The situation of Animation in the Spanish industry is something quite worrisome, with little room to maneuver and few productions that are not particularly exciting. Something that a film like ‘Gora Automatikoa’ gracefully denounces after cases like the automatic Goya Award for films that are alone in their category.
It is not surprising that some talents have to resort to foreign support, as is the case of Sergio Pablos with ‘Klaus’, or have to be unconscious brave like Alberto Vázquez, who do high-level jobs almost despite everything. It is almost a miracle that the latter was able to carry out a film as special and as powerful as ‘Unicorn Wars’ last year, which opted to win the most relevant statuette of the Spanish awards.
The horror, the horror (pink)
Now available in streaming through Movistar+, the new jewel from the director of ‘Psiconauts, the forgotten children’ is presented to us as an incorrect work with foul-mouthed, violent and even obscene love bears. But it’s just a hook to introduce ourselves a dark odyssey towards the most abject of existencedrawing on details typical of ‘Apocalypse Now’ to portray the rise of authoritarianism and the destruction of the planet.
Expanding the concept and aesthetics of the short ‘Unicorn blood‘, the film presents us with a eternal war of these bears against the unicorns. Convinced that they are keeping the magical forest safe, the bear army recruits train and become indoctrinated in hatred of their enemies, preparing a dangerous journey through the most dangerous corners of the forest that will end up corrupting their psyche and their perception of the world. .
One of the most dazzling aesthetic works of animation in 2022, if not the most, making a extraordinary use of traditional drawing to fly free visually, from the subverted bear and unicorn character designs to some seriously shocking psychedelic moments. He also does incredible war action sequences whose brutality emphasizes the horror he is trying to tell.
‘Unicorn Wars’: brutal animation that leaves you in shock
‘Unicorn Wars’ could have been left in direct shock and it would have even worked. what makes her one of the best adult animation works of recent years it is his devastating portrayal of human corruption. How the continuous feeding of hatred through propaganda of different kinds (from patriotic to religious sentiment) leads to the creation of fascist figures and also leads to the destruction of nature, of life on Earth.
It is not a walk in the meadow at any time. It is a film that impacts and even leaves you somewhat devastated at the end. His story is well worked to create that sensation and the visual work ends up making it brilliant. Is one of the essential works of last yearand if you did not have the opportunity to see it in a movie theater, it is well worth doing it in streaming.
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