The Gory Cartoon Movie Ending That Stays With Audiences
Among every adult-oriented cartoon movies I’ve ever watched, no other has stuck with me as much as the terror-laced conclusion of the graphically gory and deeply subversive 2022 movie Unicorn Wars.
Back in 2015’s, the Spain-based filmmaker crafted a dark, melancholy , frequently brutal universe that included some tiny , desolate hints of hope.
While Unicorn Wars seems like it came from a drive to expand animation further, the director clarified that it was rather a try to express a widespread, multicultural message about “the common origin of all wars.”
This theme is conveyed via a group of vividly colored bears , openly modeled after a well-known line of lovable characters.
Maturing in a society centered on warmongering and the war machine, many of the bears are obsessed with exterminating the mythical beasts, thanks to a religious scripture that tells the bears they were once rulers of the woodland, before the unicorns drove them out.
A few have not completely bought into the brainwashing, and prefer to sample drugs and fornicate in the forest.
Unlike their cuddly counterparts, these vivid animals have visible sexual organs , definite sex drives.
For a certain especially vicious, pessimistic creature, the bear named Bluey, the battle with unicorns transforms into a road to power — and particularly to authority over his gentler, more compassionate sibling Tubby.
The character behaves aggressively and an obvious sociopath , and as horror dominates his unit and takes his teammates sequentially, he takes more and more influence personally, via progressively violent, destructive ways.
At the same time, these mythical beings are experiencing their own terror, as a growing, destructive monster in their forest.
“Initially, it feels like a lighthearted film,” the director commented. “Yet it becomes a more intense and melancholic film. And ultimately, it transforms into a horror film.”
Unicorn Wars begins resembling among the whimsical films by an iconic animator, that discover a mischievous joy in permitting cartoon characters curse, fire weapons, or engage sexually.
Subsequently it turns into more akin to a bleaker film by that same director, featuring progressively visual gore , a palpable link to genuine tragedy of war.
By the end, it is an outright Grand Guignol massacre.
The fear which makes this a perfect Halloween watch kicks in much sooner than one might expect.
The Unicorn Wars is ideal for the devoted gorehounds, for fans of extreme cinema who desire to view something they’ve never viewed until now, and can endure a plot that pulls absolutely no punches.
View it with the lights off with no disturbances, and that ending will dig deep within you and linger.
Availability: Available for streaming or buying on several digital platforms.