That Grisly Cartoon Movie Ending That Haunts Viewers
Among every adult-oriented cartoon movies I have personally viewed, no other has stuck with me quite like the fear-filled conclusion of a viscerally violent and highly provocative 2022 movie Unicorn Wars.
In 2015’s, the Spain-based writer-director crafted a grim, somber , often savage world that included a few small , desolate glimmers of hope.
While The Unicorn Wars feels like it came from a drive to push animation even more, the filmmaker explained that it was more an effort to convey a global, multicultural theme regarding “the shared root of all wars.”
That message is communicated by means of a group of brightly hued teddy bears , openly inspired by a well-known line of cuddly characters.
Being raised in a society centered on aggression as well as the military-industrial complex, a lot of the bears are obsessed with exterminating unicorns, thanks to a sacred text which states them they previously were masters of the woods, until these creatures expelled them.
A few did not entirely bought into the indoctrination, and prefer to try out drugs or engage sexually outdoors.
In contrast to their cuddly equivalents, these vivid animals show sexual organs and obvious sex drives.
For a particular especially vicious, cynical bear, Bluey, the conflict with unicorns becomes a route toward dominance — and particularly to supremacy above his gentler, more compassionate sibling the bear Tubby.
This bear acts as a tormentor , an apparent sociopath , and when terror dominates his unit and kills his fellow soldiers sequentially, he takes more and more power on his own behalf, in increasingly bloody, destructive ways.
Meanwhile, the unicorns are experiencing their own nightmare, through a spreading, destructive monster in their habitat.
“At the beginning, it seems like a comedy,” the filmmaker commented. “Yet it evolves into a more dramatic and sad movie. And in the finale, it becomes a terrifying movie.”
Unicorn Wars commences resembling one of the most whimsical films by a legendary filmmaker, that uncover a mischievous joy in permitting drawn beings curse, engage in violence, or have intimate relations.
Subsequently it turns into closer to a bleaker film from that director, including ever more explicit brutality and a tangible connection to the real suffering of battle.
In the finale, it is a full-on Grand Guignol massacre.
The horror that makes the film an ideal spooky-season watch starts much sooner than one might expect.
Unicorn Wars is suited for the most dedicated lovers of violence, for lovers of extreme cinema who wish to watch something they’ve never viewed until now, and can endure a narrative which delivers no restraint.
View it in a dark room with no disturbances, and that ending will burrow under your skin and linger.
How to view: Accessible via digital rental or sale on several digital platforms.
