The Last Unicorn (film) - Production

Production

Peter S. Beagle stated that there had been interest in creating a film based on the book "early on". Those who expressed interest included Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez, though Beagle had been convinced by one of their partners' wives that they were "not good enough", and former 20th Century Fox animator Les Goldman. At the time, Beagle believed that "animated was the only way to go" with regard to the film, and had never thought of making it into a live-action film. Rankin/Bass had been the last studio that the film's associate producer, Michael Chase Walker, approached, and Beagle was "horrified" when he was informed that they had made a deal with Walker. Beagle stated that he has "…come to feel that the film is actually a good deal more than I had originally credited", and went on to say "There is some lovely design work – the Japanese artists who did the concepts and coloring were very good. And the voice actors do a superb job in bringing my characters to life…"

While Rankin/Bass provided the film's dialogue and story based on Beagle's work, the animation was done by the studio Topcraft. The studio was later hired by Hayao Miyazaki to work on Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, and their core members eventually went on to form Studio Ghibli. According to Beagle, the final film ended up being "remarkably close" to his original script, although one scene at the end involving an encounter with a princess was "animated but eventually cut."