That Grisly Cartoon Movie Conclusion That Lingers Fans
Among every mature animated films I have ever watched, no other has remained with me quite like the fear-filled finale of the viscerally violent and highly provocative 2022 movie The Unicorn Wars.
Back in 2015’s, the Spain-based writer-director created a grim, melancholy and frequently brutal universe with a few small , forlorn hints of optimism.
Although The Unicorn Wars seems like it came from an impulse to push animation even more, the filmmaker explained that it was actually an attempt to express a global, multicultural message concerning “the shared root of all wars.”
That message is expressed via a group of colorful pastel bears , openly modeled after a famous line of cuddly figures.
Growing up in a culture built around aggression as well as the war machine, numerous these animals are obsessed with exterminating the mythical beasts, thanks to a holy book which states the bears they used to be rulers of the woodland, until the horned beings drove them out.
Some haven’t fully bought into the propaganda, , would rather try out drugs or mate in the woods.
In contrast to their gentle equivalents, these vivid animals have visible sexual organs , definite libidos.
For one notably brutal, skeptical animal, the bear named Bluey, the war with unicorns transforms into a route to power — and specifically to authority above his gentler, kinder brother the bear Tubby.
Bluey is a bully and an obvious psychopath , and while fear dominates his squad and claims his fellow soldiers individually, he takes more and more control personally, in increasingly gory, destructive ways.
At the same time, the horned creatures are suffering their own horror, as a growing, destructive monster in their forest.
“In the early stages, it feels like a lighthearted film,” the director said. “However it becomes a more dramatic and sorrowful movie. And ultimately, it’s a terrifying movie.”
Unicorn Wars begins feeling a bit like one of the more playful features by an iconic filmmaker, that discover a wicked pleasure in permitting animated figures swear, engage in violence, or have intimate relations.
Subsequently it evolves into more akin to a bleaker movie from the same artist, featuring progressively graphic violence and a noticeable relation to the real tragedy of war.
By the end, it is a full-on Grand Guignol bloodbath.
The horror that turns the film a Halloween-friendly watch begins a lot earlier than that description suggests.
The Unicorn Wars is one for the devoted fans of gore, for fans of intense movies who desire to see a film they’ve never seen on-screen before, and who can handle a narrative that offers absolutely no punches.
View it with the lights off free from interruptions, and the finale will dig under your skin and linger.
Availability: Accessible via rental or purchase on various streaming sites.
