The Gruesome Cartoon Film Ending That Lingers Audiences
Out of every mature animated films I’ve ever viewed, nothing has lingered in my mind as much as the terror-laced conclusion of a viscerally violent and deeply subversive 2022 movie Unicorn Wars.
Back in the year 2015, this Spanish filmmaker developed a dark, melancholy and frequently brutal world that included several minor , desolate glimmers of hope.
Although The Unicorn Wars feels like it came from an impulse to push the medium further, the director clarified that it was rather an attempt to express a universal, multicultural message about “the common origin of all wars.”
This theme is communicated via a group of colorful pastel bears , openly modeled after a well-known line of lovable figures.
Growing up in a community built around militarism and the military-industrial complex, many of the bears are obsessed with exterminating the mythical beasts, due to a religious scripture that claims the bears they used to be masters of the woods, until the horned beings drove them out.
Some haven’t fully accepted the indoctrination, , would rather try out substances and engage sexually in the woods.
Unlike their friendly equivalents, these vivid animals have visible sexual organs , clear libidos.
For a particular particularly cruel, skeptical animal, the character Bluey, the conflict with unicorns turns into a road to control — and especially to supremacy over his more tender, kinder brother the bear Tubby.
Bluey behaves aggressively , an obvious psychopath , and when horror takes over his group and claims his teammates sequentially, he grabs progressively control personally, via progressively gory, damaging approaches.
Meanwhile, the unicorns are suffering their own nightmare, as an expanding, destructive monster in their habitat.
“At the beginning, it seems like a humorous movie,” the director commented. “However it evolves into a more dramatic and melancholic film. And ultimately, it transforms into a terrifying movie.”
Unicorn Wars starts out feeling a bit like one of the more playful movies from an iconic animator, which find a mischievous joy in allowing cartoon characters curse, shoot each other, or engage sexually.
Subsequently it evolves into more akin to a bleaker movie by that same director, featuring progressively graphic violence , a tangible relation to genuine horror of conflict.
Ultimately, it is a complete extreme drama bloodbath.
The fear that turns the film a Halloween-friendly watch begins well before than indicated.
The Unicorn Wars is one for the most dedicated lovers of violence, for enthusiasts of intense movies who desire to view a film they haven’t ever seen on-screen before, and can endure a plot which delivers absolutely no punches.
Watch it in a dark room with no disturbances, and the conclusion will burrow deep within you and take up residence there.
How to view: Accessible via rental or purchase on various digital platforms.
