SUNBURNT UNICORN
Starring: Diana Kaarina, Kathleen Barr, Brian Drummond, and Laara Sadiq
Director: Nick Johnson
This film has been reviewed by Nick and Paige as part of Bitesize Breakdown's coverage of the 2024 Fantasia International Film Festival.
NICK
Sunburnt Unicorn is a tricky film to navigate. By all accounts, it’s a children’s movie featuring themes and characters made for kids. However, there are times when it’s nearly only masquerading as a children’s film due to the inclusion of some startling imagery and story threads. This is arguably its biggest flaw because I’m not sure who exactly this is made for, ideally. If you can get past that, though, it’s an interesting story with some colourful visuals and a solid message about the relationship between fathers and sons. I just wish the animation was a little more mature to match its themes.
PAIGE
Sunburnt Unicorn is a coming-of-age desert fable that is less of an adventure and more of a fever dream. It tries to have a unique and vibrant animation style, but it comes off feeling unpolished. Furthermore, even though I found the various creatures that our lead character, Frankie (voiced by Diana Kaarina), encounters throughout his journey to be intriguing, I found Frankie to be quite obnoxious. In the end, I am not quite sure who this metaphoric story about a father and son’s relationship is intended for; its themes are too mature and explicit for kids, but its underdeveloped dialogue is too childish for adults.