Unicorn: Warriors Eternal

Unicorn: Warriors Eternal is an American adult animated fantasy television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky and aired on Cartoon Network's night-time programming block Adult Swim. The series stars the voices of Hazel Doupe, Demari Hunte, and Tom Milligan. The visuals of the series are heavily influenced by the works of Osamu Tezuka and Max Fleischer.

Tartakovsky originally conceived Unicorn: Warriors Eternal in his early days at Cartoon Network Studios. The series took almost 20 years to get made, with Tartakovsky pitching it to various studios with little to no success. It was eventually picked up by Cartoon Network and HBO Max and was publicly announced in October 2020. It is produced by Cartoon Network Studios, with animation services by Studio La Cachette in France and Studio Zmei in Bulgaria.

Unicorn: Warriors Eternal was originally set to air on Cartoon Network as part of its ACME Night programming block but was eventually moved to Adult Swim. The first two episodes premiered on May 5, 2023, and released on HBO Max the following day. The first season concluded on June 30, 2023.

The Order of Unicorn

 * Hazel Doupe as Emma Fairfax, the daughter of the wealthy Fairfax family and the current host of the soul of Melinda, a powerful sorceress. However, due to the early reawakening of Melinda by circumstance, both Emma and Melinda's personalities conflict with each other, and she ends up losing control of her powers during any form of emotional outburst.
 * Grey DeLisle as the original Melinda.
 * Marley Cherry Hilborne as a child version of the original Melinda, who was inadvertently responsible for the creation of the Evil.
 * Demari Hunte as Alfie, an orphan who lived in the remains of an abandoned school and the current host of the soul of Seng, a cosmic monk. Being reincarnated in a child has made the cosmic plane too much to comprehend, leaving him in a dream-like stupor, though he eventually comes around and becomes far more focused and aware.
 * Alain Uy as the original Seng. He is credited as "Ancient Egypt Seng".
 * Victor Alli as an adult version of Alfie in the cosmic realm.
 * Tom Milligan as Dimitri Dynamo, a street magician and the current host of the soul of Edred, an elf warrior. Unlike the others, Dimitri managed to retain most of Edred's memories and power, though he admits even his mind feels "clouded".
 * Jacob Dudman as the original Edred. He is credited as "Ancient Egypt/Original Edred".
 * Copernicus, a steam-powered robot who brings the three souls together throughout history, but in the present of 1890 was forced to do so earlier than usual. He is unable to talk and instead communicates in a series of clicks and whistles.

Recurring

 * DeLisle as:
 * June Way, a mysterious kitsune somehow connected to the Evil who can appear in a small or large quadruped form or take the form of an anthropomorphic fox woman,
 * Clarice Leydoux, a member of the "Reawakened" who claims to be descended from a prior host of Melinda.
 * Jeremy Crutchley as Merlin, the legendary wizard of the court of King Arthur, and the one who first brought the Order of the Unicorn together. It was Merlin who discovered Copernicus during a quest through time. He is later revealed to be Melinda's father.
 * George Webster as Winston, Emma's childhood sweetheart and fiancé. He is later bitten and turned into a werewolf during his search for Emma.
 * Ron Bottita as Lord Edward Fairfax, Emma's father.
 * Rosalind Ayres as:
 * Lady Katherine Fairfax, Emma's mother.
 * Agatha, the mayor of London.
 * Gildart Jackson as Inspector General Hastings, the head of the police investigating the supernatural goings on in London.
 * Peta Johnson as Morgan, the legendary sorceress and Melinda's mother, inadvertently turned into the core of the entity known as the Evil.
 * Sunkrish Bala as Rakshasa, a Bengal tiger demi-god who protected the Indian jungle.
 * Jack Bandeira as Alewulf, Edred's younger brother. He is the king of the Northern Elves.
 * Uy as Lao Xi Sheng, a member of the "Reawakened" who claims to be descended from a prior host of Seng.

