When
I was a little girl, my favorite movie was, without doubt, The Last Unicorn.
Growing
up and seeing it again, it’s a little silly. The character designs are so-so
(except of the unicorn herself), and there are a couple of songs that are kind
of cringe-worthy (the ones sung out of pitch by Amalthea and Prince Lir).
But
there’s still a lot of magic there. The dialogue is amazing, and the story
itself is unusual and beautiful. And yes, I still tear up at the first song.
And when she gets turned into a girl. And the ending. I still cry a lot at the
ending.
But
then, as I mentioned in my Awesome List post, I read the book, and it was
beyond incredible. Every beautiful bit of dialogue was lifted directly from the
book. And upon reading that, almost ten years ago, Peter S. Beagle became one
of the authors I want to emulate (not just for that book, though I do love the
particular writing style he uses there).
Imagine
my delight, then, to learn that Peter Beagle is taking The Last Unicorn movie on tour. They show the movie in the theater,
Peter answers audience questions, they raffle off some prizes, and then there’s a signing. (Interesting but
sad fact: up until a short while ago, Peter didn’t receive any money whatsoever
from the movie or video sales, even though he wrote both the book AND the
script).
Artwork outside the theater
It
was so much fun. Peter was extremely generous and friendly with his answers,
especially since he must have been asked these same questions hundreds of times
before. Here are a few highlights:
-He
had to entirely scrap the first draft of the book, which had the unicorn’s
companion as a two-headed demon that had been expelled from hell. To my
surprise, they’re actually releasing that version in a few years as part of a
special anniversary edition, I think.
-Peter
thinks that the character that most resembles him in the Last Unicorn is the
butterfly, because his mind also works in bits and phrases of music and poetry.
-When
he signed my book, I asked who some of his biggest literary/writing style
influences were in writing the book. Unfortunately, it was kind of loud and I
couldn’t hear what he said, and I was too shy to ask him to repeat himself. I
did catch T.H. White, and James Thurber.
-The live action movie rights revert to Peter in 2015. They're actually very interested in making a live version, and covering a lot of the things in the book that didn't translate well to animation. Christopher Lee would apparently be interested in taking part again!
Right
now the schedule of the tour (on the main website here) is somewhat limited, but they’ll be
adding more dates soon. They also had a lot of cool stuff on sale, including
art prints, t-shirts, and the entire book in teeny tiny print on a poster (!).
So I highly recommend the tour if you loved the movie as a kid and would like to see it again, or if you have little ones who might love the movie - who knows when you'll next have the chance to see it in a theater?
Well, you've made me want to read the book. As a kid, I was hooked on unicorns. A few years ago I read a book by Beagle called Tamsin, and enjoyed it very much. (Featured Irish Legend characters.)
ReplyDeleteI've seen the movie, but I still haven't read the book. I need to do that.
ReplyDeleteThis tour sounds pretty awesome, but it's not making stops to my little city, and I doubt it ever will. Thanks for sharing your experience. Sounds like it was amazing.