Platicsco
Good story, Not enough for a whole film
Whitech
It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.
Teddie Blake
The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"The Unicorn in the Garden" is an animated short film from 1953, which had its 60th anniversary a couple years ago and tells us the story of a husband and his wife. And a unicorn! The man sees a unicorn in the garden and tells his wife. She says it's nonsense, but he is resilient and finally gets his wife to take a look. Of course, by then the unicorn is long gone if it ever existed at all. The wife is downright evil though and tries to get her husband sent to a psychiatric ward to get rid of him, but her plan is not working in the very end. The ending was pretty cruel, but also entertaining. I must still say it went against the first couple minutes. So there never was a unicorn and it was just the man's plan and the audience was fooled? I am not sure. But I don't even dare asking if there really was a unicorn in the garden? Because the answer obviously would be: Of course not! A unicorn is a mythical creature. Little fun cartoon. Go see it.
preppy-3
Animated short about a man who sees a unicorn eating flowers in his garden one morning. He tells his wife who refuses to believe him and tries to have him committed...but it doesn't end up that way.The animation is a mess and the voices of the man and his wife don't quite match the drawings but I liked it. It was only 7 minutes long, the narrator was good and there are a load of clever visual jokes throughout. Also the music perfectly fits the mood of the piece. The moral of the story is puzzling and doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. Still, all in all, it's a fun short. I have nothing more to say but we do have to have 10 lines of text for every review so I had to write this sentence out:)
Michael_Elliott
The Unicorn in the Garden (1953) *** (out of 4) Charming and at times funny short from UPA has a husband seeing a unicorn eating flowers in his garden so he tells his wife who basically tells him to shut up and go on. The husband then sees the unicorn again and once again his mean wife pushes him away. After the second time the wife decides to call a mental hospital to report her husband. I'm not going to spoil where the film goes from here but there's no question that this animated short is very funny and the twist at the end is certainly good enough to make the film worth sitting through. Once again I can see how some might not enjoy the visual look of UPA but I think it really works well here and especially the scenes with the unicorn and the bright yellow background. I also thought the husband character was very charming and a perfect mix for the mean and dark wife. The animation fits the material quite well and I think fans of the genre should really enjoy it.
Robert Reynolds
The failure of AMPAS to nominate this cartoon for an Oscar is unbelievable! Granted, it was a good year for animated shorts and a good year particularly for UPA-Columbia, but this cartoon is simply delightful! Written by James Thurber and animated in Thurber's artistic style, it is his world come to life! If you like James Thurber, you'll love this cartoon, probably as much as I do! Highly recommended.Edit: Since I posted this particular comment, I discovered just why it wasn't nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Short Subject-it was never submitted to AMPAS for consideration, because Stephen Bosustow was, for some reason, not pleased with the end results. I think that it's a marvelous piece of work, but without submission for consideration, the Academy could not nominate the short. I've since watched it several times and it is still highly recommended.
