To Be Human: The Last Unicorn

       As we work through our lives day by day, we don't think about what being human could look like to someone else. What could our human life be perceived as to the animals? What would it look like to a unicorn? That, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the things The Last Unicorn is about. 

         Once upon a time, a unicorn overhears a hunter say that she is the last unicorn in the world. As she wonders if this is true, the unicorn meets a singing butterfly. He tells her a "red bull" pushed all the other unicorns to the ends of the earth. The unicorn decides to go and try to find the others. After meeting the friends Molly Grue and Schmendrick the Magician, the unicorn encounters the Red Bull himself. In order to save her, Schmendrick changes her into a human woman, and thus the unicorn becomes the Lady Amalthea. Will she be able to find the unicorns? Or is she truly the last?

     In The Last Unicorn, there is a repetition having to do with regret. At one point in the film, the unicorn says she can't regret. She can feel sorrow, but she doesn't regret. But after her experience as a human, she is forever changed. As humans, we can regret a ton of things throughout our lives. When you hear the unicorn say she can't regret, you think, how can you NOT regret? This film makes us think about that. We can only assume it has something to do with her immortality. 

     The unicorn in this film becomes a symbol all by itself. She represents being innocent and wise at the same time, something that's rare for most people. Before she became human, Amalthea never really felt love. Sure she cared for all nature and was kind, but she, like all unicorns, didn't know love. The kind of love I'm talking about cannot be described. Most of us have experienced it, and know what it feels like. In fact, Amalthea becomes so human that when she returns to her true shape, she's almost completely different. 

      As one, The Last Unicorn definitely qualifies as art. It's a film that takes a magical creature and brings it the light and emotions of the human experience. Amalthea's experience as a human probably makes her better as a living being. That's because even though she's a unicorn, she now has more sparkle and humility than the rest of her kind.

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