. Yes, no, it's definitely like a living thing, and yeah, there's little gargoyles everywhere, there's little faces. Yeah, eventually they go and g get in the basement, they get in that basement, and then they meet this like skeleton who's just a lush. Yeah, this skeleton who was like a drunk when he was alive, and all he wants to do is taste that wine. Yeah, again, another theme of like death and decay and like living it up while you can kind of thing. And a little like I kind of do the same thing in my afterlife that I did in my immortal life, you know? Yeah, like you're making that imprint in your actual life in your soul, and you're just like, Yeah, I just want that, mm-hmm, I want that taste of wine. Schmendrick pulls a little ruse on this chattering skeleton. They get let into the dungeon, and like his the skeleton knows he's been tricked, and his eyes turn red, and he starts screaming, it's a uncorn. Like that. I always found that part pretty scary when I was a kid. Um sounding the alarm bell. Yeah, it's like, shut up, skeleton. Then they yeah, in the in the dungeon, they they're looking for these unicorns, but all they find is that Red Bull, and Red Bull chases them out on the beach. We have a lot of stress because he's trying to push the unicorn into the water, which is what King Haggard said. He goes, Yeah, I I'd keep them in the ocean. And she's like, What are you talking about? Like, she's like, I don't see anything. What in the actual fuck are you talking about? Well, there's a scene too where there's like where I think they're walking up to the path to the castle or something, and there's narwhals in the sea. So I'm like, are those the unicorns now? Like, is that what he meant? But no, there are unicorns in this ocean. So what happens is Miss Amalthea gains the courage to fight back against the bull, and she it's important to note too that she has been retransformed from a human to a unicorn in the dungeon by Schmendrick, who now is like fully magical. Yes, yeah, he's he's come into his power, you know. He's maturing as a young man, he's hit magical puberty. Well, because at first, like the the bull left her alone because she was in human form, and then she's in human form and he's chasing her, right? Yeah, and then and then Schmendrick jumps in, even though like because Molly's like, you have to help her again, and he's like, I don't think I can. Helps her, turns her back into a unicorn, and then yeah, this whole fight scene commences where they're on the beach and she is fighting back against the bull, which is great because now she's got him pinned going towards the ocean, right? And I think he goes into it, right? I don't think he like dissolves or anything like that, or no, she like gets it, like she realizes like her own strength and like she's got this very powerful horn. She backs up the bull, but like it's not enough because obviously it's like a huge bull. And it there's like a moment where like everyone's like, you help her, no, you help her. And I'm like, I remember as a kid just being like, Someone help her, literally, please. And what do you know? Fucking here comes the unicorns. No, no, no, no. What happens first is fucking Prince Lear is oh yeah, he comes out to help. Well, no, that's what so he sends that to Schmendrick, yeah. And he's like, Well, she needs I'm not the hero, I'm the magician. She needs the hero. Yeah, yeah, that's some strong stuff there too. Like, it's very like it's like a story that kind of knows it's a story. It's like, oh, right, this is what the hero is supposed to do. The hero is supposed to save the princess, right? Right, and it's kind of like uh like meta. It's it's meta. There are definitely some meta moments in this movie, it's like a flip uh perspective. When they I don't know, yeah, in fantasy, like when they go against the stereotype, that's what I'm trying to say, you know. Yes, like the prince is supposed to rescue the princess, but he just can't Prince Lear just throws his body right in front of the bull, he gets runned over and is dead on the beach for the most part, and that is the thing that spurs Lady Amalthea into like go really going after this bull. She's like, Oh my god, you kill my boyfriend. That's it, it's over for you. And then then all the unicorns come. Yes, and I think it's a really cool image, yeah. The the white caps of the tide being unicorns coming out, and they start pouring basically out onto the beach. Yeah, it's like I'm like, oh damn, okay. And then they're they're like they're scaling up the mountain and they're heading back home to go to all of theirs, you know, their own respective lands. I don't know. I mean, do unicorns just like are asexual? I'm assuming there's gotta be some male unicorns in there. Wait, that's what you're most concerned with at this point, is like at this point, well, no, because I'm like, okay, they're all going back. There's so many of them, right? There's gotta be thousands. And right. I mean, before this realm, it's like how many of them are in each forest that makes like the season eternal kind of thing. And I'm I don't know. I'm like, so they don't are they're not friends with each other, you know. Unicorns, are