Thelma the Unicorn, 2024.
Directed by Lynn Wang and Jared Hess.
featuring the voice talents of Brittany Howard, Will Forte, Jemaine Clement, Edi Patterson, Maliaka Mitchell, Ally Dixon, Fred Armisen, Zach Galifianakis, Jon Heder, Sherry Cola, Natalie Morales, James Urbaniak, Kristen Schaal, Jared Hess, Héctor Jiménez, Shondrella Avery, Lynn Wang, Pam Coats, David Michie, Daran Norris, Geno Segers, Roger Craig Smith, Kimberly Bailey, Juan Pacheco, Grey Griffin, and Birdie Hess.
SYNOPSIS:
When a rare pink and glitter-filled moment of fate makes Thelma the Pony’s wish of being a unicorn come true, she rises to instant international pop-superstar stardom, but at an unexpected cost.
Farm animals have dreams, too. From directors Lynn Wang and Jared Hess (with the latter writing the screenplay alongside Jerusha Hess, based on books by Aaron Blabey), Thelma the Unicorn envisions a rural working-class barn life where such animals not only communicate with humans but also take up jobs in society, including the entertainment business which appears to be dominated by singing creatures. Whenever there is free time, pony Thelma (voiced by Brittany Howard) rocks out with her bandmates, a dimwitted llama (voiced by Jon Heder, technically making for a Napoleon Dynamite collaborative reunion for him and one half of the directing team) and wise donkey (voiced by Will Forte), performing for a fantasy audience with lofty ambitions to one day play Sparklepalooza, a music festival seemingly strictly made up of animal acts.
The current popular act is self-absorbed pop star Nikki Narwhal (a whale, if the name was too subtle, voiced by Ally Dixon) partnered up with a greedy record label executive named Vic Diamond (voiced by Jemaine Clement), who we quickly gather turned her to the sellout side of fame and success. Apparently, people only want to watch flashy animals performing, typically blurting out nonsense lyrics, coming across like a commentary on the state of the music industry.
This also means despite Thelma having a striking singing voice, no one really cares to listen until a reckless trucker (voiced by Zach Galifianakis) zooms over a pothole that causes buckets of convenient colors of paint to go flying, covering the pony and morphing her look into a sparkling unicorn. Within seconds, a bypassing young disabled girl forces her family to stop the car, exclaiming that “unicorns are real!” It is also moving to observe a character with physical uniqueness enamored by and connecting to a mythological creature such as a unicorn, with that small relationship also getting a heartfelt callback during the climax.
The singing career also instantly takes off, with Thelma the Unicorn embarking on the exact narrative path one would expect: an identity crisis getting lost in being someone else that people prefer to cheer, a transition from meaningful songs about big dreams to hits-chasing to a carefully curated image that also brings in manufactured empty relationships for the public eye to consume obsessively. That last one involves Danny Stallion (voiced by Fred Armisen), who appears to be vapid and dumb (singing songs about bodily movements) but is actually going along with the humiliation as a means to put the money towards a more dignified, personally fulfilling career path.
These are all worthwhile messages to put in a kids’ movie, but Thelma the Unicorn is almost exclusively about the messaging, forgetting to be charming, funny, silly, or even complex. It’s almost too grounded and might even be too obvious for children in its themes. It’s an animated feature that, while moderately amusing with cute voiceovers, meanders in its execution with no real sense of making any of this exciting or worth investing in. Bafflingly, the filmmakers show no interest in commenting on the fact that practically all the animals here seemingly exist to either work for humans or entertain them. Despite the pleasantly occasional oddball jokes and good intentions, there is no sparkle here.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
