"2DAniCritic" Review:

Unico in the Island of Magic

Review Score: 1.86 / 5.00        

I looked online to find more information about Unico. Surprisingly, the Japanese character didn't have many films to his name. "Unico in the Island of Magic" is the second, and is largely a self-contained adventure. For all the people who desperately wanted more Unico.

The film starts with a brief explanation from the West Wind as she carries little Unico to a new land, saying that Unico has forgotten any past adventures and friends to avoid confusion, and cannot stay in a place too long to make friends, else encure the wrath of the Gods. As Unico cries for being all alone, he leaps in joy when hearing a voice from a orange cat, who claims to be the owner of the forest they are in. A mean leader, they later stumble upon a strange human man in a bug-getup, who turns animals into stone. Exactly why is later found out, and Unico and friends must fight to save the forest creatures.

Well, the human race, actually. No one really takes the threat seriously until humans are also being turned to stone. The cat serves as a easily villain to hate: even when his cronies are turned to stone, he is happy to help the true villains turn everyone else into stone to save his own neck, and has fun doing it. Exactly who the human is working for and why turn everyone into stone puppets is an interesting reason to keep watching, and explains everything, but not in any unique way that you couldn't predict. The man's family, his younger sister especially, becomes more the film's hero, Unico is more of a catch-all catalyst that can use magic when nothing else can be done. The story globe-trots to various places without focus or reason, and the film suffers for it.

To its credit, the strange places we go to are visually interesting to look at, especially with magic and demon designs (the scenes with the baby demons is priceless and worth watching). That's about all I can say to the credit of the visuals, though. The dub is barely watchable, the music barely memorable. Another grace is the true villain, a bug-eyed ball, who is an appealing evil force, even if not too unique. I'm grasping at straws here. I suppose the film is passable, again well-suited to young children. But just a reboot with a slight rewrite, updated visuals, and a couple extra lines of dialogue could have done wonders in the modern age. Being a poor introduction to new viewers of Unico, and not necessary to old fans, I can't find much reason to justify it.