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:)

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.

This story is based on a James Thurber story. It's told using very simple Thurber-style drawings.A man sees a unicorn in the garden. He tells his evil and cranky wife and she tells him to get lost. Again he sees the unicorn and wakes her once again. She tells him they are mythical creatures and tells him again to get lost. Then, she gets out of bed and calls a psychiatrist and the police to have him committed. When they arrive, they think she's crazy. The beleaguered husband, when asked about the animal, responds that "unicorns are mythical creatures" at which point they shove a straight jacket on her and take her away as the film ends.While this is a cute and moderately diverting cartoon, it definitely has a dark edge to it, as both husband and wife are pretty sinister people. Worth a look but younger kids will probably get nothing out of it.

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.