2018 Geek-A-Long: The Last Unicorn

This week’s Geek-A-Long square was nominated by bookwyrm in the Fight For Your Fandom thread on Ravelry:

The Last Unicorn

(This was my gateway anime, way back when…)

1. There aren’t enough unicorns on the blankets
2. It’s been coming back into focus as 80’s fantasy things get remembered
3. “Magic, do what you will!”
4. The Last Unicorn has the option of retreating before the big red bull and joining the other unicorns in the sea, but no. She fights back. We all need a reminder sometimes to fight back.

I 100% agree there aren’t enough unicorns on the Geek-A-Long blankets, especially since this is the first one. FOR SHAME! As a card carrying Lisa Frank fanatic and child of the 80s, The Last Unicorn, rests in the same place of my heart that is reserved for movies like Willow, The Dark Crystal, The Secret of NIMH, Labyrinth, and Legend. The Last Unicorn has universal themes of bravery, love, loss of innocence, and regret. If you haven’t seen it and you like fairy stories, it’s worth watching. If you have seen it, it’s definitely worth revisiting.

I will, however, admit that as much as I loved the Last Unicorn growing up, it was also my nightmare fuel. I only got to watch it a couple of times before my mom figured out what was happening and took it away from me forever. If you’ve seen the movie before you’re probably nodding your head right now and thinking to yourself, “Yep, that whole situation at the Midnight Carnival messed me up.” Me too, guys. Me too.

About ten minutes into the Unicorn’s quest to rescue the rest of her kind from the Red Bull, she is captured by Mommy Fortuna, a witch who runs the Midnight Carnival. All of the animals are miserable in their tiny cages and have been enchanted to appear as magical creatures. All of them, of course, except for the Unicorn and the horrible, evil harpy. Even as a kid, I knew that situation was gonna go sideways.

There’s a brief moment where the movie lulls you into thinking it plans to return to it’s whimsical vibes when a young magician named Schmendrick helps free the Unicorn and the rest of the animals. But then they also decide to release the harpy, who – to no ones surprise – immediately starts to attack the Unicorn. Schmendrick cowers while the Unicorn tries to fend it off with her horn. Then, Mommy Fortuna enters stage right and starts laughing and screaming, and just generally rubbing it in the harpy’s eye that it never could have freed itself, the unicorn had to do it for him. The harpy does NOT take this well and he flies straight at Mommy Fortuna and starts ripping her apart.

You don’t see any blood or the actual mauling, but it definitely doesn’t fade to black either. He is clearly eating Mommy Fortuna alive.

Soooooo, maybe don’t watch The Last Unicorn with your kids until after you’ve previewed it?

Whether you’re knitting, crocheting, or cross stitching this square, you can download The Last Unicorn pattern here. Instructions and charts for both knit and crochet are listed in the pattern. When you’re finished making it, don’t forget to Instagram your squares at us @lattesandllamasyarn with the hashtag #geekalong!

If you’re having trouble with double-sided knitting, we have a how-to video here and a tutorial on crochet here. Want to hang out with other people making the blanket? You can find moral support in the Geek-A-Long group on Ravelry here.

~ Jac

P.S. The Butterfly was the original Navi. I mean, just look at this nonsense:

Butterfly: Listen. Don’t listen to ME. Listen. You can find the others if you are brave. They passed down all the roads long ago, and the Red Bull ran close behind them and covered their footprints. Listen! Listen, listen QUICKLY!

Unicorn: [agitated] I AM listening! Where did they go and what is the Red Bull?

Butterfly: Listen! LISTEN! [insane laughter]

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