Just forget the words and sing along

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Fishing in the Discount Bin - The Last Unicorn (Again)

Here we are again, on Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I blog about the many movies I own.  Here, we reach a point that I long feared would come...I start repeating myself.  On August 8, 2015, I would up doing The Last Unicorn, again.  And in case you're wondering how the story ends, yes, I did finally get a new Blu-Ray player on Boxing Day.






Well, I see the good folks at Shout! Factory have released an all-new special edition of The Last Unicorn.  Since the DVD I own is one of the very first released from the early 2000s, I figured it was time for the Blu-Ray upgrade.  So I got it home, fired it up, and marvel at the film in high definition.  I tell you, in hi-def, The Last Unicorn looks stunning.

And I can never watch in hi-def again!

As I already blogged, I fear it may be time to upgrade my Blu-Ray player.  I have several discs now -- The Last Unicorn being the latest -- that make my machine crash on the loading screen.  I look up the problem online, and they tell me I need to update my machine's software.  I look up my machine online, and I see they haven't released any software updates in 3 years.  And I see the players have come quite down in price...you can get a pretty good one for $100.  We'll see if I can hold out until Christmas, and maybe I can grab a new one at a Boxing Day sale. 

Luckily, the new Last Unicorn edition is one of those combo packs, that includes the Blu-Ray, a DVD, and a digital copy.  So I had to settle for watching the DVD.  Which is not why I upgraded to Blu-Ray.  Oh, well.  If I want to watch the HD version, I see it's on Netflix now, too. 

Yeah, I know.  It seems foolish to complain when I have so many other options to watch it.  But I just want technology to work they way I want it to, ya know?

Anyway, after once again being swept away in the Unicorn's quest to return her kind to the world, I sat down to start writing this up, and I had a disturbing thought.  Didn't I already do a Fishing in the Discount Bin on The Last Unicorn?

Yes.  Yes I did. 

I knew this day would come...the day I start repeating myself.  So do I have any new observations from when I last watched it?

Well, this time out, I noticed that a lot of the voice acting is a little flat.  Alan Arkin as Schmendrick the magician, especially.  The only ones who truly bring life to their roles are Angela Lansbury as the witch Mommy Fortuna and Christopher Lee as our villain, King Haggard.  According to legend, when Lee showed up for his first meeting with producers, he brought his own personal copy of the book, and showed the producers the passages he underlined that MUST be included in the film. 

Gotta love it when you have a passionate fan working on your project.

Reviewing my old entry, I really don't have that much more to add.  it's still a film I love dearly.  I actually bought the original novel on sale at Chapters a few years ago.  Never did finish reading it.  I think I should finally do that, because the human imagination is still no match for the perils of technology.

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