Back around the time the first eukaryotic organisms were developing on the Earth’s sea floor, I coined the term “Tar and Sugar Movies” to describe the earliest films of the Walt Disney Animated Feature canon. I chose the name in reference to the often jarring tonal shifts between cloying cutsiness and shocking darkness of those films. In retrospect though, I think I got it wrong. The true Golden Age of the Tar and Sugar aesthetic was not the late thirties and forties, but the nineteen eighties.

Here is the typical eighties cartoon experience:

“Golly Gee! This sure is a fun picnic! I just hope that mean ol’ Lord Hexxodrexx doesn’t show up to spoil everything.”“I HAVE COME TO DEVOUR YOUR FUCKING SOULS!!! GRAAAAAAAA!!!”

And I think, with today’s movie, I may have found the ultimate Tar and Sugar movie. And, as in most things in this life, they do it better in Japan.

I don’t have to introduce Osamu Tezuka by this point, do I? Born in 1920s Osaka, created manga and animé as we know it, the Japanese Walt Disney, one of the most influential animators of all time you know all this. He was also quite possibly one of the most prolific creators in history, writing and drawing well over 700 manga series in his lifetime encompassing virtually any genre you could think of and targeted at every possible age demographic. The basis for today’s movie was the children’s manga Unico, about a cute little unicorn who has magical powers that he uses to bring happiness and joy to everyone he meets.

Well, I’m sure there’s no way that could possibly take a dark turn.

“YOUR SOULS!!!”

This movie takes two different Unico storylines and tries to amalgamate them into a single narrative. That “tries” should probably tip you off as to how elegantly it succeeds in that but hey ho.

We begin with the birth of of Unico who is, the narrator assures us, a baby unicorn.

Well, who are you going to believe, the narrator or your lying eyes?

Here’s the thing. Tezuka could draw horses. This was a choice.

We get a little song which explains that Unico travels across the world bringing peace and joy and joyness to everyone.

He is the Messiah!

But the gods are unhappy. They think that only they should get to decide when people are happy and so they resolve to murder Unico.

Realising that killing a baby unicorn who does nothing but spread peace and joy would be a public relations nightmare they summon the West Wind to kidnap Unico and exile him somewhere where he can never return. The West Wind takes pity on Unico however, and instead leaves him abandoned on a desolate barren wasteland devoid of life where time itself seems to have died.

“Why am I in Mullingar?”

Unico wanders around this wasteland for a bit looking for someone to teach about the magic of friendship in his sweet little voice. It was quite a shock for me to learn who actually voices him.

Damn, that’s some range.

Anyway, Unico finds what I can only describe as a Satanic temple guarded by a massive stone demon called the Devil of Solitude. Unico asks if he wants to be friends. The Devil of Solitude does not, in fact, want to be friends. The devil tries to kill Unico with lightning but ends up striking a massive stone pillar which falls, smashing the devil like an egg.

Unfortunate accident? Or the perfect crime?

You decide.

Shit. He has a taste for blood now.

In the smashed remains of the statue Unico finds a tiny blue devil named Beezle, who is understandably upset that his Dad has just been murdered in his own home. Unico wants to know if Beezle will be his friend because this little psychopath just cannot read the room but Beezle agrees once he has the concept explained to him and realises that friendship means being allowed to borrow other people’s stuff and yes, I definitely have had friendships like that.

Fun fact. In the manga his Dad is Lucifer which makes this cute little guy the literal anti-Christ.

This is as good a point as any to talk about the animation and also, I guess, a good time for me to make my terrible confession.

Ahem.

I don’t really rate Tezuka as an animator.

Obviously I respect the hell out of his impact on the medium and his prodigious output. But just on the base level of making lines on a page move? No…I don’t really dig it. I think his character designs are overly cutesy and the actual animation tends to be quite simple and sluggish. Look, Walt Disney wasn’t exactly a Rembrandt with a brush himself, there are other ways to be a great animator than animating. The animation in Unico is probably the best animation I’ve seen by Tezuka, but I always find it interesting when it’s clear that animators have a favourite character and here it’s obvious that Beezle is Daddy’s special little guy. He’s over here getting 24 glorious frames a second while the other characters are getting the Poochie treaatment.

Anyway, Beezle agrees to be Unico’s friend as long as Unico gives him his horn (this movie has a large queer fanbase? Get out of here, that can’t be right). Unico reluctantly agrees to let Beezle have his horn but only for a day and pretty much instantly regrets it.

Unico falls into the sea and starts to drown and begs Beezle to save him but Beezle says that he doesn’t do stuff like that because he’s a devil and is ontologically evil.

So he leaves Unico to drown and goes back to his cave. But then he realises that if Unico drowns he won’t be able to give him back his horn, thus breaking his word. Because he’s not going to renege on a contract, he may be pure evil but he’s not that pure evil. Anyway, he runs back to the ocean where Unico has been slowly drowning for hours and sees that he’s floated way out into the see and exclaims “suffering Satan!”

So I gotta wonder, this movie was broadcast in heavy rotation in America during the eighties. Did this film get caught up the Satanic panic? I kinda feel like it would have been a prime target. Anyway, he saves Unico and, in gratitude for finally doing the right thing* Unico, grants him a horn of his own. Beezle is overjoyed and starts bouncing all around the island which makes it green and sunny. The gods notice and realise that the West Wind didn’t take Unico as far away as they wanted and decide to call in another wind, the Night Wind.

What’s interesting is that whether you think she looks angry or bored depends on whether or not you realise those are her eyelids and not her forehead.

