tavm Review of A Unicorn in the Garden

A Unicorn in the Garden (1953)

The Unicorn in the Garden is another excellent UPA animated short

[10/10 · 13 June 2007]

James Thurber's The Unicorn in the Garden, as animated by the artists of UPA Studios, is a wonderfully humorous fable about the glories of imagination and the follies of bitterness. The man here represents the former and his wife, the latter. Whether we are meant to believe the man really saw the unicorn or dreamt the whole thing in order to get his wife committed should probably be up for someone else to consider but it's obvious he wasn't happy for a long time with her around and was very glad when she was sent away. Half of me wondered when the wife talked to the psychiatrist whether the doctor himself had seen a unicorn and wanted to protect himself when the husband made the "mythical creature" remark and not reveal he had indeed seen one before. Of course, all that is hearsay so I'll just say that UPA has made another great animated short that should be a classic forever and ever!