In theaters since Wednesday, “Unicorn Wars” is an animated film not to be put in front of everyone’s eyes! This anti-war fable pits bear cubs against unicorns in a bloody battle.
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Unicorn Wars by Alberto Vazquez (II)
What is it about ? In these remote lands, Bears and Unicorns have always been at war. The Celestine soldier thirsts for the blood of Unicorns, pledge of eternal beauty, according to the Great Sacred Book. His brother Dodu doesn’t like war, he prefers blueberries and hugs. But the final battle draws near: a unit of inexperienced bear cubs leaves the training camp for a commando mission in the Magic Forest. Will they be up to it?
An anti-war fable
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Alberto Vázquez defines Unicorn Wars as an anti-war fable, which delves into the absurd origins of the most dramatic conflicts. He says: “It’s an epic, emotional story, a universal tale that tackles with sardonic humor and through psychology, themes such as family relationships, religion, the environment, the origin of evil and the power as a tool of control”.
References
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Unicorn Wars draws as much from the iconography of war films as Apocalypse Now and Platoon, as from the cartoon Bambi. Alberto Vázquez also looked for many references in the Bible, “one of my favorite fiction books”. Unicorns, for example, have biblical names: Mary, Ruth, Judith…
Not recommended for children!
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Beneath its air of a pop-colored tale, Unicorn Wars is “a dark fable for adults” according to its author. The director wanted to create a contrast between the childish form and the much darker and more complex background. It was a question of subverting the codes of the children’s story: “I wanted these animals with a soft and cute appearance to have unexpected behaviors”.
He adds: “the ambition of Unicorn Wars is to break genres to create an original universe, open the possibilities of narration and address a set of subjects in the background”.
Continuity
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We can consider Sangre de Unicornio as the beginnings of the history of Unicorn Wars. Made in 2013, this short film by Alberto Vázquez tells the story of two bear brothers who go hunting unicorns.
The animation process
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The film features around fifty characters and nearly 1,500 sets. It required six years of development and production and mobilized more than 250 people.
One of the main challenges was the coexistence of 2D animation with 3D animation. The unicorns were animated in 3D and then converted to 2D using a unique technique developed for the film, in order to best integrate them with the 2D animated bears and the sets.
The film was entirely made with the open source software Blender and its 2D module “Grease Pencil”. It is the first feature film to use this mixture of techniques in this way.
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