Any, the West Wind shows up and tells Unico that the Night Wind is on her way and they gotta am-scray. She spirits Unico away without even giving him a chance to say goodbye to Beezle. She takes him to an idyllic forest land which probably should have been her first choice as opposed to the barren, demon-infested rock she left him on last time.

As you’ve probably guessed, this takes as to the adaptation of the next manga storyline. Unico meets Katy, a little black and white kitten who’s floating down a river in a basket after being abandoned. Katy is obviously deeply traumatised by this but, fortunately, she has a plan: REVENGE.

Katy wants to be turned into a human girl so that she can become a witch and uses her dark occult powers to wreck havoc on all who displease her (seriously, how did this not get every eighties televangelist frothing at the gills?). She explains this in a song sequence full of abstract imagery, non-standard animation and an utterly baffling Hello Kitty cameo.

Unico and Katy stumble across an old lady’s cabin in the woods, and the old dear takes them in. But, Katy thinks that she is a witch who’ll turn her into a human, while Unico tries to explain that she’s just an old lady and doesn’t have any magical powers beyond the ones that all old women have.

Unico takes pity on Katy and uses his own power to turn her into a young woman. Katy continues living at the cottage and helping the old woman with her chores, but she quickly gets bored of that and starts skiving off. Unico chastises her for leaving the old woman to do all the work on her own and confesses that he was the one who transformed her. To prove it, he turns her back into a cat and when she begs to be human again he tells her that he can’t because his magic only works on people he likes and he doesn’t like her anymore.

Unico was able to use his magic on the literal son of Satan who tried to stab him and left him to drown for hours. I think Unico’s power works just fine. I think Unico knows he’s got her hooked on humanity, and now he’s reeling her in.

“First taste’s free. After that, you gotta pay.”

But, after Katy helps save the old woman from drowning he turns her back into a human.

One day, while singing by the river, Katy is accosted by the Baron de Ghost, a dark mysterious stranger with red eyes riding a jet black steed.

“I’m evil. But you can totally fix me.”

He invites her to his castle in the middle of the deep dark wood, plies her wine until she passes out and then carries her to bed, telling her to enjoy her dreams as they’ll be her last.

“Holy shit!”

But Unico follows her to the castle and, seeing that De Ghost is planning De Sexual Assault, he distracts him and then runs to Katy’s room and wakes her up. He then uses his horn to dig his way out of the castle. But De Ghost tracks them down in the forest and he and Unico have a swordfight which is surprisingly epic.

Unico breaks De Ghost’s sword but De Ghost blasts him with a green light of pure evil (which, at the time of writing, is a legal move according to the Fédération Internationale d’Escrime). Unico is knocked unconscious and De Ghost vanishes into the sky with Katy, cackling evilly (redundant really, who ever cackled wholesomely?)

The West Wind finds Beezle and tells him that Unico needs his help and they fly off to rescue him. They’re intercepted by the Night Wind but once they reach the forest the daylight forces the Night Wind to retreat. See, this is why the gods should have sent the Ol’ North Wind. That dude could get shit done.

Beezle wakes Unico up and they race to the castle to save Katy. De Ghost has her tied to a lightning rod at the top of his castle for reasons that are so insultingly obvious that I won’t bother explaining them here.

Unico, obviously, tries to reason with De Ghost and show him the magic of friendship…nah, I’m kidding, he stabs that fool and he falls to his apparent death, becoming impaled on one of his own towers.

The castle starts to collapse around them and Unico, Katy and Beezle race for the exit. But then De Ghost suddenly comes back to life and turns into what I can only call “Kaijiu Satan”.

“MAGIC WAND! MAKE MY MONSTER GROW!”

So, we are in full on Book of Revelations Mode here. A tsunami of magma flows through the forest, trees turn into dragons, red bats scour the land.

Unico decides that he’s going to fucking murder this asshole however many times it takes, grows some wings and flies up to battle De Ghost, only to get his horn cut off by his axe.

He lies dying on the ground, but Katy cries over him and, as we all know from Pokémon the movie, animé tears are the most powerful force in the universe. Beezle also gives Unico the horn that he gave him and before their eyes Unico transforms into a beautiful white Alicorn, which he can do now that they’ve proven that they love him.

“I need to be validated before I save the world.”

Unico cuts through De Ghost like a hot knife through butter and everyone’s happy.

But, the West Wind comes again and whisks Unico off to another land before the Night Wind finds him.

Beezle is devastated to lose his friend again, but I’m sure they’ll be reunited in the sequel. Tezuka wouldn’t be that cruel, would he?

Oh. I guess he would.

***

It’s weird to feel nostalgia for something you never grew up with but Unico is absolutely steeped in that very particular eighties animé vibe that I can’t help but love. It’s a weird ass little movie, but damn if it doesn’t feel like home.

Animation: 14/20

As I said, I’m not the biggest fan of Tezuka as an animator but there are some striking visuals here.

Lead: 10/20

I have a soft spot for characters that are sweet as sugar while still being able to absolutely wreck shop.

Villain: 13/20

I feel like this guy is responsible for like half of my generation’s fetishes.

Supporting Characters: 12/20

And here’s Katy with the other half.

Music: 03/20

The songs sound like the Japanese lyrics were thrown into Google Translate and then set to music.

FINAL SCORE: 52%

NEXT UPDATE: 27 November 2025

NEXT TIME: This is it. My final reader request.

Yeah, you LOOK like a final boss.