Alberto Vázquez, a Spanish animator, is challenging himself with his latest project, “Unicorn Wars.” Vázquez is known for his characteristic unsettling mix of benign figures and dark subject matter: His most recent feature picture, “Birdboy: The Forgotten Children,” was out in 2015 and follows a group of young cartoon animals as they try to make it through a nuclear wasteland. His most recent work follows suit by putting deep thoughts about evil into a setting that is clearly meant to be comical. Thus, it needs to exert twice as much effort to convince its audience. It’s to Vázquez’s credit that a number of them stay with the reader. The film takes set in an alternate universe where a species of magical unicorns are engaged in a holy war against teddy bears with huge soft eyes and giant spherical heads, all meant to be just different enough from a particular ’80s cartoon heavy on hugs and loving.
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This war has lasted longer than the lives of any of the film’s protagonists, and the horrible military rule that arose during that time is supported by the doctrines of a religion that has some parallels to a real-world organisation. (Intellectual property and religion: what’s the difference?) The story that develops from this premise reveals Vázquez’s strong dislike of Religion and his preference for traditional depictions of battle as a living hell. After a cryptic prologue, the narrative opens with a group of new recruits learning that “cuddles are created from steel, blood, and suffering!” during a military boot camp. Two brothers, the obnoxious and belligerent Azuln and the patient and understanding Gordi, form the backbone of the organisation. Azuln is horrible to his brother, making fun of his weight and accusing him of peeing on the bed in front of the other recruits. Gordi is able to absorb criticism and move forward. What happens to Azuln and Gordi once they leave the fascist protection of boot camp and venture out into a Vietnam-like jungle to hunt their magical adversary is the main narrative, but the almost hilariously tragic past that leads the brothers to this position is a subplot. In the vein of “Apocalypse Now,” this plot is a relentless plunge into an inferno. Between the animated violence, Vázquez inserts a mind-bending element right from that film: a drug-fueled psychedelic freakout, achieved, of course, by sucking the guts out of live, screaming cartoon caterpillars.
The film is not afraid to show graphic violence. Maggots spill from the mouths of dead bears and bear intestines hang from the trees like gory crepe paper as Azuln, Gordi, and crew discover a campsite full of disfigured teddy carcasses. The inventive death tableaus in this animated film are a reflection of the humour that drives it and a large portion of Adult Swim’s other works: wouldn’t it be amusing if kid-friendly media was true, like, extremely screwed up? Of all, this is a simplistic notion, and it won’t hold its appeal for long. While “Unicorn Wars” does provide plenty of opportunities to fulfil this need (think cartoon genitalia and bears hanging themselves in sorrow), there is luckily more to the film than that. Not only is there an anti-Catholic undercurrent to the story, but the setting is also rendered inaccurately. In some scenes, the teddy bears and their surroundings are drawn in the style of a Saturday morning cartoon, while in others, impressionistic methods are used to create images that look like they belong in a fairytale or an illuminated manuscript. The film’s more interactive sequences with the unicorns show the influence of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli; the unicorns have a holy responsibility to defend the environment, as in “Princess Mononoke,” and they fight a burbling ball of anthropomorphic hate, like No-Face in “Spirited Away.” The combination of the painting style with the Lisa Frank–esque colour scheme (think magenta, teal, hot pink, and bright blue) is aesthetically pleasing.
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Overstuffed and badly paced in the second act, “Unicorn Wars” would benefit from devoting more time to building this mythology instead of our feuding bear brothers’ plot. As the film progresses into its last half hour and Vázquez keeps adding aspects, “Unicorn Wars” begins to seem like it might be the first of a trilogy or the finale of a TV series that was abruptly cancelled and had to tie up its tale in a few episodes. Yet maybe having too much happening is a virtue for a movie that, on the surface, runs a genuine risk of being a shallow joke excruciatingly drawn out to feature length. The film is now showing in cinemas and may be accessed online.