'Thelma the Unicorn' Review: Look At Me, Now!

Directed by Jared Hess ('Napoleon Dynamite') and Lynn Wang, based on Aaron Blabey's children's book series, the animated film is now streaming on Netflix.

Now Streaming: An Australian actor turned children's book author, Aaron Blabey created The Bad Guys, first published in 2015, which was adapted into a big-screen animated movie, released in 2022, that was quite enjoyable. Blabey has written a number of other books before and after, including Thelma the Unicorn, a two-book series that has now been adapted by Jared Hess and Jersuha Hess into an animated confection that is high on sugar and low on nutritious content.

Like all films aimed at the family audience, there are Lessons To Be Learned. In this case, Thelma (voiced by singer, musician, and first-time actor Brittany Howard) yearns to be a singer and has formed a band, The Rust Buckets, with her barnyard friends Otis (Will Forte), a donkey, and Danny (Fred Armisen), a horse. Their audition to play in the annual Sparklepalooza music festival ends, even before they can play a note, based solely on their lowly, ordinary appearance. 

Improbably, Thelma gets soaked in pink paint with a carrot stuck on her head, just in time for passing strangers to see her in the isolated farm property. "Look, mommy! A real unicorn!" And so it goes until Thelma is a big star who has forgotten her friends and left her old life behind. Obviously, she must be Taught A Lesson. 

Benefiting from sterling voice work by Forte, Armisen, Jemaine Clement as a pushy talent agent, Edi Patterson as an even pushier rival talent manager, Maliaka Mitchell as a blind record producer, and Zach Galifianakis as a helpful, if clumsy, truck driver, the film also features very good and distinctive character designs for the animals and more exagerrated, cartoonish designs for the human characters. The backgrounds and layouts are beautifully detailed. 

Undoubtedly, Thelma the Unicorn succeeds as a family-friendly adventure, with its potty humor fully justifying its PG rating. It's far less successful in its appeal to adults; the visual and verbal gags rely entirely on juvenile humor, which tends to be increasingly grating the more it's repeated throughout the runtime.

Together, Jared Hess and Jerusha Hess have written Napoleon Dynamite (2004), Nacho Libre (2006), and Gentlemen Broncos (2009). None of them have appealed to my sense of humor, but if you love one or all of those films, then, certainly, be sure to add Thelma the Unicorn to your watchlist. [Netflix]