LEGEND, THE LAST UNICORN, and the History of Mythical Beasts
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Legend turns 35 this week. It begins with a black screen as red text scrolls, setting the stage for the action. It tells us that once upon a time there was only darkness, followed by a light which brought love to the world and expelled the darkness. Unicorns keep this light safe. Only the purest of mortals can find the unicorns, like Jack (Tom Cruise) a youthful Green Man of the forest. When he shares them with his lady love, impetuous teenager Lily (Mia Sara), all Hell breaks loose. You see, the Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry) sends goblin henchmen to follow her. Their mission is to kill the last remaining unicorns. If they succeed, Darkness will rule the land once again. From this strife comes a balance of light and dark. As the title card tells us, that’s when legends are born.
Movies and TV shows aimed at children are always a delicate mix of cutesy innocence and potentially weighty subject matter kids might get bored of endless sunshine without any conflict, but go too dark and you risk mauling delicate sensibilities,
Return to Oz-style. And kid-friendly SFF can be tricky to navigate for even the most well-meaning guardian, after all what harm could be lurking in a puppet-filled fantasy adventure? Of course, there are also the traumatic moments we inflicted upon ourselves, staying up late only to peep at the screen through our fingers. Even if you had a storybook childhood, the odds are low that you escaped without being emotionally sideswiped by an intense moment or two…