Unico In The Island Of Magic! Part Two!!

When we last left off, we were halfway through a movie and the following events had occurred:

1) A talking cat demonstrated the ability to coerce birds and frogs to sing in harmony after putting them in a pair of headphones.

2) A guy named Toby working for Marty Feldman circa Young Frankenstein turned a whole bunch of people into "living puppets" and used them to build up a castle/keep/estate into something bigger.

3) Our heroes (Unico and Sheri) were eaten by a steampunk dragon before being turned into dolls by Toby and stored in a wall for safekeeping, however they were then later used by Lord Kuruku (the boss I refered to above) in a huge musical play number.

4) Toby is Sheri's older brother in what was one of the worst kept secrets of the whole film...and yet, they managed to get that big plot reveal out of the way within the first 45 minutes of the film instead of leaving it to be an obvious reveal later.  Kudos, film.

So let's continue down this trippy adventure, and keep in mind that as bizarre as things are so far, they're gonna get stranger.

Unico In The Island Of Magic: Part One!

If you're currently reading this, then you're obviously aware that I decided to make this Unico Week in this blog.  Well, that's unless this happens to be the first post of my you've ever read, in which case welcome to Unico Week here at Erik At The Gates.

We're at the second movie, which I have a much stronger emotional attachment to as well as much more vivid memories surrounding.  There were things in this film that just stuck with me through my life, to a point where, a few years ago, I was trying to remember the movie with "that unicorn and the people who-" well, I won't give any spoilers, but I will say that everything I remembered originally came from this one movie.

Well, almost everything.

Man, that thing still freaks me out.

So let's look at the second movie featuring a brave little unicorn, and prepare to have your minds blown with how crazy animation from Japan was in the 1980s.

The Fantastic Adventures of Unico! Part 3!

When we last left off, a baby unicorn has been kidnapped, befriended a demon, almost drowned, kidnapped again, met a singing cat that he turned into a human girl, and licked a monkey back to health.  The girl-formerly-known-as-a-cat, meanwhile, met a mysterious dark stranger, fell deeply in love, and ate a berry that made her heavily intoxicated as dark magic guided her to a mysterious mansion.

Will Unico safe Katie The Girl Who Isn't A Cat Anymore?  Will the forest return to normal?  Will he ever see Beezle again?  Does any of this make any sense to anybody who hasn't been watching this movie?

Can things possibly get any weirder?

You better believe it.

Let's get into the third segment.

The Fantastic Adventures of Unico! Part 2!

Yesterday, in order to celebrate my 200th post since I initially created this blog and failed multiple times to get it going worked on hammering out the bugs in my idea of what to post, I decided to take a break from a cartoon show that only a sugar-addled child would enjoy and look back at a show that I loved when I was a child, one that not even the advance of time could destroy my appreciation of.

So I dug out Unico, the most heartwarming and bittersweet combination I can think of in an animated form.

So let's dig into the second part of the first DVD and get ready for big smiles and moments that make you just want to hug a stuffed animal punch things and be manly.

Right.

Plumbing Shallow Waters: Episode Nnnnnnnnnh!

Finally.  After weeks of watching one of my childhood joys stick a knife into my side and twist as I could do nothing but scream, I've come to the end of this torture.  After this week, I can go on to any kind of programming I want to review.  I could pull up something I enjoyed that probably still holds up, like Mighty Max or Gargoyles.  I could look at an established classic like X-Men or Batman.  I could even start reviewing movies or programs I never watched before.

But first I have to get past one more episode, and I'll be completely finished with this insipid, lazy, worthless program for good.  Just. One. More. Episode.

Hold on, let me do some quick math here.

Let's see, I did this many episodes of My Little Pony, I did my movie breakdowns, I have the posts from way back in the old days...

I think this is my 200th post.  Huh.

Forget Mario, then, I'm going to do something I'm going to actually enjoy to celebrate this pointless event because of how long it took to make it milestone.

I'm taking this week to review Unico.

Top Eleven: Openings From Anime

I've gone on before about theme songs in shows and how important they are.  Something I hadn't originally considered is how difficult it must also be for shows that are going to be transferred from one country to another.  Do you dub over the voices with new words?  Do you leave it as it is and just add subtitles?  Or do you simply have no words at all and let the words speak for themselves?

This became more apparent the more I thought about a lot of the programs I watched from Japan, and which ones had me hooked just by the theme song and which ones pretty much lost me right from the get-go.

So, in honor of that, here's my completely self-absorbed list of my eleven favorite themes from anime.

From Erik's Kitchen: Salmon, Spinach, and Beans!

Ever want to make a simple dinner that only takes five minutes to cook?  Well, now you can!

More after the jump.