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The Last Unicorn (film)

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The Last Unicorn is a fantasy novel written by Peter S. Beagle. It was made into an animated movie by Rankin-Bass.

Template:Spoiler The story is about a unicorn who realizes that she is the last of her kind and then sets off on a quest to find the clues to where the other unicorns went. Along the way, she picks up two traveling companions: the incompetent magician Schmendrick and Molly Grue, the companion of Captain Cully of Greenwood Forest (a wannabe Robin Hood). The unicorn hears from an addled butterfly that something known as the Red Bull has herded her people to the ends of the earth. Following this one clue she meets other less savory characters in her journey to find the one who controls the Red Bull, a man named King Haggard. Along the way though, she is changed into a mortal woman, named Lady Amalthia. As Amalthia she falls in love with King Haggard's son, Prince Lir and must contend with losing her immortal self while trying to find where Haggard is keeping her people.

The main theme of the book is destiny. The trials she and the other characters go through are all part of a destiny that none of them can control. The book illustrates it better than the movie as it contains more detail and background on the characters.

  • A witch cursed Haggard's castle when he first built it and said that one of Hagsgate (a town near the castle) would destroy Haggard and his castle and thus destroy the town, which she cursed with the knowlege that they would only survive as long as Haggard and his castle did.
  • Lir was born in Hagsgate and abandoned, and Haggard adopts him.
  • Hagard sends the red bull to collect all the unicorns in the world.
  • The Unicorn learns from a hunter she is the last and she goes to look for them.
  • She is caged by Mommy Fortuna and rescued by Schmendrick, someone who will be imortal and unaging untill he learns to control the magic within him.
  • Schmendrick meets Molly allowing her to meet the Unicorn. The three of them travel together until they encounter the red bull.
  • Schmendrick has no faith in his abilities but tries to use his magic to save the Unicorn only because Molly believes in him.
  • Unicorn becomes Human and is dubbed "The Lady Amalthia."
  • Unicorn is able to enter Haggard's Castle and meet the prince.
  • Unicorn is able to love (Previously unable to do so as a Unicorn) and falls in love with Prince Lir.
  • They discover where the unicorns are and how to get through the red bulls passage by following clues given to Molly by a talking cat. Schmendrick interprets the clues and uses magic to trick a talking skull into showing them the way.
  • Lir, who loves Amalthia follows Molly, Schmendrick, and Amalthia through the red bull's passage.
  • The red bull realizes Amalthia is the Unicorn and attacks
  • Schmendrick turns Amalthia back into a Unicorn
  • Lir dies defending the Unicorn.
  • The Unicorn, who still loves Lir is enraged and is able to fight back against the red bull because she is so angry she forgets she is afraid of it.
  • The Red Bull is destroyed and the Unicorns return from the sea
  • The Unicorns destroy the castle and Hagsgate in their escape, but rejuvinate all the barren land around the castle and hagsgate.

Thus the trail of breadcrumbs leads us to the theme of fate. If the Unicorn had never met Molly and Schmendrick, she never would have become human. If she never became Human, she and Lir never would have fallen in love and she couldn't have saved her people and Lir couldn't have fulfilled the curse. Shmendrick never would have become Human again and Molly would have spent the rest of her life as the unhappy companion to Captain Cully who forced her and his band to live like hobos in the woods. But all the unhappy and seemingly unimportant circumstances of their life allowed them to meet up and acomplish a monumental historic even for their time. The fall of evil King Haggard, and the freeing of the Unicorns.

The book is filled with religious undertones and symbology dating back to the 14th century. The opening tapestry hints at this as well, being inspired by the Unicorn Tapestries from that time. Also, if you look closly at the Tapestries in Haggard's Castle, he has the original tapestries hanging in a room of his castle (see the scene featuring Amalthia's song).


The film's music was composed and arranged by Jimmy Webb and performed by the group America. The title song has been covered many times, including by Kenny Loggins on his Return to Pooh Corner album, and by the German group In-Mood.

The author recorded an unabridged audiobook of the novel in 2005 for Conlan Press. That company is making the audiobook available as a downloadable MP3, an MP3 CD and in an eight CD collector's set (seven CDs for the audiobook, and the eighth holding an exclusive interview with the author).

A new adaptation of the original book is currently in production, using much of the cast from the 1980s cartoon.

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