The Gory Cartoon Film Ending That Haunts Viewers
Out of every mature cartoon movies I’ve ever viewed, nothing has remained with me as much as the dread-soaked ending of the viscerally violent and deeply subversive 2022 movie Unicorn Wars.
In 2015’s, this Spain-based writer-director developed a dark, melancholy , often savage world with some tiny , desolate hints of optimism.
While Unicorn Wars appears as it originated from a drive to advance animation further, the director explained that it was actually a try to convey a widespread, multicultural message concerning “the common origin of all wars.”
That idea is conveyed via a group of vividly colored bears , openly based on a popular line of cuddly characters.
Growing up in a culture focused on militarism as well as the war machine, many of these animals are consumed by killing the mythical beasts, because of a sacred text that claims the bears they used to be masters of the forest, before the horned beings forced them out.
Some have not completely bought into the brainwashing, , choose to experiment with drugs and engage sexually in the woods.
In contrast to their cuddly counterparts, these vivid animals show sexual organs and definite libidos.
For a certain particularly cruel, pessimistic creature, the character Bluey, the war against the unicorns transforms into a route toward dominance — and specifically to supremacy over his gentler, kinder brother the bear Tubby.
This bear acts as a tormentor , an obvious sociopath , and when horror dominates his group and claims his comrades one by one, he seizes increasingly influence personally, through ever more bloody, destructive ways.
Simultaneously, these mythical beings are suffering their own nightmare, in the form of a spreading, deadly beast in their woods.
“Initially, it seems like a lighthearted film,” the director stated. “But then it becomes a more serious and melancholic movie. And by the end, it becomes a scary feature.”
The Unicorn Wars starts out similar to one of the most playful movies by a renowned filmmaker, which find a naughty glee in permitting drawn beings curse, fire weapons, or sex each other up.
Subsequently it becomes closer to a darker movie from that director, including ever more visual gore and a palpable relation to the real horror of war.
By the end, it becomes an outright Grand Guignol carnage.
The fear that turns this a perfect Halloween viewing starts a lot earlier than one might expect.
Unicorn Wars is ideal for the devoted lovers of violence, for enthusiasts of intense movies who desire to watch something they’ve never seen on-screen before, and are able to withstand a plot which delivers absolutely no punches.
See it with the lights off without any distractions, and the finale will crawl deep within you and stay with you.
Where to watch: Offered for digital rental or sale on multiple digital platforms.
