A castle made from transformed people. A girl trying to save her brother from becoming living architecture. Unico moves through this nightmare with childlike wonder, which makes the horror worse, not better. The animation catches light the way dreams do, then switches to showing you exactly what it costs when magic strips someone of their humanity. This is a children's film that understands transformation as genuine violation. By the end, you've watched something beautiful spend its whole runtime being kind to people who've become objects.

Unico faces off against Kukuruku, a wizard who turns men into dolls and uses them as the building blocks of his castle. The men caught in this transformation live in sorrow and terror. A girl named Cherry hopes to restore the kindness her brother has lost, even though he is now Kukuruku's student. Adapted as a theatrical feature from a newly written story, this Adventure and Fantasy film uses transformation to look past changes of the body toward what becomes of the human heart.