| “ | No! Please tell me you're joking! Oh wait, I don't care. | „ |
| ~ Vic telling Thelma that he doesn't mind her unicorn facade. |
Richard "Dick" Cumbersome, also known as Vic Diamond, is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Nikki Narwhal) of the 2024 animated musical, Thelma the Unicorn. He is a sleazy talent agent who wants to exploit the titular false equine for stardom.
He was voiced by Jemaine Clement, who also played Nigel in Rio, Tamatoa in Moana, Fleshlumpeater in The BFG, Vladislav The Poker from What We Do In The Shadows, Boris the Animal in Men in Black 3, Fart in Rick and Morty, Sauron in The Lego Batman Movie and Gary Natwick in Harold and the Purple Crayon.
Personality[]
Vic is greedy, self-serving, sleazy, fickle, snobbish, and manipulative. His main concern is managing famous animals who are top tier at the moment and would leave them unceremoniously when their fame plummets, as seen where he quits being Nikki Narwhal's manager when Thelma outperforms her and soon leaves Thelma at the end when she reveals her true self to the audience.
Biography[]
Thelma the Unicorn[]
Vic first appears telling his client, Nikki Narwhal, that some critics don't care for her recent music video. He says her fame is dying out, and if she didn’t do anything, her career would be “dead as a dodo”. When he learns about Thelma's rising fame, he contacts her manager, retired record dealer Peggy Purvis, to offer Thelma as an opening act for Nikki's next show, Although reluctant, Peggy agrees. But when Thelma, her friends Otis and Reggie, Peggy and her husband rendezvous with Vic, they take separate limos to go to Nikki's mansion. During which, Vic launches a small missile at the behind limo to prevent them from following them. At Nikki's show, Vic encourages Thelma to perform without her friends and tricks her into signing a contract. As Thelma's performance receives a standing ovation, Vic then tears up his contract with Nikki to start working for Thelma now.
Soon, Thelma reveals that her unicorn disguise is a fake, but Vic doesn't care because he believes that in the music business, facade is everything, even telling Thelma through song that when he was younger, he physically altered himself just to be famous. He arranges Thelma to pretend to date a horse internet star, Danny Stallion, to boost her fame. He eventually manages to get Thelma booked for the coveted music showcase event, SparklePalooza. However, when Vic and Thelma attend an awards ceremony, Nikki's assistant, Megan, finds out about Thelma's deception, washes off her unicorn disguise, and threatens to reveal the lie if she doesn't quit the music business. As a result, Thelma dejectedly leaves, with Vic attempting to find her when she goes missing and is unable to perform at the ceremony.
Vic doesn't appear until the end where Thelma, along with her friends, come to SparklePalooza, and she dons her disguise again to publicly reveal her deceit to the audience in attendance, much to Vic's dismay. The audience soon accepts her though. Vic is last seen attempting to make amends with Nikki, but the narwhal has also taken Thelma's confession to heart and decides she no longer needs him and shoots Megan out of her blowhole into Vic, rejecting him. He is not seen again after this.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Vic's voice actor, Jemaine Clement, is well known for voicing singing villains, like Nigel from Rio and Tamatoa from Moana.
- Vic serves as a dark parallel to Peggy Purvis: both are record dealers who become managers for Thelma, but while Peggy does not mind that Thelma is not a unicorn and willingly takes her back solely for her music, Vic, on the other hand, cares only about making money and believes that the key to success is pretending to be someone you're not, even forcing Thelma to permanently adhere to her unicorn persona. If Peggy cared only about making money and did not like Thelma when her facade was exposed and found her real self to be worse, she would've ended up like Vic.