you concerned with how they're gonna breed? No, I'm concerned with like how their social structure is. Well, I think we'll have to shoot an email to Peter S. Beagle and be like, Can you tell us the social stratification? But overall, I was gonna say overall, I'm just happy she completed her quest. She did. I mean, you you forgot a very important part, which before the unicorns went off to their land, their home, yeah, they destroy Haggard's castle. Yes. That that's a I think that's like the most important part. Like his castle falls into the sea, he's dead, and and then Lady Amalthea revives her boyfriend, Prince Lear, with her horn. But I I think it was there's a very interesting moment, like towards the end there, when she gets transformed back into a unicorn, and they're all discussing like the logistics of love. Prince Lear's like, I don't care what she is, I don't care if she's human, I don't care if what I love what I love. That's like a very powerful line. I don't care what she is. It makes me like much. Well, yeah, I've there's a there's a lot of stuff going on there. I was like, okay, so you're fine with her being a horse now, yeah. And he's very, yeah. I mean, whatever. I I'm not gonna kink shame anybody on this podcast. I don't think I have yet. I will not now, but I just think that's an interesting thing to pop into a children's movie, yeah. Although I'm saying he's like, I don't care, she's got four legs and a horn, work or just two legs and a horn. I'm down, he's down for whatever. So I think well, he loves her no matter what form she takes on. It's the soul inside that matters, absolutely, which is lovely and beautiful. It's lovely, and I think, yeah, this is why this movie has become sort of like a cult classic, especially amongst the LGBTQA plus community, because there's a lot of talk about like, yeah, transitioning bodies, feeling like you're in a body that doesn't belong, feeling like one that is decaying. Feeling like a body that's decaying, feeling like I mean, also there's like a talk, like at the end. I mean, that brings us right to the end. Like, after you know, all is said and done, and King Haggard's dead, Prince Lear is like, go on, do your unicorn thing, that's fine. So Lady Amalthea, Miss Unicorn, comes and chats with Schmendrick, and he's like, Yeah, you good, girl. And uh she's like, kind of, she's like, I like I've I've been human, so like I don't really mix with the unicorns, you know. She's I know what it feels like to regret or whatever. Brutal line for a children's movie. I just gotta say, yeah, she's like, now she knows what it's like to be human, and you're just like, oh, right. Like, I guess, you know, yeah, there's a lot of tragedy in being human. Like, we're all mortal, we're gonna die. But like, we do get to experience love, you know, and we do get to experience regret. And like, was it better to have loved and lost? It's like these great questions that like come up in art. Like, is it it better to like never love? That's kind of sad, right? If you could live for eternity, but like never know love, not to as long as it's not like the love that we featured in Love Month with like Moulin Rouge and all of that. You almost you almost made me spit out my tea directly onto my laptop. I'm sorry, it's okay. Um, yeah, no, if it's not like no, that love is a many splendor thing, as you and McGregor said. Uh yeah, no, this this kind of love seemed more healthy. And yeah, Princetor did turn out to be like a chill guy. He wasn't like asking her to be anything that she wasn't, but he realized, yeah, she's a unicorn now, she's gotta go. Yeah, I like that whole thing. I just remember like as a kid crying because I was just like, I get it, I understand what it's like to be in community and not feel like you're a part of community and you know, feeling alone, feeling like you are the the last of your kind. Yeah, very relatable um situation. I know there's a lot of like themes to this too that I'm sure people have broken down many a time. But it's like I was googling it after I had watched it, and I was seeing like, oh, the bull represents capitalism, and you know, King Haggard is like in my mind, I'm like, okay, from what I understand, is like the reason he took all of the unicorns was because he saw beauty and wanted to keep it all for himself or something like that. You know, I don't know. Yeah, I mean, there's I think that there are symbols, there are like classic symbols, like the unicorn clearly is like a symbol of youth, eternity, and like all this stuff, like fantasy, this idea of like purity and goodness, and it's very feminine creature too. And then I I feel like the bull is very like masculine energy, not to be too binary about it, but yeah, it's very like aggression power. King Haggard is like greed. Yeah, I was thinking, I was like, wow, King Haggard Wall Street. Yeah, King Haggard is just like any of these like AI tech bros who are like, you know what? I just want to own everything. I just want everything, and I don't I'm not even gonna use it, right? Like greedy landlords that like have buildings and like no one can live in them. They're like, I it's just enough that I have it, you know. And