The Last Unicorn chronicles the tale of the last unicorn on earth that sets out to retrieve the remainder of her tribe. In the end, the unicorn does find the rest of the unicorns and brings them home with her. It is her time in between that reveals her travel and triumph of learning and experiencing life outside of one’s usual perceptions.

At one point, the unicorn is turned into a human and falls madly in love with a prince at the castle where she and her companion are trapped. She begins to forget that she is unicorn and that her mission was to retrieve her unicorn tribe.

After much deception, violence and malice, the truth returns to and the unicorn is turned back into a unicorn. She is faced to continue on in her mission or stay forever with the prince. Of course, they are of different species. The unicorn goes on to defeat her enemy and save her friends. It is a tale of triumph for her great achievement in ceasing to be the last unicorn on earth. It is also a tale of lament, having learned love and mortality and being unable to stay with the prince. Of course, the unicorn reflects, she was lucky to have experienced such love at all.

It is easy to see how The Last Unicorn movie inspired the trend in unicorn posters. Every unicorn poster reminds us that our greatest loves and losses are often part of an even greater purpose in life. It reminds us to be like the unicorn and practice gratitude for our experiences instead of angst.