Unicorn Wars [NEW]
Unicorn Wars is a 2022 Spanish-French animated splatter war film[2] written and directed by Alberto Vázquez. The plot is set against the backdrop of a conflict between anthropomorphized teddy bears and unicorns.
Unicorn Wars
In a magical forest, unicorns lived alongside wild animals. But the bears found a sacred book of knowledge in the ruins of a church. The book enabled the bears to gain sentience and form their own civilization. Over time, the bears physically evolved to a multi-colored "teddy bear" form. According to their beliefs, the bears wanted to cultivate the forest, but the unicorns opposed them. In reality due to the bears deforestation the unicorns decided to retaliate causing the bears to be exiled of the forest. This led to a war between bears and unicorns, which the bears believe will be over when their "chosen one" drinks the blood of the last unicorn, and a godlike being will return to the forest.
Drill Sergeant Caricias trains a new troop of recruits that includes brothers Gordi and Azulín. A priest instills a religious doctrine of hatred for unicorns in the troops. Azulín pretends to protect Gordi, and aspires to be the best recruit, hoping to become the Chosen One someday. But he grows resentful of the troop's top recruit, Coco. He has also felt jealous of his brother since their birth when Gordi came out first, gaining the favor of their mother. When their mother left their father for another man, Azulín's jealousy grew so vicious that he poured poison into his mother's lemonade, killing her.
The camp's leaders send the troops to the forest to find a missing squad, with Caricias and the Priest leading. In the forest, they find glowworms that they consider eating. The Priest warns that the scripture says not to eat them, but Caricias angrily defies the warning. The glowworms turn out to be hallucinogenic, and the troops see frightening hallucinations that cost the lives of two recruits. Later on, they find the mutilated remains of the squad members. Sergeant Caricias goes insane as a result. Soon after, they stumble upon one lone unicorn and kill her. But other unicorns appear and fight the recruits, leaving only Azulín, Gordi and Coco alive. Azulín's rage against Coco explodes, and he kills the wounded Coco and even cannibalizes his corpse.
The brothers find two other unicorns. Azulín kills one of them and badly wounds the other, a filly named María. In trying to kill María, Azulín falls into a river, severely disfiguring the right side of his face in the fall. The river sweeps Azulín away, where another troop finds him. While Azulín recuperates in the hospital, the military leaders promote him to Lieutenant, and present him as a hero to inspire the soldiers. He is also provided with a mask to cover the disfigured half of his face. Back at the forest, Gordi takes pity on María and nurses her back to health. Before the fight, María had stumbled upon the church and found the building now occupied by simians.
Azulín grows so popular among the soldiers that he leads a coup, killing the military leaders. He then organizes the bear army for one final massive assault to raze the forest. The unicorns then all unite to confront the bears. In the brutal final battle, all bears die except for the brothers, and all unicorns die except for María. Azulín and Gordi reunite. But when Azulín sees Gordi helping María, his rage boils over and he kills both Gordi and María. He drinks María's blood to finally fulfill the prophecy. But María's body morphs into a formless monster that consumes Gordi's body and also Azulín. At last the monster morphs into the godlike creature foretold, a human being. The human leads the simians as the new rulers of the world.
Parents need to know that Unicorn Wars is an extremely violent Spanish-language satire that uses adorable animated characters to demonstrate the horrors and futility of war. Fervently religious teddy bears -- who follow the teachings of an ancient book that says they were banished from the magical forest by unicorns -- are now on a mission of genocide. The "kids' cartoon"-style animation purposely maxes out the bears' cuteness, and they shoot heart-tipped arrows and train at Camp Love. But the violence they engage in is often disturbing, with vicious stabbings, gorings, arrow penetrations, and an appendage being sliced off. There are close-ups of stacked bodies and disemboweled carcasses with worms crawling out of their eye sockets. One main character murders and eats his victims. The whole production seems intended for shock value, so you can also expect close-ups of teddy bear penises and uncomfortable moments like when one character shames his brother for looking at his "willy" while he's urinating, then invites the brother to look at it (he declines and runs away). Teddy bears smoke, drink, and get high after devouring hallucinogenic caterpillars. Language includes "goddamn" and "f--ked up."
In UNICORN WARS, teddy bear brothers Tubby (voiced by Jaione Insausti) and Bluey (Jon Goirizelaia) go through intense boot camp training at Camp Love, preparing to attack the unicorns who banished their people from the magical forest centuries ago. The trials of battle will reveal childhood fragilities and secrets that will determine the brothers' fate -- and the outcome of the war.
