The One Where I Talk About Childhood Memories
I think I've probably written about this before in one of my other journals, but I'm going to recap it as there have been some new developments.
All my life I've had this memory from when I was about four years old or so in which I watched an anime movie on either HBO or the Disney Channel (I don't know why, but I always knew it was on some premium cable channel). I only have brief, vague memories of the movie itself, but the basic plot is this: The movie begins with an orange and a blue cat playing by the side of the river. I know I had seen the movie more than once, because I remember catching the beginning and thinking "Oh, this is the beginning of that movie. These cats must be the comic relief." The next thing I remember is a shot of a village, and the weather turning dark. A young man in a blue cloak begins turning all the townsfolk into stone block-people. He enters his own house, turns his parents into block-people, but spares his sister. He then plays his magic flute, which makes the block people march off. it turns out that the people are being used to build a castle for the bad guy, this young man's master, by stacking on top of eachother to create the walls of the castle.
I next remember the little sister embarking to rescue her parents with a small party of talking animals. She confronts the evil wizard, who in my memory always looked like Mumm-Ra from Thundercats. I really only remember him wearing a red cloak. At any rate, the next and final thing I can remember is the girl and her friends being turned into toys by the villain.
I've spent twenty years searching for this movie. Ten years with the aid of the internet. Over the years I've asked several friends whether or not it sounded familiar. Some said it did, but they couldn't remember what it was called. Honestly, finding this film has been the only reason I've ever been interested in anime at all. Although I've seen some really bad anime, I also owe it to my search for this film for introducing me to some really good films, as well.
At any rate, I was beginning to wonder whether or not I had imagined it. If I had, I decided it was definitely a good story, and I should put it down in writing. I made one last effort to find out whether it was real or not before I actually set it down to paper, when I finally, finally found it.
I don't know what combination of words I googled that was so different from every other past search, but I came to www.askmehelpdesk.com, where someone basically had the exact same story as I did. Most of the "answers" to the person's question were to the effect of "you must have been on crack when you were a kid," etc. One person, however, said "It's one of the Unico movies." At first, I thought "Unico," was some kind of production company. However, on second thought, I googled Unico with a few other keywords, and found it!
"Unico: In the Island of Magic" is the second in a trilogy of films about a magic unicorn, based on a manga of the same name. The series was created and directed by none other than Osamu Tezuka - of Astro Boy fame - and produced by Sanrio - of Hello Kitty fame. The film was released in 1983. However, further research proved that it had been aired for a short while on The Disney Channel during 1986 - when I was four. One site I saw even mentioned how this brief airing has caused a phenomena of twenty-somethings to scour the internet to find whether or not that weird movie from their childhood was a dream or not.
The movie is out of print. It was released on VHS, but the copyright has not been renewed, and there are no plans to release it on DVD. However, I managed to find a bootleg transfer DVD for $15 (plus shipping) from www.sell.com.
Having watched it, I can only say: One, how scarred into my memory these images are. I was wrong on some things, but watching the film brought back a flood of memories, both visually and orally. Imagery, phrases, sounds, all came back in a flash. Two, this is a really dark film for children, even if it does include a cutesy unicorn.
It can also be found on YouTube, in ten minute installments. So, without further ado, Unico in the Island of Magic.
All my life I've had this memory from when I was about four years old or so in which I watched an anime movie on either HBO or the Disney Channel (I don't know why, but I always knew it was on some premium cable channel). I only have brief, vague memories of the movie itself, but the basic plot is this: The movie begins with an orange and a blue cat playing by the side of the river. I know I had seen the movie more than once, because I remember catching the beginning and thinking "Oh, this is the beginning of that movie. These cats must be the comic relief." The next thing I remember is a shot of a village, and the weather turning dark. A young man in a blue cloak begins turning all the townsfolk into stone block-people. He enters his own house, turns his parents into block-people, but spares his sister. He then plays his magic flute, which makes the block people march off. it turns out that the people are being used to build a castle for the bad guy, this young man's master, by stacking on top of eachother to create the walls of the castle.
I next remember the little sister embarking to rescue her parents with a small party of talking animals. She confronts the evil wizard, who in my memory always looked like Mumm-Ra from Thundercats. I really only remember him wearing a red cloak. At any rate, the next and final thing I can remember is the girl and her friends being turned into toys by the villain.
I've spent twenty years searching for this movie. Ten years with the aid of the internet. Over the years I've asked several friends whether or not it sounded familiar. Some said it did, but they couldn't remember what it was called. Honestly, finding this film has been the only reason I've ever been interested in anime at all. Although I've seen some really bad anime, I also owe it to my search for this film for introducing me to some really good films, as well.
At any rate, I was beginning to wonder whether or not I had imagined it. If I had, I decided it was definitely a good story, and I should put it down in writing. I made one last effort to find out whether it was real or not before I actually set it down to paper, when I finally, finally found it.
I don't know what combination of words I googled that was so different from every other past search, but I came to www.askmehelpdesk.com, where someone basically had the exact same story as I did. Most of the "answers" to the person's question were to the effect of "you must have been on crack when you were a kid," etc. One person, however, said "It's one of the Unico movies." At first, I thought "Unico," was some kind of production company. However, on second thought, I googled Unico with a few other keywords, and found it!
"Unico: In the Island of Magic" is the second in a trilogy of films about a magic unicorn, based on a manga of the same name. The series was created and directed by none other than Osamu Tezuka - of Astro Boy fame - and produced by Sanrio - of Hello Kitty fame. The film was released in 1983. However, further research proved that it had been aired for a short while on The Disney Channel during 1986 - when I was four. One site I saw even mentioned how this brief airing has caused a phenomena of twenty-somethings to scour the internet to find whether or not that weird movie from their childhood was a dream or not.
The movie is out of print. It was released on VHS, but the copyright has not been renewed, and there are no plans to release it on DVD. However, I managed to find a bootleg transfer DVD for $15 (plus shipping) from www.sell.com.
Having watched it, I can only say: One, how scarred into my memory these images are. I was wrong on some things, but watching the film brought back a flood of memories, both visually and orally. Imagery, phrases, sounds, all came back in a flash. Two, this is a really dark film for children, even if it does include a cutesy unicorn.
It can also be found on YouTube, in ten minute installments. So, without further ado, Unico in the Island of Magic.
Click to view