there are a lot of men like that, I would say more than most. Yeah. Uh yeah, that I think there's some like very strong statements in here, and like I think a The time when this book was written, which was in the 60s, 1968. Think about oh yeah. What was what was happening then, right? And Peter Beagle, I feel like you can look into his work. He's written a ton of fantasy stuff. He wrote for Star Trek Next Generation. He's definitely like a sci-fi fantasy guy. Shout out, Peter, if you're listening to this. Yeah, it's it's such a beloved novel, but it brings up like I feel like it's it's very beloved amongst people who like would have grown up in that time too. And yeah, it's short. It's like I'm holding it up, you can't see it. Listen, oh yeah, that's that that that's an afternoon. It's an afternoon read. Yeah, it's good. It's really, really good. And if you enjoyed this movie at all, I feel like you would enjoy this even more because it's like it, but I think as a book, it works a little better. Although I do, of course, like I love this movie. I made you watch it. First of first of four fantasy films we're gonna discuss. What do you give The Last Unicorn? I want to give it a solid B. Yeah, no, same. Solid B. I think there, I mean, you tell me what you thought first, and I'll Well, I really enjoyed like the amount of story there was, but I feel like it could have been certain things could have been maybe a little skipped over, like the songs that they sung together. Like that was not needed. I I thought, you know, there was a lot going on as far as like, is she gonna get stuck with this witch? Like watching it for the first time, you didn't really know where it was gonna go, right? So, like it definitely took me on an adventure and I appreciate that. Yeah. Um, but yeah, no, I would definitely say a B because I I feel like it to me, I connected it with it a lot more than some other movies that we've watched this year. So you you don't even need to bring them up because I know which ones they can't all be hits. I feel like when we talk about movies that are bad, it is very funny. Yeah. Um, but this this movie isn't a bad movie, it is a flawed movie. It's I feel like people who grew up with it, we connect to the aesthetic of it, the mood of it, the vibes. It's a very vibey movie. Yeah, it's a solid B for me because like upon this most recent rewatch, I was like, Yes, beautiful. Of course, I remember these lines. It still hits emotionally in some points, but I was just like, Yeah, we can we can cut out the whole butterfly bit. That's unnecessary. We gotta get him out. Trim some of these songs. We don't need this love duet. That can literally be like four lines of dialogue where they connect, right? Name the cat, name the cat, name that cat. Everyone, I'm serious. You will give me a name for that cat. Um, I came up with my fan cast. Oh, let's hear it. So I want to say for Prince Lear, Paul Mescal. Paul Mescaline. Paul Mescal, the Irish actor. Wait, for Prince Lear? Yeah, yeah, I'll buy it. I'll buy it. And then just a fan favorite for us personally, for Lady Amalfia, I say Miss Al Fanning. Al Fanning, yeah, that's good too. Yeah, she's got a very unicorn-like quality. Um, I was gonna say maybe for Lady Amalfia Hunter Schaefer. Ooh. Right? Mm-hmm. That could be good. That could be good to um, like, yeah, who's gonna play Molly? Who's gonna play the grizzled 34-year-old woman? Great question. I mean, if we're gonna go with uh more great Irish actors like Paul Mezcol, you could throw Jesse Buckley in there. Sure. You know, she's having her moment, she won her Oscar, she can do like a fun indie fantasy film. Oh, yeah, no, she'd be great. And yeah, we know she could get there emotionally, yeah. Try the and who would play Schmendrick? Kendrick Lamar. No Schmendrick Lamar, uh Michael B. Jordan, Michael B. Jordan as Schmendrick, yeah. Uh oh Timote, no, I'm just kidding. Oh my god, girl. I am sat back for that. He could be fucking Timothy Chalamet as Schmendrick. He does kind of have that face. I I picture Schmendrick as a little more Jewish. Yeah. Do you know what I'm saying? Like I do. He's a little like nebish and he's a little Eastern European. Oh, just sort of like he's kind of like, yeah, he's sort of like nerdy and yeah. I don't like. I'm like, who's like a nerdy hot guy? These are important questions that we raise. I was gonna say, if you if anyone finds a nerdy hot guy, let me know. Yeah, that's the ultimate with some cash, preferably, so I can live my fanciful life. Rich, smart, and kinda nerdy, big old penis. Oh my god. Anyway, that's just what are we doing? We gotta go. We gotta go. We gotta go. We gotta, we gotta get out of here. Okay, tune in next week for more fun fantasy, spring fantasy offerings. Okay, bye. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of VHS Sisters. We hope you've had a fun and cozy time. Please consider liking, leaving a review, and following us on your podcast platform of choice. If you'd like to chat with us, please email us at VHS Sisters Podcast at gmail.com. Love you.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:53

Bye.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:04

That's it.