Product: The Last Unicorn [VHS] (1982)
Rating: 4.0
Better than the current release
After seeing a screening of this film last night, I realized that the current DVD release has been heavily censored to please over protective parents. As Mr. Beagle said himself, "When sold at Wallmart, it looked like 'My Little Pony' on steroids. When parents actually saw the film they were upset by its content. Walmart put the pressure on Lion's Gate and this cut of the movie was removed."This release of the DVD still is in its uncut form. The '25th Anniversary Edition' DVD has only the censored cut of the film. In that version over 12 minutes have been removed and Amalthea's human body has been retouched to eliminate any nudity.So I know that this release of the DVD has very poor quality but it is worth buying. Let me let you in on a little secret...The '25th Anniversary Edition' DVD has almost exactly the same poor sound and video quality. In my opinion, the '25th Anniversary Edition' DVD has worse picture quality with only a monotone soundtrack. The version on this older DVD release has better sound than the newer one. Both soundtracks are titled 'monotone' but on the original release the sound is better. I think that the reason for this is because the '25th Anniversary Edition' was ripped off a VHS then transfered to DVD without re-mastering (except for the censorship). This older edition of the DVD was probably taken from a recording that HBO had been given for broadcast. All in all, buy the older edition and skip the '25th Anniversary' DVD. Don't sit around and wait for an uncut DVD / Blu-ray release because there will never be one. Mr. Beagle himself told me that face to face. If you are going to be all upset about the high cost and low quality just transfer your VHS copy yourself at home by yourself. If by some miracle you have a VHS of the HBO version, please do the right thing and make copies for your friends.