The Grisly Cartoon Movie Conclusion That Stays With Fans
Out of every adult-oriented cartoon movies I have personally viewed, no other has lingered in my mind as much as the terror-laced finale of the viscerally violent and deeply subversive film from 2022 Unicorn Wars.
In the year 2015, the Spain-based writer-director crafted a dark, melancholy , frequently brutal world with some tiny , forlorn hints of hope.
Although The Unicorn Wars feels like it stemmed from a drive to expand animation further, the filmmaker explained that it was more an effort to express a global, multicultural message about “the common origin of each battle.”
This theme is expressed via a group of vividly colored bears , obviously based on a popular series of lovable characters.
Being raised in a community built around militarism and the defense industry, numerous these creatures are obsessed with exterminating unicorns, due to a sacred text that tells them they were once masters of the woods, until these creatures expelled them.
Others did not entirely accepted the indoctrination, and would rather experiment with substances and fornicate in the forest.
In contrast to their gentle counterparts, these vivid animals display genitals , clear libidos.
For a particular especially vicious, cynical bear, the bear named Bluey, the conflict against unicorns becomes a path to power — and especially to dominance above his gentler, nicer brother the bear Tubby.
Bluey behaves aggressively , an apparent sociopath , and when fear dominates his group and takes his teammates one by one, he seizes more and more power for himself, through ever more violent, destructive ways.
Meanwhile, the horned creatures are experiencing their own nightmare, as an expanding, destructive monster in their habitat.
“At the beginning, it seems like a lighthearted film,” the filmmaker stated. “However it becomes a more serious and sorrowful film. And by the end, it becomes a terrifying movie.”
The Unicorn Wars starts out feeling a bit like one of the most playful movies by an iconic filmmaker, which find a mischievous joy in letting cartoon characters swear, shoot each other, or engage sexually.
Then it evolves into something more like a bleaker work from the same director, including ever more explicit brutality and a noticeable connection to genuine suffering of war.
In the finale, it becomes a complete extreme drama massacre.
The horror that turns this a Halloween-friendly viewing kicks in a lot earlier than that description suggests.
Unicorn Wars is ideal for the hardcore fans of gore, for enthusiasts of extreme cinema who wish to watch a movie they have not viewed until now, and can endure a story which delivers absolutely no punches.
See it with the lights off without any distractions, and that ending will dig under your skin and linger.
How to view: Accessible via streaming or buying on multiple online services.