In 2010, Canadian Lily Singh started a YouTube channel under the name of IISuperwomanII. Lily’s channel featured skits, cooking, live chats, and encounters with celebrities. The young talent writes, dances, and even plays her parents in sketches. As of today, Lily has 11,342,835 subscribers and in 2016 ranked #3 highest paid YouTube stars by Forbes. It seems there’s nothing Superwoman can’t do. Like Bieber before her, Lily’s rise and support demanded a world tour. And any respectable world tour requires a behind the scenes movie. A Trip To Unicorn Island is just that behind the scenes look promoting Lily’s undeniable message of positivity.
WARNING: The levels of positivity in this film
may enrage folks steeped in cynicism.
Like any good documentary, A Trip To Unicorn Island takes viewers on a journey through the life of its subject. Lily rises to stardom, faces the pressures of success and the mental and physical toll it takes on the body.
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Lily’s message focuses on inspiring people, in part, because depression haunts her. As anyone familiar with depression knows, even having 11 million adoring fans feels lonely. The brain is wired in such a way that it makes dark thoughts resurface time and time again. It happens to Lily, she fights through it to realize a dream. Instead of using her success to indulge in things to help her forget about her problems, Lily shares them, making them positive.
For the cynical-minded, it’s very easy to watch A Trip To Unicorn Island and think of the 2006 best-selling book The Secret. At the end of the day, both Lily and Rhonda Byrne’s book are selling positive thinking. There are two degrees of cynicism. One holds that positive thinking is good but so is realistic, often cynical rationality. The other argues that positive thinking is fruitless, we’re all going to die. The former will likely find every moment of this doc irritating while the latter, however, will appreciate Lily’s steadfast dedication and work-ethic.
Dissecting A Trip To Unicorn Island as a documentary is difficult. It’s not designed to compete with the likes of things like Ava Duvernay’s 13th or Blackfish. Unicorn Island. The film , and it’s seemingly non-stop background music, is aimed at Lily’s fans and like-minded pre-teens and teens. It’s a family-friendly affair with lots of girl power.
“Pressure builds diamonds.” – A Trip To Unicorn Island
A Trip To Unicorn Island will entertain Lily’s legion of fans. It hits all the right notes of her message and what makes Lily accessible. It’s hard to criticize someone who just wants people to find their “unicorn” which Lily describes as a happy place. At the same time, the world needs to stand firmly in a balanced position between the fantasy that makes us happy and the reality that makes our world function. Lily does this, perhaps subconsciously, but that message is lost in what amounts to a long commercial for the Lily brand of positive thinking.
