''Unicorn Wars'' is a 2022 Spanish-French

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

splatter

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about naval, air, or land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle scenes means that wa ...

written and directed by Alberto Vázquez. The plot is set against the backdrop of a conflict between anthropomorphized teddy bears and unicorns, following two bear siblings deployed in a military mission to a magical forest populated by wild unicorns. The film won

Best Animated Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress# ...

at the

37th Goya Awards The 37th Goya Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain, is scheduled to take place at the FIBES Conference and Exhibition Centre in Seville, Andalusia on 11 February 2023. Background On 31 May 202 ...

. It was also nominated for

at the

10th Platino Awards The 10th Platino Awards, presented by the Entidad de Gestión de Derechos de los Productores Audiovisuales (EGEDA) and the Federación Iberoamericana de Productores Cinematográficos y Audiovisuales (FIPCA), took place on 22 April 2023 at IFEMA P ...

Plot

In a magical forest,

unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since Classical antiquity, antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn (anatomy), horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unicor ...

s 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 A teddy bear is a stuffed toy in the form of a bear. Developed apparently simultaneously by toymakers Morris Michtom in the U.S. and Richard Steiff under his aunt Margarete Steiff's company in Germany in the early 20th century, the teddy be ...

" form. According to their beliefs, the bears wanted to cultivate the forest, but the unicorns opposed them. In reality due to the bears

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then land conversion, converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban area, urban ...

the unicorns decided to retaliate causing the bears to be

exiled ''Exiled'' () is a 2006 Hong Kong action drama film produced and directed by Johnnie To, and starring Anthony Wong, Francis Ng, Nick Cheung, Josie Ho, Roy Cheung and Lam Suet, with special appearances by Richie Jen and Simon Yam. The action ...

from 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 god-like 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 Hatred is an intense negative emotional response towards certain people, things or ideas, usually related to opposition or revulsion toward something. Hatred is often associated with intense feelings of anger Anger, also known as wrath or ...

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

glowworm Glowworm or glow-worm is the common name for various groups of insect larvae and adult larviform females that glow through bioluminescence. They include the European common glow-worm and other members of the Lampyridae, but bioluminescence also ...

s 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 Hallucinogens are a large, diverse class of psychoactive drugs that can produce altered states of consciousness characterized by major alterations in thought, mood, and perception as well as other changes. Most hallucinogens can be categorize ...

, 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 badly wounds one of them, a filly named María and Laura. In trying to kill her, Azulín gets impaled by the other unicorn Laura, sending him into a river, severely disfiguring the right side of his face in the fall. The river sweeps Azulín away, where another troop: Corporal Pompon, Private Peludito, and Private Grimaldo find him. While Azulín recuperates in the hospital, the military leaders Colonel Otto, Commander Fluffy, and Captain Snout appear before Azulín. 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

simian The simians, anthropoids, or higher primates are an infraorder (Simiiformes ) of primates containing all animals traditionally called monkeys and apes. More precisely, they consist of the parvorders New World monkeys (Platyrrhini) and Cat ...

s. 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 two 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 god-like creature foretold, a

human being Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, an ...

. The human leads the simians as the new rulers of the world.

Voice cast

''Names in parentheses are the English-version names if they differ from the originals.''

Production

Alberto Vázquez declared to have three main inspirations when writing: ''

Apocalypse Now ''Apocalypse Now'' is a 1979 American epic war film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The screenplay, co-written by Coppola, John Milius and Michael Herr, is loosely based on the 1899 novella '' Heart of Darkness'' by Joseph C ...

'', ''

Bambi ''Bambi'' is a 1942 American animated drama film directed by David Hand (supervising a team of sequence directors), produced by Walt Disney and based on the 1923 book '' Bambi, a Life in the Woods'' by Austrian author and hunter Felix Sal ...

'' and the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts o ...

