A teddy bear army indoctrinates young recruits to wage war against the unicorns who threaten the bears’ survival. The brothers Bluey and Tubby, along with a group of inexperienced recruits, are sent on a dangerous mission to save the magical forest. Are they up to the challenge?
"Unicorn Wars looks like a fable or a fairy tale, but in reality, it’s an anti-fable. There is no moral to the story — that is to say, it’s a dark fable for adults, with a contemporary narrative style and language. The contrast between form and content is obvious. The characters are cute and childlike, but their problems are complex and current. I like to work with anthropomorphized animals and universal symbols that don’t seem to belong to a particular time or place — symbols that all cultures can make use of. I wanted these cute, cuddly animals to behave in unexpected ways.
The backgrounds and the characters have textures that are typical of illustration done on paper. Spots and smears, irregular lines, and brushstrokes give a more expressive result that is close to classic watercolor illustration, or to the world of book illustration, which is where I come from.
Color also serves expressive, symbolic, and narrative purposes. As artistic director, I want the colors to evolve with the story. I want them to tell a story themselves and not be decorative or naturalistic. This is very clear with respect to the evolution of the magical forest, which becomes a character in its own right, and which evolves with the story and the characters’ emotions.
- Alberto Vázquez