The Gruesome Cartoon Movie Conclusion That Haunts Viewers
Among all the mature cartoon movies I have ever viewed, no other has remained with me quite like the fear-filled finale of a viscerally violent as well as overwhelingly transgressive 2022 movie Unicorn Wars.
Back in 2015’s, the Spain-based filmmaker created a grim, somber , frequently brutal world with a few small , forlorn hints of hope.
While Unicorn Wars seems like it stemmed from an impulse to expand animation further, the director stated that it was more an effort to convey a global, cross-cultural theme concerning “the common origin of each battle.”
That idea is expressed through a band of vividly colored bears , clearly inspired by a famous series of lovable figures.
Being raised in a culture focused on militarism and the war machine, many of the bears are fixated on slaughtering the mythical beasts, due to a religious scripture which states the bears they used to be masters of the woodland, before the horned beings expelled them.
Some haven’t fully fallen for the indoctrination, and would rather experiment with narcotics or mate in the woods.
Unlike their friendly counterparts, these bright beings have visible sexual organs and clear sex drives.
For one particularly cruel, skeptical animal, Bluey, the conflict against unicorns turns into a road to power — and specifically to supremacy above his more tender, kinder brother the bear Tubby.
Bluey acts as a tormentor , a seeming antisocial figure , and when horror overcomes his squad and kills his fellow soldiers one by one, he seizes increasingly influence personally, via progressively gory, destructive ways.
Meanwhile, the unicorns are experiencing their own nightmare, as an expanding, destructive monster in their woods.
“In the early stages, it seems like a humorous movie,” the director said. “But then it evolves into a more dramatic and melancholic film. And in the finale, it transforms into a terrifying movie.”
The Unicorn Wars starts out resembling one of the more quirky features by an iconic filmmaker, that discover a wicked pleasure in permitting drawn beings swear, shoot each other, or engage sexually.
Then it evolves into something more like a darker movie by that same creator, with increasingly visual gore and a noticeable relation to the actual suffering of battle.
By the end, it’s a complete Grand Guignol carnage.
The terror that makes the film a perfect Halloween viewing starts a lot earlier than indicated.
The Unicorn Wars is suited for the devoted lovers of violence, for lovers of extreme cinema who desire to see a film they’ve never seen on-screen before, and can endure a plot that pulls unflinching brutality.
View it with the lights off with no disturbances, and the conclusion will burrow into your mind and linger.
Where to watch: Offered for rental or purchase on various digital platforms.
