Talkie Tuesday: Voyage of the Unicorn

"Credendo vides."

Hello everyone!

I still have a bunch of new movies to watch - and then what do I do? 

I go and dig up a fifteen year old movie to watch instead, that's what!

I'll admit I'm not usually like this, I tend to not watch that many old movies to begin with, but I was organising some of my writing information the other day (this will make sense in a second, I swear) when I came across some old drawings that I did waaaaaaaay back when for my first ever serious fanfiction.

I'm still not making sense, am I?

Besides oneof the illustrations of what turned out to be a battle ensemble, I jotted down 'Miranda - Voyage of the Unicorn', and that got me thinking that I'd probably seen this in a movie somewhere. So I opened Uncle Google up and voila!

Lo and behold, my memory was actually not that faulty: once upon a time, when Hallmark still broadcast in my country, a movie titled Voyage of the Unicorn was on quite a lot.

Repetitions were a big part of our TV schedule - still are, Sense and Sensibility is on EVERY DAY, I swear - and so I had a lot of chances of watching VoU whenever I had the time. It's a typical Hallmark movie, which means family fun oriented, probable religious message, and a fairytale quality to the story.

The story in itself goes like this: a widowed professor, Aisling, and his two daughters, Miranda and Cassie, are grieving the loss of the matriarch of the family in their own ways, which for the father means a lot of work, for the older daughter trying to keep the family together, and for the younger daughter starving herself and browsing through her mother's portfolio.

One night, they are attacked by a band of Trolls, led by Skotos (who I actually liked this time around because he's such an arrogant idiot lol), who want to finish off the family because of a prophecy said family knows nothing about. Luckily, a ship appears at the docks, called the Unicorn, with Malachi the Dwarf and Sebastian the Elf on board to ship them all to safety (pun intended; also, keep in mind this is pre-Lord of the Rings Elves).

They are taken to Titania and Oberon, the King and Queen of Faery, where they learn that according to the prophecy, they will be the ones to free captive heroes, bring about the rebirth of a legend, and generally cause Skotos headaches.

Off they go on an adventure that includes finding the dragon's skull (him, they have to somehow get to the rebirthing process), bring along the Minotaur, save themselves from Medusa and the Sphinx, end up with Malachi as a stone statue so they need to grab silver apples to seduce a unicorn along with them and make it cry for the captain to be reformed, and then go and defeat Skotos after the Trolls manage to steal the dragon skull.

See, the Trolls want to rule all the islands in Faery, and in all fairness Skotos could probably do it if not for the Aislings who, despite their friends getting caught by the Trolls, manage to even out the fight and Cassie's belief eventually brings the dragon back to life. They wake up the next morning in their own beds, thinking it was all just a dream, but in reality they now have the skills and confidence they gained through their quest and their lives finally manage to even out again.

The end!

I remembered, while watching, why I originally liked the story so much - since it's a story about self-discovery it does resonate with the viewer. Only, now that I'm older, I wanted to smack some of the characters SO bad!

Mostly, the youngest daughter. Sure, she was the one everything was hinged on, her belief the driving force of the whole thing, but I mean, come ON: all she really did was prance around like it's not even a little bit dangerous, got herself into trouble, then cried for her dad and sister to get her out, only to get hissy with them later when things didn't go just how she wanted them to.

Newsflash: if you're not off-age yet, you should probably listen to your elders. And even later you should keep on doing that.

Cassie grated me to no end, but aside from that (and some heavy-duty religious undertones) I actually enjoyed the movie quite a bit and I'll probably be watching it again at some point.

xx

*images and video not mine