"Unico in the Island of Magic"

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Most people have certain things that pull their "ick triggers."  I have some friends whose skin would crawl at the sight of clowns, or bugs, or Anne Geddes photos.

I don't have any real phobias myself, but Unico in the Island of Magic managed to find an "ick trigger" I didn't even know I had: gray, blank-faced, flat, blocky, zombie-puppet people.  I shudder at the memory of them.

The title of this movie sounds so benign and cheerful--unicorns!  islands!  magic!  But here's what it's really about.  The gods are jealous of Unico, a cute little unicorn, who befriends a young girl, Sheri. Sheri's brother Toby is an apprentice to the evil wizard Kuruku, who is turning everyone into gray, blank-faced, flat, blocky, zombie-puppet people.  Kuruku even turns Toby's parents into gray, blank-faced, flat, blocky, zombie-puppet people, and Toby transforms the rest of the town too and lures them all into Kuruku's lair.

Unico realizes that Kuruku is only evil because he was an unloved puppet himself and, after she offers to be his friend forever, Kuruku collapses and reverts to puppet form since his hatred was the only thing that kept him alive.  Sheri then finds the creepy dead-eyed wooden puppet that Kuruku became and clutches it to her chest.

Shudder.

Lesson learned:
Don't ever offer to be someone's friend, because it could kill them.



Unico in the Island of Magic.  Dir. Mami Sugino.  Perf. Katsue Miwa, Corinne Orr, Rob Roy.  Madhouse, 1983.
 Unico: Unico in the Island of Magic
(See it on YouTube here)