Product: The Last Unicorn [VHS] (1982)
Rating: 5.0
Renewing an old acquaintance
I bought this dvd with some trepidation, due mostly to some of the unfavorable reviews. I had seen this movie years ago in the theatres, and later owened a VHS tape. I wanted to replace the very old tape with a good dvd recording. I was not dissappointed with this one at all. I would qualify this dvd as excellent. The picture quality is excellent, as is the color, which is lovely. The animation artwork is beautiful. The entire movie is here, nothing is cut out. The sound was fine. Let me qualify this; the sound of the movie was fine. But the singing voices of the characters in the film are terrible. The makers really should have dubbed in the voices of professional singers when this movie was made, or even when the dvd was recorded. The songs are good, and involve and move the story along, but the singing makes you want to reach for the mute button. The actors have good speaking voices, the dialog is clear and emotive, but they simply do not have anything resembling singing talent. They needed two actors for each character; one to do the talking, and one the singing. That would have made this a much better movie. On the other side of the spectrum is the theme song, "The Last Unicorn" as well as background songs "Walking Man's Road and "In the Sea" are all performed (I believe) by the group America, and they are all wonderful. These songs are well worth hearing, the music, singing and lyrics all very beautiful. All considered, I felt this dvd well worth buying, watching and keeping for my permanent collection.