Director – Alberto Vazquez (Homeless Home, Birdboy: The Forgotten Children)
Starring – Jon Goiri (Birdboy: The Forgotten Children, Decisiones), Jaione Insausti (Betizu Izar Artean, Nola Egin Zen: Euskal Bikoizketa), and Ramon Barea (Stories to Stay Awake, Lullaby)
Release Date – 2022
Rating – 3/5
I’ve reviewed a lot of wild and weird movies over the years ranging from claymation films following people in a post-apocalyptic world where milk is dangerous to a movie where a living placenta is forced to go to school. I love the odd and unusual so when I heard that Shout Factory was releasing the animated film Unicorn Wars I knew I had to see it.
I had never heard of this Spanish film before I received the press release but once I saw the trailer I knew I had to see this. I reached out to them and they were kind enough to send a copy over for review. I seriously want to thank Shout and Scream Factory for supporting Horror Society.
**Spoiler Alert** The film follows a group of teddy bears who are in base camp preparing to be deployed in a war between bears and unicorns. The unicorns turned on the bears many years ago when they began destroying the forests for their own greedy endeavors. The bears are not a uniform group as some aspire to topple the military leaders and take control of the bear army while others just want to end the fighting. **Spoiler Alert**
Unicorn Wars looks like a cute and cuddly movie made by that never out grew their Lisa Frank phase. However, the film is anything but. It’s bloody, violent, and has a deeper social commentary for those of you that actually pay attention to the story. It has a lot to unpack but it’s one hell of a film with a lot to say.
The voice acting in this one is very well done. It’s hard to judge the acting in a film when you have to read subtitles but seeing an animated film with subtitles is not so difficult. The voices really worked for the characters they portrayed and I found myself digging through the film’s imdb page to check out the cast’s other work.
The story for this one is more than just teddy bears versus unicorns. It has a whole social commentary about deforestation, religious fanaticism, vanity, and greed. It does incorporate a lot from various genres like war, drama, comedy, and horror but doesn’t fully commit to any. I was also impressed by the amount of memorable characters with contrasting personalities that don’t blend together. A lot of animated films are guilty of creating the same characters over and over with different designs because it’s easier and cheaper. Unicorn Wars does not do that. Instead, they took the time to give almost all of the characters different personalities and backstories which adds a lot to the film.
Finally, I love the animation in this one and when you mix that with the trippy scenes and gore you get something that looks great and really gets the point across. We have some great animation and the gore just pops against the beautiful backdrops and colorful characters. Overall, Unicorn Wars will not be for the average horror fan but if you dig animation and odd films then this one is for you. It has a fantastic story and so much blood. I highly recommend it.
