The Last Unicorn is a 1982 fantasy film, based on the novel written by Peter S. Beagle, and adapted by him for the screenplay. The film is an animated movie produced by Rankin/Bass for ITC Entertainment and animated by Topcraft. The film is noted as "one of the most emotionally frank, sophisticated and mature G-rated cartoons ever made."
The riddle that befuddles Rook - "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" - is the famous unanswered riddle asked by The Mad Hatter in "Alice In Wonderland", by Lewis Carroll. Carroll wrote the riddle as nonsense; it has no answer. This has not stopped people, despite being repeatedly told that there is not, nor should there be, any answer, from trying to contrive one. Among the suggestions are, "because Edgar Allan Poe wrote on both" and "because the notes for which they are noted are not noted for being musical notes" (the second of which is very similar to a solution that Lewis Carroll himself wearily suggested when he grew tired of people asking him about it).
Christopher Lee (I) (who supplied the voice of King Haggard) showed up for the recording sessions armed with his own copy of the book, with several places marked to indicate things that must not, in his opinion, be omitted.
The soundtrack was one of the best selling albums of 1983 in Germany.
This movie was animated in Japan by Topcraft, the studio also responsible for earlier Rankin-Bass productions of Hobbit, The (1977) (TV) and Return of the King, The (1980) (TV), and was their final collaboration. Topcraft was then hired by Tokuma Shoten and Hayao Miyazaki to make his 1984 landmark Kaze no tani no Naushika (1984) (Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind). In 1985, when Miyazaki and Isao Takahata formed Studio Ghibli, most of the major talent at Topcraft was brought on board.
John Vernon, James Earl Jones and John Carradine were considered voices for King Haggard
Dustin Hoffman, Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill were considered voices for Schmendrick.
Elizabeth Hartman, Janet Leigh and Shani Wells were considered voices for the Unicorn/Amalthea.
Michael Crawford, Richard Harris and Kurt Russell were considered voices for Prince Lir.
Peter S. Beagle is getting no compensation for sale of the DVD.
Schmendrick (the name of the inept magician voiced by Alan Arkin) is a Yiddish term for a fool, or a mama's boy. Alternately, it can be used to refer to a jerk as well.
Lady Amalthea's name comes from the Greek mythology. According to it, when young Zeus was hidden from his father, the brutal Chronos, he was feed from the milk of a goat named Amalthea. Years later, and after Zeus finally defeated Chronos and established himself as the new King of Olympus, he rewarded the goat who fed him by turning one of her horns into the famous Horn of Abundance.
Christopher Lee (I) also provides the King Haggards voice in the German version of the movie.
