The Grisly Cartoon Movie Ending That Lingers Fans
Out of every adult-oriented cartoon movies I have personally viewed, no other has stuck with me quite like the dread-soaked ending of the graphically gory and highly provocative film from 2022 The Unicorn Wars.
In the year 2015, this Spain-based writer-director created a dark, melancholy , frequently brutal universe that included a few small , desolate twinges of hope.
While Unicorn Wars seems like it originated from an impulse to push animation even more, the director explained that it was actually a try to express a global, cross-cultural message about “the mutual source of all wars.”
That idea is communicated via a band of vividly colored bears , clearly inspired by a famous series of cuddly figures.
Maturing in a culture built around militarism as well as the war machine, a lot of these creatures are fixated on slaughtering the mythical beasts, due to a religious scripture that tells the bears they used to be masters of the forest, until these creatures drove them out.
A few haven’t fully accepted the indoctrination, and prefer to try out substances or fornicate in the woods.
Unlike their gentle equivalents, these bright beings show sexual organs , obvious sex drives.
For a particular particularly cruel, skeptical animal, the character Bluey, the war with unicorns becomes a path to control — and especially to authority over his softer, nicer brother Tubby.
Bluey acts as a tormentor and an apparent psychopath , and as horror dominates his unit and claims his teammates sequentially, he takes more and more control for himself, via progressively bloody, destructive ways.
At the same time, the horned creatures are suffering their own nightmare, in the form of a growing, deadly beast in their habitat.
“In the early stages, it feels like a lighthearted film,” the filmmaker stated. “However it turns into a more serious and melancholic movie. And ultimately, it becomes a horror film.”
Unicorn Wars commences similar to one of the most playful films from a legendary filmmaker, that uncover a mischievous joy in allowing animated figures curse, fire weapons, or sex each other up.
Then it turns into something more like a bleaker movie from that creator, including ever more explicit brutality and a noticeable link to genuine tragedy of battle.
In the finale, it becomes an outright Grand Guignol carnage.
The horror that turns this a Halloween-friendly viewing kicks in much sooner than one might expect.
The Unicorn Wars is ideal for the most dedicated gorehounds, for fans of extreme cinema who desire to see a film they have not seen on-screen before, and are able to withstand a story which delivers unflinching brutality.
Watch it in a dark room free from interruptions, and that ending will burrow under your skin and stay with you.
Availability: Available for rental or purchase on several digital platforms.
