The Netflix animated content titled “Thelma the Unicorn” steers clear of plot exhaustion owing to its witty style and quirky characters, even though the concept of the story is one that has been done before. The story is vividly illustrated and is that of how a regular pony disguises herself as an fabled creature to win renown. Unfortunately, as Thelma pursues her fantasies, she abandons her real self and those close to her as well.
This is the first time Jared Hess and Lynn Wang, chairs of the film, have worked on an animated film. Hess, a writer and director of the indie movie “Napoleon Dynamite,” has recently made Queen’s Evil Queen’s nominated animated short about a death row prisoner and is now working on a new film. He co-wrote it with his spouse and co-worker Jerusha Hess, who also co-wrote this film. It’s hard to imagine that work is connected to this one, which takes place in a world where humans live alongside talking animals.
The singing heroine, torn between her emotions, has been portrayed by Brittany Howard, the ex-lead singer from Alabama Shakes. Visually a pony with a squat aggregation is dissonance to the Griffith’s extra sensing deep melodious voice, that would be enjoyed with some soulful rock rather than some monotonous pop. In this regard Thelma’s role essentially shifts because her singing which definitely comes from Howard is always in such dissonance with her appearance that there’s no need to judge the woman for her looks.
Perhaps the most profound deviation from the plot of the source, but not the essence of the story is the design of Thelma, which might have been inspired by Howard’s personality and hair. But here they go to suggest that the animals in this world are not slaves to the humans, even if Thelma resides on a farm with her friends and bandmates, Otis (Will Forte) and Reggie, who are both donkeys. Also, Thelma works instead of being a housewife.
The band, the Rusty Buckets, attempts to participate in a significant musical event only to be met with disappointment. But maybe it is their time on the day that Thelma gets famous over a single night. With her sudden transformation into a sparkly pink for a unicorn with a carrot as her unicorn, it is easy to predict that the climax of the film would involve exposing her secret. An online video gets Vic Diamond (Jemaine Clement) to pursue Thelma because he does not care what he does and looks like someone who has walked out of a 70’s movie (think Swan from ‘Phantom of the Paradise’).
Things start to turn comically sharp when, la “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping,” the film leans into its intention of making a dark satire of the music industry. One such scene features Nikki Narwhal (Allison Dixon) a jealous aquatic pop star and Vic who portray the multiple sides of the industry: there is a scene where Vic reads Nikki a negative review of her Las Vegas performance and later even hilariously drives a boat along the L.A. River’s dry bed crusted with concrete. The moment Thelma agrees to be represented by Vic, she receives an endorsement from an imaginary relations with a pop horse, typical for old Hollywood and we also see mocking the AI as a machine creates a dumb song about cud in less than 20 seconds.
Graphically, “Thelma the unicorn” is almost just like any other mediocre computer animated film. Most of the human characters do not even have the ambition to be differentiated, and can easily be replaced or added into any film from the ‘Despicable Me’ franchise. Similarly, the animals straight out of ‘Sing’ could have walked about the stage as if they were made for it. If such differences exist on a finer level, they are hardly perceptible against the striking monotony of design, texture and lighting that is rather uninspiring.
Nonetheless, the Hess pair insert absurd jokes in their screenplay through supporting characters’ thoughts and emotions. There is even a guy obsessed with Thelma such that he would want to be her child; it is probably a satirical reference to a subsection of adult men in the society who are known to fanatically adore the ‘My little pony’ cartoon. Some may find the serious comedic truth in a girl requesting to Thelma’s man to autograph the container that holds her grandmother’s ashes. Collectively, these sorts of these tiny moments (and there are many) stick in memory more than the main plot and its blatantly simplistic idea. Not that “Leo” was any more pale than last year’s simpler production, Hess and Wang’s piece has enough audacious touches to save it from the bluntness of the previous show.
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