Hello all
I'd like to let you know that I am not dead, and I've been trying to think about this review for a long time. I have not been able to think of a lengthy review for it, because it's hard to review a story without giving it away. My main idea was to focus on the three different mediums the story was presented, and how each one enhances or takes away from the story.
I do not wish to spoil the story because this is one of my favourites, and one I hope most people would pick up at one point in their lives.
So without further delay:
The Last Uncorn: Can a story be told in different mediums?
As some may recall, I did a review on the Watchmen movie exploring this same topic. I felt that despite the movie not capturing the entire aspect of the Watchmen comic, it did a pretty good job delaying with the set backs of certain limitations of a form.
A movie adaptation will never be perfect. Some have come close, but there is too much of a gap between a written story and a visual one. Written stories rely too much on provoking one's imagination through descriptive words and additional details to move the story along, while a movie can just show you what it is trying to portray. A book can be as many pages as the author wants. Movies are forced to stay in specific time restraints, or be pushed into a series of movies to tell the whole story. A book allows the reader to picture what they think certain things look like, while a movie keeps the image the same for everyone.
Despite these limitations, movie adaptations can be successful. I actually grew up watching The Last Unicorn movie before I read the book. I didn't even know it was a book until I was in high school. But when I read the book, I realized that the movie version did not stray from its original concept. Sure, there were some certain parts of the book that were cut out, but their omission did not seem to affect the overall story. I am certain that this was probably because the author of the book, Peter S Beagle was the one that wrote the screenplay for the movie. While he may have removed a chunk of backstory on certain characters, anyone who compares the book to the movie may be able to agree that some of it is just not that necessary to get the same messages and themes across.
There is one form of story telling however, that is a marriage of words and pictures. A comic.
IDW publishing announced that it would publish a series on The Last Unicorn. A 6 comic series throughout 2010 that was approved by Peter S Beagle once again. In fact, he himself adapted the story for a comic.
Much like movies, a comic can be limited as well. I suppose the publishing company has the last say on how many issues you may have and how many pages in each one. As an owner of a couple of trade series, it seems a little daft that IDW would force an author to telling a story in only a limited number of issues and pages. Beagle himself announced in the summer that in order for them to properly tell the story, they would need additional pages in the 5th and 6th issue in the series. IDW told them it was a cost issue, and Beagle himself (and I think some others) paid out of pocket to get these additional pages.
With the first 3 issues, I was quite excited. I did have a slight issue with the art because I was hoping that the artist would have used her own style for some of the characters. Most of them looked exactly like their cartoon movie counterparts. A comic is a great way to get anew persepctive, but I felt that by using the same image of the unicorn as the 1982 film just reinforces that the cartoony unicorn is the image the author himself finds to be the most accurate, which I have a hard time believing.
Another thing I did notice with the comic was it was very slow at story telling. When the comic series is only 6 issues long, and you haven't even reached the middle of your story yet by the end of issue #3, you risk cutting some poignant parts of the story. I was delighted that some of the book that was not able to make it into the movie worked its way into the comic though they might be slightly minor.
I felt that the last two issues were really lacking and I was not keen on their design. In issue #5, the artist decided to label a spread with a character's name. It just seemed so out of place, especially since the reader had already been acquainted with the characters. I also felt that this issue's layout was just so mumbled compared to the previous issues. Issue #5 is also the first time we meet the main antagonist. In both the book and movie, he speaks deeply about the reason why he has captured all the unicorns in the world for himself. The comic ignores this outright, which is a shame since it is with that speech he becomes a sympathetic character.
As if issue #5 wasn't bad enough, the last issue really dropped the ball. Much like the main antagonist, the Unicorn herself exits the story with a relfection of her quest that sets her apart from the rest of the unicorns because of the life changing situation she had encountered. Instead, in the comic, she leaves the story quite quickly. Her reflection is vague and hurried, like the entire quest wasn't a big deal. It just seemed so unfitting and I was quite disappointed.
The art was okay. As I mentioned, a lot of the characters were very much lifted from movie itself. I did like how the issues started very bright, then increasingly got darker and more grey until the end of the last issue., using the contrast to reflect the moods of the story.
Overall, I thought that a comic version of the story could have been utilized a better way than it was. There was a chance for the comic to bring in what the movie had missed, but also offer visual stimulation. It started off well, but petered out in the end. I am not sure if this was a decision made by the author, or there were too many restrictions placed upon him. I think if he was allowed to do an eight issue series instead of a 6th, it may have worked better in his favor. At the end of the day, I will likely buy the trade when it comes out because I have a collection of TLU items and I am a weird collector in that way. I do hope that the comic book version of the story has encouraged others to read the book (now in its 40th year). At the end of the day, I guess the book will always be better.
Now for some pictures from the comic!