And Unicorn Wars may have colorful, beautiful animation, but its envelope-pushing offensiveness feels immature. The only reason to show a close-up of a teddy bear penis seems to be to elicit a gasp and a giggle. And then that same gag gets taken even further, with a close-up of a teddy bear penis urinating. True, it may not be something you've seen before. But likely neither is watching a teddy bear murder his mother. Or eat a comrade he assassinated. Or kiss his brother. Or get high. Or get gored to death by a unicorn. The story imagines itself smart but is ultimately nothing special. Not only could Alberto Vázquez's animated war satire ruin your day, but it might wreck your childhood, too.
The dark fantasy maps a holy war between bears and unicorns over the control of a sacred forest. At the center of the larger conflict are bear brothers Bluey and Tubby (Azulín and Gordi in Spanish), part of a group of young soldiers in training before embarking on a dangerous mission. Early on, one bear stabs his brother to death during a drug-induced frenzy. Later, another gets a leg savagely amputated. And for the final clash, the two factions slaughter each other mercilessly, with the bears impaled on unicorn horns and their enemies blown to pieces and beheaded by heavy artillery.
There are no Muppets here. But the adorable, Disney-influenced art substitutes an analogous neotenous squelch. Teddy bear soldiers are at war with the unicorns of the magic forest, and Vázquez delights in drenching his adorable protagonists in blood, urine, pus, and sociopathy.
There is an apparent influence of and homage to the early work of Disney in the vibrant 2D animated style, but at times Unicorn Wars is better compared to some of the darker work of Hayao Miyazaki. In the opening scene, we see a young unicorn running in fright from a demonic, gloopy monster moving in fluidity and speed, which seems like an obvious nod to the demon from the beginning of Princess Mononoke. Furthermore, the environmental and pacificist themes are very much in line with Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. Yet, Unicorn Wars is so bold and intense in its approach that it lacks the nuance of Mononoke.
En un bosque mágico, los unicornios convivían con animales salvajes. Pero los osos encontraron un Libro Sagrado de conocimiento en las ruinas de una iglesia. El libro permitió a los osos ganar sensibilidad y formar su propia civilización. Con el tiempo, los osos evolucionaron físicamente a una forma de "oso de peluche" multicolor. Según sus creencias, los osos querían cultivar el bosque, pero los unicornios se les opusieron. En realidad los unicornios solamente se opusieron debido a que los osos empezaron a talar los arboles del bosque y los unicornios siendo los protectores de este decidieron tomar represalias. Esto condujo a una guerra entre osos y unicornios. Pero los osos creen que la guerra terminará cuando su "elegido" beba la sangre del último unicornio, y un ser divino regrese al bosque.
El sargento de instrucción Caricias entrena a una nueva tropa de reclutas que incluye a los hermanos Gordi y Azulín. Un sacerdote inculca una doctrina religiosa de odio a los unicornios en las tropas. Azulín pretende proteger a Gordi, y aspira a ser el mejor recluta, con la esperanza de ser algún día El Elegido. Pero se vuelve resentido con el mejor recluta de la tropa, Coco. Y siente celoso de su hermano desde su nacimiento cuando Gordi salió primero, ganándose el favor de su madre. Cuando su madre dejó a su padre por otro hombre, los celos de Azulín se volvieron tan despiadados que vertió veneno en la limonada de su madre y la mató.
Los líderes del campamento envían las tropas al bosque para encontrar un escuadrón desaparecido, con Caricias y el Sacerdote a la cabeza. En el bosque, encuentran luciérnagas que consideran comer. El Sacerdote advierte que la escritura dice que no se los coma, pero Caricias desafía airadamente la advertencia. Las luciérnagas resultan ser alucinógenas y las tropas ven alucinaciones aterradoras que cuestan la vida de dos reclutas. Más tarde, encuentran los restos mutilados de los miembros del escuadrón, presumiblemente asesinados por unicornios. El sargento Caricias se vuelve loco como resultado. Poco después, se topan con un unicornio solitario y lo matan. Pero aparecen otros unicornios y luchan contra los reclutas, dejando solo con vida a Azulín, Gordi y Coco. La ira de Azulín contra Coco estalla, y mata a Coco herido e incluso lo canibaliza.
Los hermanos encuentran otros dos unicornios. Azulín mata a uno de ellos y hiere gravemente al otro, una potranca llamada María. Al tratar de matar a María, Azulín cae a un río, desfigurándose severamente el lado derecho de su rostro en la caída. El río se lleva a Azulín, donde otra tropa lo encuentra. Mientras Azulín se recupera en el hospital, los líderes militares lo ascienden a teniente y lo presentan como un héroe para inspirar a los soldados. De vuelta en el bosque, Gordi se apiada de María y la cuida hasta que recupera la salud. Antes de la pelea, María se topó con la iglesia y encontró el edificio ahora ocupado por simios. 041b061a72