The Last Unicorn, Rankin/Bass, 1982.

K: “So I was watching The Last Unicorn the other day, and they have these butterflies in it which are seriously irritating characters because they can only speak by repeating songs and words from poetry that they have heard. But then this one little butterfly starts singing, ‘One alone, to be my own…’ and I was like ‘Holy crap, a Desert Song reference?!?!?’ How many people would even get that reference?”

M: “Probably more than we might actually think.”

K: “But probably way less than would make us happy.”

We fondly remember The Last Unicorn from our childhood and a number of years back, when K lived in Austin, TX, she attended a screening of the film at The Alamo Draft House and swears she was the only adult in the theatre. (We also saw the Quote Along screening of The Princess Bride there, which was totally Epic!)

The Desert Song, 1926.

We also fondly remember The Desert Song, a totally awesome musical about a character that can be described as a mix between Zorro and Wesley/The Dread Pirate Roberts from The Princess Bride. Our dad was a member of the cast of a community theatre production of this musical when we were little and we loved going to the practices, dress rehearsals, and then finally the performances. We played Desert Song in the backyard and sang all the songs at the top of our little lungs.

A life-long love of musical productions was cemented by those early experiences and we voraciously digested the Rogers & Hammerstein collections on VHS, and attended community theatre productions every chance we got.

Isn’t it odd how things about which you were once so passionate fall by the wayside as you “grow up” and precious memories get relegated to the dusty corners of your mind?

We are suddenly feeling the need to re-watch Rock-a-doodle and go see a haphazard production of some obscure play starring the guy who helped us change a flat tire on our way home from the grocery store.