The Gory Cartoon Movie Ending That Stays With Audiences
Among all the adult-oriented animated films I have personally watched, nothing has stuck with me quite like the dread-soaked finale of a viscerally violent and overwhelingly transgressive film from 2022 Unicorn Wars.
Back in 2015’s, this Spanish writer-director developed a grim, bleak and often savage universe with several minor , desolate glimmers of optimism.
While The Unicorn Wars feels like it came from a desire to push animation further, the filmmaker explained that it was actually an effort to express a universal, cross-cultural message regarding “the common origin of all wars.”
That idea is communicated by means of a band of brightly hued teddy bears , clearly modeled after a well-known series of lovable characters.
Maturing in a community built around aggression as well as the war machine, many of the bears are consumed by slaughtering unicorns, because of a religious scripture which states them they were once rulers of the woods, before the unicorns drove them out.
Others have not completely fallen for the propaganda, , choose to try out narcotics or fornicate in the forest.
Unlike their gentle counterparts, these bright beings have visible sexual organs and obvious libidos.
For a particular notably brutal, pessimistic creature, Bluey, the battle against the unicorns transforms into a road toward dominance — and especially to supremacy above his more tender, kinder brother the character Tubby.
Bluey behaves aggressively and an apparent sociopath , and while terror takes over his group and takes his comrades one by one, he grabs more and more control personally, in increasingly violent, destructive ways.
Meanwhile, the unicorns are experiencing their own nightmare, through an expanding, destructive monster in their forest.
“In the early stages, it seems like a lighthearted film,” the filmmaker commented. “However it turns into a more dramatic and melancholic film. And ultimately, it’s a scary feature.”
Unicorn Wars begins feeling a bit like one of the most quirky movies from a legendary animator, which find a mischievous joy in letting cartoon characters curse, fire weapons, or sex each other up.
Then it becomes closer to a bleaker movie from the same artist, with increasingly explicit brutality and a noticeable link to the real tragedy of war.
By the end, it becomes a full-on extreme drama bloodbath.
The terror which makes the film a perfect Halloween watch kicks in a lot earlier than one might expect.
Unicorn Wars is ideal for the devoted lovers of violence, for enthusiasts of extreme cinema who desire to see a film they’ve never viewed until now, and can endure a story that offers absolutely no punches.
See it in a dimly lit space with no disturbances, and that ending will burrow into your mind and linger.
Availability: Offered for rental or purchase on various streaming sites.