. The project was showcased in a 'Work in Progress' panel of the 45th

Annecy International Animation Film Festival The Annecy International Animation Film Festival (french: Festival international du film d'animation d'Annecy, officially abbreviated in English as the Annecy Festival, or simply Annecy) was created in 1960 and takes place at the beginning of J ...

. A Spanish-French co-production by Abano Producións SL, Uniko Estudio Creativo S.L., Unicorn Wars AIE, Autour de Minuit, Productions SARL, and Schmuby Productions SAS, the film received funding from

Eurimages Eurimages is a cultural support fund of the Council of Europe, established in 1989. Eurimages promotes independent filmmaking by providing financial support to feature-length fiction, animation, and documentary films. In doing so, it encourages ...

Release

The film was presented at the 46th

on 16 June 2022, as part of the festival's official competition. It made its US premiere at the

Fantastic Fest Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse, Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News, Paul Alvarado-Dykstra, and Tim McCanlies, writer of ''The Iron Giant'' and ''Secondhand Li ...

. Distributed by Barton Films, the film was theatrically released in Spain on 21 October 2022. Charades handled the sales elsewhere. It was released in French theatres on 28 December 2022 by UFO Distribution. The film received a limited theatrical release in North America on 10 March 2023.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film has an 84% rating based on 31 reviews from critics with an average rating of 7.20/10, with the critics' consensus reading "while its humor may strike some as needlessly crude, ''Unicorn Wars'' is a visually audacious strike against cultural and military fascism". On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a weighted average of 73 out of 100 based on 7 critic reviews, indicating "generally positive reviews".

Accolades

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10th Feroz Awards The 10th ceremony of the Premios Feroz, presented by the Asociación de Informadores Cinematográficos de España, will talke place at the Auditorio de Zaragoza in Zaragoza, Spain, on 28 January 2023, to recognize the best in Spanish cinema and t ...

, , colspan = "2" , Arrebato Award (Fiction) , , , , align = "center" , , - , 78th

CEC Medals The CEC Awards or CEC Medals ( es, links=no, Medallas del CEC), whose full name is , are awards presented annually by the Círculo de Escritores Cinematográficos (CEC; ) to distinguish films, artists, technicians, and writers related to cinema ...

, , colspan = "2" , Best Animated Film , , , , , - , rowspan = "2 ,

, , colspan = "2" ,

, , rowspan = "2" , , - , Best Original Song , , "Batalla" by Joseba Beristain , , , - , rowspan = "6" , 21st

Mestre Mateo Awards The Mestre Mateo Awards, known in Galician as ''Premios Mestre Mateo'', are the main film awards in Galicia, celebrated annually. The awards were established in 2002 by the Galician Academy of Audiovisual as a continuation and expansion of the Ch ...

, , Best Director , , Alberto Vázquez , , , , rowspan = "6" align = "center" , , - , Best Screenplay , , Alberto Vázquez , , , - , Best Art Direction , , Alberto Vázquez , , , - , colspan = "2" , Best Animated Film , , , - , Best Editing , , Íñigo Gómez, Estanis Bañuelos , , , - , Best Sound , , Iñaki Alonso , , , - ,

, colspan="2",

, , rowspan="1", , - , 6th

Quirino Awards The Quirino Awards, known in Spanish as Premios Quirino de la Animación Iberoamericana ("Quinino Awards for Ibero-American animation") are an annual awards ceremony dedicated to reward achievements in Ibero-American animated productions. Its cate ...

, , colspan="2", Best Ibero-American Feature Film , , , , , -

References

External links

Official website
* {{Teddy bears 2022 animated films 2022 comedy horror films 2022 fantasy films 2022 films 2020s French films 2020s Spanish films 2020s Spanish-language films 2020s war films Animated films about siblings Animated war films Anti-war films Films about siblicide Animated films about prejudice Films about toys Films about unicorns French adult animated films French animated feature films French fantasy films French splatter films French war films Sentient toys in fiction Spanish animated feature films Spanish adult animated films Spanish comedy horror films Spanish fantasy films Spanish splatter films Spanish war films Animated films about brothers