There is actually quite a lot of animation like this in the independent sphere these days. YouTube has a lot of up and comers with some amazing samples, short films or series. I don't think I have ever actually seen as much animation that goes hard since the 90's when they only went hard to sell kids toys.
Sure but that is the Indie space. They've always done their own thing. The Last Unicorn was a theatrical release with wide home video distribution as well. It's great to see Indy's getting more exposure and coverage these days but I'd like to see even the large more commercial offerings offering a little more along this line. Of course I'm also an irrepressible bakshi fan. So there is that too. And modern day Hollywood would never touch that
No I had not. I will have to check it out later. Another unusual but good children's animated classic was recently rediscovered a few years back. A 1977 Raggedy Ann movie was scanned from an old 16 mm print I think? And put up on YouTube and good quality. The last time it had ever been released was on VHS back in the early 90s. I think it was thought lost.
This was one of my favorite movies as a kid, and I had no idea at the time that it was so good. Coming back to it as an adult, it holds up extremely well!
Some fun facts;
There were some animators who worked on this movie that went on to found Studio Ghibli.
Peter S. Beagle did NOT care for the idea of America doing the music until he heard what they were doing and decided he liked it. (Got this from the commentary track, where Beagle comes across as a truly cantankerous dude who was surprised several times at how much he liked the movie)
The drunken skeleton is voiced by Renee Auberjonois, so every time I see Odo on DS9 I hear him say "Now THAT is WINE!"
Schmendrick was originally supposed to have been a famous wizard's apprentice who saw potential in Schmendrick, but knew he would need longer than a lifetime to live up to it, so he cursed him to be immortal until he became a great wizard in his own right.
This movie was one of the handful of VHS tapes I had on a loop as a kid, along with Labyrinth, Stand By Me, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. My childhood movie selection fuckin' ruled.