Parents' Guide to Unicorn Boy

This animated indie fantasy offers a fun, heartfelt look at how messy and glorious it can be to discover new aspects of yourself while reckoning with emotional pain. It's important to note that Unicorn Boy—which is based on Kiel's life and stars many of their funny friends—starts in 2022, when Kiel was still going by he/him pronouns. Now, Kiel goes by they/them pronouns and looks like a much happier, more transformed version of themselves. That change isn't harped on here, but it's a monumental step forward for Kiel that underscores just how powerful their emotional growth has been.

Part of what the film celebrates is the power of messiness, finding humor in it. The internet is rife with "unicorns barfing rainbows" jokes, and in this film, unicorns actually do vomit rainbows and all types of magical stuff. For viewers who don't like gross-out humor or surrealism, the imagery might be unpleasant—but that's also the point, since even the characters call out how gross the land's magic is. But that very grossness is part of explaining how messy it can be to grow as a person who's discovering their special uniqueness. For Kiel, it would seem that part of their uniqueness was realizing that they're actually nonbinary and queer. For viewers, your uniqueness is for you to figure out on your own messy journey.