Alberto Vázquez’s animated film, “Unicorn Wars” will be released this Wednesday in our cinemas. But beware, this is a film prohibited for children under 12, do not take young children there.
Don’t be fooled by its colorful poster and its cute characters, the animated film Unicorn Wars is not a children’s film. The feature film by Spanish filmmaker Alberto Vázquez is also prohibited for children under 12.
Presented in competition at the Annecy Animation Film Festival, the feature film is adapted from the 2013 short film, Unicorn Bloodby the same director and depicts the war between the Bears and the Unicorns.
In this film, the Celestine soldier thirsts for the blood of Unicorns, a guarantee of eternal beauty, according to the Great Sacred Book. His brother Dodu doesn’t like war, he prefers blueberries and hugs. But the final battle draws near: a unit of inexperienced bear cubs leaves the training camp for a commando mission in the Magic Forest. Will they be up to it?
A pioneer of animated cinema for adults, Albero Vázquez received in 2017 (with co-director Pedro Rivero), the Goya for best animated film for his post-apocalyptic ecological fable, Psiconautas. Unicorn Wars is its worthy successor.
Mix between war film and fantastic tale, Unicorn Wars is a real UFO. Funny, gritty and gory, Alberto Vázquez’s feature film is an allegory about human beings and their conflicting relationship with nature.
References for adults
By taking teddy bears and unicorns as heroes, the filmmaker allows viewers to realize the absurd side of certain beliefs and the wars that result from them.
Alberto Vasquez uses childish graphics here but completely subverts them. The director was also inspired by Full Metal Jacket by Stanley Kubrick, Cannibal Holocaust by Ruggero Deodato and Apocalypse Now by Francis Ford Coppola, which he mixed with the animation classic Bambi. An astonishing mix of (d)genres that will appeal to fans of gore cinema.
UFO Unicorn Wars
We particularly appreciate the Bear Sergeant Big Câlin who is actually a terrible character in the line of Sergeant-Instructor Hartman (played by R.Lee Ermey) in Full Metal Jacket. And cute cubs are treacherous creatures that don’t miss an opportunity to make fun of each other and humiliate each other, even (and especially) between siblings.
It is a question here of false belief, betrayal, harassment, revenge, cannibalism, drugs, murder and a particularly flowery language. So much so that we are sometimes ashamed to laugh at the politically incorrect jokes of this animated film for adults. But it feels good!
Alberto Vasquez states in the press kit: “The contrast between form and content is evident, as the characters are cute and childish, though their issues are of a mature and complex psychological nature. I like to work with anthropomorphic animals, universal icons that do not seem to belong to a particular time or place, and that all cultures can appropriate.“
UFO
Unicorn Wars
Criticism of society
In line with the animated series Happy Tree Friends (in which the animals of the forest would die in gore circumstances), Unicorn Wars is a scathing criticism of society, of man’s relationship to nature and of the wars of religion.
Alberto Vázquez wanted to show the absurdity of certain conflicts, whether war or more personal family conflicts through the story of the two brothers Célestin and Dodu.
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The filmmaker also describes his film as “an anti-fable without a moral, that is, a dark fable for adults with contemporary language and narration.”
Unicorn Wars is a subversive film with a real message and manages to make us laugh by having the worst horrors told to cute characters.