YMMV / The Fantastic Adventures of Unico

• Awesome Music: The 2022 Italian dub of the movie has a new theme song performed by Santo Verduci (who also voices Akuma/Beezle in the dub) called "Le fantastiche avventure di Unico", which perfectly captures the film and original manga's cute, hopeful, and optimistic tone with some ominous moments in the mix. An extended version of the theme song is heard on the 6th album of Contactoons, which was released to digital platforms on October 26, 2022.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Along with Unico in the Island of Magic, this film has gained a very dedicated cult following in the United States, especially since the Disney Channel used to frequently air the Sanrio film series throughout the 1980s. Not only was it their first exposure to children's anime, but it caused the original manga series to gain an official English translation in 2012. In recent years, the movie would receive an occasional theatrical showing at a few independent movies theaters and underground film festivals across the United States. Americans love Unico so much that the Kickstarter campaign for the Unico: Awakening manga was fully funded before it turned 24 hours old. News of the campaign's success actually caught the attention of Scholastic, who announced that the new Unico manga series will be published as part of its Graphix imprint line.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: A magical unicorn teaches other people lessons about friendship and becomes powered-up into a Winged Unicorn if their friendship is strong enough. I wonder if another series took cues from this one...?
• Ho Yay: Despite their relationship having a rocky start. Unico and Beezle/Akuma-kun's relationship with each other in both the original manga and 1981 film shows that their interactions can almost border on innocently homoerotic at times.
  • Unico crying as he's silently watching Beezle sitting alone after initially refusing to let Beezle to borrow his horn on becoming his "True Friend". Beezle, on the other hand, gets very frustrated over his feelings toward Unico by telling himself "I hate him, but can't stop thinking about him!" due to deeply believing his role as "The Demon of Solitude".
  • Beezle's idea of "playing" is by roughhousing with Unico, such as treating Unico like a grown horse despite Unico not enjoying this due to his weight and getting whipped by Beezle's tail. Beezle ends up hurting himself after falling off Unico's back. When Unico notices Beezle crying, he runs up to quickly calm him down by licking him, much to Beezle's dismay, where responds by punching him.
  • After Beezle returns Unico's horn so Unico will regain his powers and not die in the ocean, Unico transforms into "The Mighty Unicorn" to save Beezle from drowning. He's shocked and confused when he notices Unico's different appearance. After he turns back to normal, Unico explains to him that he has the ability to transform into "The Mighty Unicorn" if someone truly loves him. He then tells Beezle "I guess you love me Beezle.", while giving him a warm smile before rewarding Beezle with his own horn due to Beezle's selfless behavior.
• LGBT Fanbase: The movie has gained a dedicated LGBT fanbase due to viewers quickly noticing the amount of gay subtext between Unico and Beezle. In the West, both characters are a popular pairing in fanart for the film and the original manga.
• Moment of Awesome: Near the end of the movie, Unico has just had his horn cut off by the Big Bad, and his friends, Katy and Beezle, run to his body. Katy mourns his death by cradling him and bargaining away her being human if he'll just open his eyes, while Beezle declares that "I don't need this stupid horn! I'll give it back to you! Please open your eyes..." And plants the horn on Unico's head... cue Unico's taking a level in badass and proceeding to one-hit kill a 50-story tall demon.What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway? The best kind!
• Narm: Unico's normal form is a baby unicorn with an appropriate voice that sounds as young. Thing is, Unico keeps that voice the short amount of time he's transformed into a full-grown winged stallion, so this noble-looking majestic beast still has the voice of an approximate 5-year-old kid.
• Nightmare Fuel: In the climax, The Baron getting impaled on a turret spike, then turning into a giant demon that vomits red bats.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Years before she became well-known as the English voice of Rita Replusa and Laharl in the west. Barbara Goodson is the English voice of Unico in this movie and its sequel.
  • Cheryl Chase is also the English voice of Beezle, years before hitting it big with Nickelodeon's Rugrats as Angelica Pickles.
• Superlative Dubbing:
  • Compared to other 80s era English Dubs of anime during this period. The English Dub for this movie and Unico: In The Island Of Magic is surprisingly decent when it comes to performances. Notably Barbara Goodson's performance as Unico since she's able to make Unico sound more endearing and charming increasing his cuteness factor.
  • The Spanish dub for the Unico movies ^note  Known as Unico, El Pequeño Unicornio and Unico En La Isla mágica also brings out some very decent vocal performances for the characters. Verónica Castro's performances as Unico is extremely cute and more emotional alongside the Spanish voice of Katy.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?:
  • When this and its sequel Unico in the Island of Magic were released direct-to-video in the U.S. in the early 1980s, several reviewers of children's videos were shocked by the creepy villains and especially the violence, especially contrasted with the cute protagonists; the author of the reference book Kidvid said that well before the end of his screening of this film with some under-10s, they were covering their eyes in terror.
  • While tame by today's standards, streaming services frequently rate Fantastic Adventures as a PG-13, which is more suitable to the dark and sometimes creepy imagery and violence present. Island of Magic, however, still has a PG equivalent.
  • A LOT of 80s kids who grew up with the film have come back to it absolutely shocked by the date rape context. While it was certainly something that would go over children's heads, a cute, funny, animated film containing DATE RAPE as rising action is pretty jaw-dropping.

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