Alternate Title: Unico: To the Island of Magic | Unico in the Island of Magic
Genre: Children's Film | Shoujo | Fantasy | Utter Creepiness and Bizarreness
Companies: Tezuka Osamu Productions | Madhouse Studios
American Licensing Company: (in 1980s) Sanrio (current rights owner: none now)
Format: One 90 minute movie
Dates: 07/16/1983
Original Creator: Osamu Tezuka
Age Rating: 10 and up

Synopsis: Unico the unicorn has the amazing power to make anyone he meets happy. Whether it's because of his personality or the powers of his horn, no one knows. In this story, Unico finds himself with a new friend, a young girl named Cherry. However, Cherry's long lost older brother Toby has finally come home, and is now a misguided apprentice to an insane (and not human) magician named Kuruku. When Cherry's parents get transformed into strange, almost zombie-like, wooden looking things called living puppets by Kuruku, she and Unico start a quest to the very ends of the earth to get her parents and brother back. Unico and Cherry must stop Kuruku from collecting and transforming every living creature on the face of the earth into living puppets.

SCORE: 96%

This was the second to the last Unico movie ever made, and the last one to reach the shores of the USA. In my opinion, this was the best one, and my personal favorite! Lonely Unico! :(

Plot: This movie was based off just one story that was part of a shoujo manga about Unico, this little unicorn. This movie was based off the manga chapter called, Unico and the Kingdom of the Sun which was probably written in the seventies or very early eighties. Luckily, you don't need to know about Unico's background story and why he's being taken from one place to the next. The movie is a good self-contained story that doesn't need the background info. Besides, you get enough explaination from the West Wind when she's there.

This story is about the very human need to be loved and to have friends and to treat other people with worth...because if you get everything in the world but what is truly important, you won't be happy. Hidden in the story is the message about how material things are not important like friends, family, love, and just being a caring person. But, this movie is not preachy, but merely sweet (without being sickening) and straight to the point without pounding that point over and over again into the pavement till it cracks the entire road. ^_^ This movie is sweet and timeless and is so beautifully melancholy...it feels like a loss of innocence (in a good way) when you finish watching it all. Feels like a lullabye. A nice kind of sad. Maybe I just think that because this was my first anime and it is very nostalgic for me. But I don't think so. I just think the movie is that way!

The plot doesn't have holes, except one very minor and unimportant one about how Unico and Cherry get to the Valley of the Demons. Otherwise, that's it.

The characters are great! Unico is so pure and just truly innocent and caring; no faking from this little dude! And he's adorable!

Cherry is just a sweet and cute, but maybe just a little more mature than Unico (or trying to be more mature). She grows up a lot in this movie, and she's just nice.

Toby is so cool! He's the only man who could be so cool and creepy in a bug suit like that, with that broom shaped blond hair! And his flute music is powerful and creepy...so cool! Not to mention his magic abilities and agility!

Lord Kuruku is fuckin' nuts! He's the shiznits! He has to be one of the best villans of all time, just because of the sheer insanity of the way he acts and why he exists! It's all like an evil Pinnochio! Yet he so much more than creepy insanity too....

Marusu (Baby Sphinx) is a hilarious tomboy with a mouth to match. She cracks me up so much...but she does have great insight you wouldn't think of the character.

Melvin (Mountain Cat)...what a blowhard. But he's funny. ^_^

The Trojan Horse is neat. And the Rollar Dragon...oh my frickin' God...he's so creepily funny!

Unfortunately, West Wind didn't make much of an appearance in this film. But, she was definitely pretty. :P But she is a cool character, even if it does require you to see Fantastic Adventures of Unico to know that.

This movie is a wonderful mesh of the Japanese take on a Greek/European fairy tales, with oddly enough, some hidden modernization. This lead to many original ideas and some very interesting creativity.

The living puppets kinda look like gingerbread men. Toby leads the puppets by music like the Pied Piper. Toby's ablities in magic (such as his motorcyle-like hollow tree that he rides) was like a visually modernized and very different take on a European witch. The Trojan Horse, though a weapon of war, was interestingly enough, made into the rocking-horse variety. Characters look European (while Unico and the Trojan Horse are Greek/Roman characters) while the action can almost be ninja-like (when it comes to Toby's agility and kicking skills). Also, this is an early anime to have the Japanese take on Chrisitian symbolism, which seemed to be popular in anime in the 80s, such as Vampire Hunter D and Angel's Egg, before anime like Eva. Very different and a cool movie to check out to spot these kind of things in!

Visual: This animation is awesome! Even for it's age, this animation is far better than a lot of stuff out there! This animation was a great example of great traditional, hand-drawn animation. I am one that loves computer graphics, but I like to take a break from it and see truly awesome work that has been done by hand. Everything in this movie was hand-drawn...and it's truly amazing! From eyes and character designs, but especially the sheer scale of it. Backgrounds are detailed. The action is quick and smooth. And the special affects are intense. Designs of places and characters alone are truly creative, whether it's Kuruku's castle or the rocking-horse take on the Trojan Horse.

Kuruku himself is a great character that is virtually a special effect the entire time...his animation alone is breathtaking. And him playing with his toys...that alone was a very abstract performance, giving a bit of a callback to bizarre animation like that of the Beatles' Yellow Submarine.

Once again, I have come across an anime for all it's complicatedness, still has an air of simplicity that I like in animation when it comes to design and overall look. Nice. No clutter.

Sound: Sound effects fitted well. The sounds are common in many old Sanrio films, but good nonetheless, be it a zap of magic, Unico's cute little footsteps, a thud, or the creaking of a living puppet.

Voice were pretty good too. Love Unico and Cherry's voices, and loved Toby's deep one! Kuruku's voice didn't seem quite energetic enough for his character's constant changing and morphing, and all over insaneness, but overall was okay.

LOVE THE MUSIC! And I don't think it's an acquired taste either. Toby's flute music is creepy and awesome, even if it does have a bit of the typical 80s drumbeat to it. Music was powerful for action and fight scenes. And the rest was so sweet, innocent and melancholy sounding...very lullabye like. And it should be, considering that the ending theme is a lullabye! The music fit this sweet story!

The Dub: This is one of THE BEST dubs ever! And that's not because I saw this movie dubbed first! Voices fit wonderfully and even match the Japanese in tone quality! Unico's is good and so is Marusu's! No extremely bad voice matching, which is amazing for when the age of this dub. The dub is even better than the Japanese by quite a bit. The Trojan Horse, while still sounding old and wise, doesn't sound quite as tired in English (whichever way is fine). Kuruku's voice (with the aid of sound equipment manipulation) is absolutely creepy! The actor's performance alone, even without the sound equipment manipulation, is pure genius! Yay! My only complaint is that Cherry's voice was quite the tone quality I would have liked...there was just something about it I don't quite like. But, the acting of her voice was very good and fit well enough, definitely.

Dub Letter Grade: A+

Extra Rants and Bitching: I think this area was well covered in the rest of the review! Love Unico!

Score Comments: While I may be nostalgic about this movie, I think I am more than justified for it's good score. Afterall, it had to be impressive for me to get sucked into the world of anime so well!

Websites:
Tezuka Osamu @ World: The closest place to an official Unico site, a place on the web that features info and fun about all of Tezuka's creations!
FABLE: Unico Shrine: A website I (Holli) run under the alias, Cherry Blossom. One of the few Unico sites still online from a surge of Unico popularity that existed during 1999-2000.

Have a website about this series, or do you know of a good one? Want me to link to it on this review? Well, the feel free to email the sucker to me! Just make sure to put "Review Link" in the subject.