The Grisly Cartoon Film Ending That Stays With Viewers
Out of all the adult-oriented animated films I have personally viewed, no other has stuck with me as much as the dread-soaked finale of the explicitly bloody and overwhelingly transgressive 2022 movie Unicorn Wars.
In 2015’s, this Spain-based filmmaker created a dark, melancholy , often savage world that included some tiny , desolate twinges of optimism.
Although The Unicorn Wars seems like it stemmed from a drive to expand the medium even more, the director clarified that it was more an effort to express a widespread, multicultural message regarding “the common origin of every conflict.”
That message is expressed by means of a group of vividly colored bears , obviously inspired by a popular line of cuddly characters.
Being raised in a culture focused on aggression and the defense industry, a lot of these animals are consumed by slaughtering unicorns, thanks to a holy book that tells the bears they were once masters of the woodland, before the horned beings forced them out.
Some did not entirely accepted the brainwashing, , prefer to sample substances or mate in the woods.
In contrast to their gentle counterparts, these bright beings have visible sexual organs , clear sex drives.
For a certain particularly cruel, skeptical animal, Bluey, the conflict against unicorns turns into a path to control — and especially to supremacy above his softer, nicer brother Tubby.
Bluey is a bully , an apparent sociopath , and when horror takes over his unit and takes his comrades individually, he grabs more and more power personally, through ever more violent, harmful methods.
At the same time, the horned creatures are suffering their own horror, in the form of a growing, destructive monster in their forest.
“At the beginning, it appears as a lighthearted film,” the director commented. “Yet it becomes a more serious and melancholic film. And in the finale, it transforms into a scary feature.”
Unicorn Wars begins similar to one of the most whimsical films from an iconic filmmaker, that discover a wicked pleasure in letting cartoon characters curse, engage in violence, or have intimate relations.
Afterward it evolves into more akin to a darker work from the same creator, with increasingly explicit brutality and a tangible link to the real horror of war.
Ultimately, it becomes an outright extreme drama carnage.
The terror which makes this an ideal spooky-season movie begins a lot earlier than indicated.
The Unicorn Wars is one for the hardcore fans of gore, for enthusiasts of intense movies who desire to see a movie they’ve never seen on-screen before, and who can handle a story that offers no restraint.
View it in a dimly lit space with no disturbances, and the finale will dig under your skin and stay with you.
Where to watch: Accessible via digital rental or sale on various digital platforms.