Development
Genndy Tartakovsky conceived Unicorn: Warriors Eternal in his early days at Cartoon Network Studios. He stated: "All the projects we worked on - Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack, and Sym-Bionic Titan - were like a training ground getting us ready for this series." According to Tartakovsky, it was difficult to get the series off the ground, and it took almost 20 years to be made. After he left Cartoon Network, no studio wanted to work with him, and every time he got one to back the project, it would fail to make progress, first with Cartoon Network, then with Netflix, before finally being picked up by HBO Max. As a result of the prolonged development phase of the series, a lot of ideas that were present in the original pitch were changed by Tartakovsky since he felt that they had already been done in a lot of media since then and wanted to avoid being cliché. One example is the idea of technology versus magic and the robot rising, which took a backseat over the years because they had already been explored in popular films such as I, Robot (2004) and The Terminator (1984). Tartakovsky came up with ideas for multiple seasons of Unicorn: Warriors Eternal and eventually pitched it as a four-season story. He explained that "the world is so ripe and it's so brand new that you can do so much." He added, "If we get tired of these characters, we can go back to another time period or they're re-awoken in the future."

In October 2020, Deadline Hollywood reported that HBO Max and Cartoon Network had greenlit the series together, alongside Tiny Toons Looniversity and three projects from Mo Willems. The series was described as a supernatural animated series inspired by myths and lore from around the world, and some details regarding the premise were disclosed. Sam Register executive produces alongside Tartakovsky, and Tyler Bates and Joan Higginbottom provide the series' music. Animation services for the series were handled by Studio La Cachette in France and Studio Zmei in Bulgaria.

Inspirations
Tartakovsky drew inspiration from Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), particularly the funeral scene, for being emotional yet featuring cartoony and goofy dwarves. He stated: "There's a dirty word in animation of being 'too cartoony'. They say that you can't feel emotion if it looks too goofy. And that's bullshit. And so that's what I really wanted to do is have this very cartoony thing, but the emotions are real. And the drama really is a soap opera almost, it's so heightened." The story was partly influenced by Tartakovsky watching his children grow up, which he thought the series lengthy development benefited from.

The look of Unicorn Warrior Eternal was inspired by the works of Max Fleischer and Osamu Tezuka. Tartakovsky acknowledged that Tezuka himself was influenced by Fleischer and Disney cartoons and described the look as an "incestual pool of beloved characters." He started drawing influences from Tezuka's work when he was writing an Astro Boy script for Sony in 2004 and read the manga. Stephen DeStefano, who worked with Tartakovsky on Sym-Bionic Titan, Primal, and his cancelled Popeye film, served as character designer. The two wanted the series to have an "old aesthetic but told in a very contemporary way with contemporary filmmaking." The works of Hayao Miyazaki and general steampunk aesthetics also inspired Tartakovsky.

Release
Footage of the series was shown at Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June 2022. The series was previewed at New York Comic Con in October 2022.

Unicorn: Warriors Eternal was originally set to premiere on Cartoon Network as part of its ACME Night programming block, but was instead moved to Adult Swim. The first two episodes premiered at midnight ET on May 5, 2023, and was available on HBO Max the following day. Despite being Adult Swim's top-rated new animated show and best launch in over a year according to the network demographic data, high praise from critics and fans, and the tenth episode ending with a cliffhanger, a second season has yet to be officially announced. However, Tartakovsky has been quoted as saying that he has prepared for multiple seasons of the series. "Fortunately for Unicorn, I was able to do multiple ideas, multiple season ideas, because the world is so ripe and it's so brand new that you can do so much…we're going to do one season first, and hopefully it'll work and people will like it, and then we'll continue on."

In addition to its Adult Swim airings, the series has run weekly encores on Toonami, as well as rerunning on Cartoon Network's ACME Night programming block. Michael Ouweleen claims this is because "By programming this during peak hours and re-airing across multiple dayparts, we are ensuring that all generations of animation fans can see this event-level series."

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season has an approval rating of 100% based on reviews from 8 critics.