That Gruesome Cartoon Film Conclusion That Stays With Viewers
Out of every mature cartoon movies I have personally viewed, no other has remained with me as much as the fear-filled ending of the viscerally violent as well as overwhelingly transgressive 2022 movie The Unicorn Wars.
In the year 2015, this Spanish writer-director developed a grim, somber , frequently brutal world with several minor , forlorn hints of optimism.
While The Unicorn Wars appears as it stemmed from an impulse to advance the medium further, the director explained that it was more an effort to convey a global, multicultural message regarding “the common origin of all wars.”
This theme is conveyed through a band of vividly colored bears , clearly inspired by a well-known series of cuddly characters.
Growing up in a society built around militarism as well as the defense industry, many of the bears are obsessed with exterminating the mythical beasts, thanks to a sacred text that claims them they were once masters of the woods, until the horned beings expelled them.
Others did not entirely accepted the propaganda, , choose to try out drugs or fornicate outdoors.
Unlike their cuddly counterparts, these colorful critters display genitals , obvious urges.
For a certain notably brutal, skeptical animal, the character Bluey, the war with unicorns transforms into a path to power — and especially to supremacy over his gentler, nicer brother the bear Tubby.
Bluey is a bully , an obvious sociopath , and while terror overcomes his group and kills his comrades one by one, he takes progressively control on his own behalf, through ever more violent, harmful methods.
Meanwhile, these mythical beings are experiencing their own terror, through a growing, deadly beast in their habitat.
“In the early stages, it appears as a humorous movie,” the director said. “However it becomes a more dramatic and sad film. And by the end, it becomes a terrifying movie.”
The Unicorn Wars starts out feeling a bit like one of the more playful features from an iconic filmmaker, that discover a naughty glee in permitting cartoon characters swear, engage in violence, or engage sexually.
Subsequently it turns into more akin to a more grim film from the same director, including ever more graphic violence and a tangible relation to the actual suffering of war.
By the end, it becomes an outright theatrical horror carnage.
The horror which makes this a Halloween-friendly viewing begins much sooner than one might expect.
Unicorn Wars is suited for the most dedicated lovers of violence, for lovers of extreme cinema who want to watch something they have not viewed until now, and who can handle a narrative that pulls unflinching brutality.
See it with the lights off without any distractions, and the finale will dig under your skin and stay with you.
Where to watch: Accessible via rental or purchase on various streaming sites.
