Unicorn Wars

It’s “Bambi meets Apocalypse Now” in this provocative and strangely beautiful horror comedy from acclaimed filmmaker and illustrator Alberto Vazquez. For ages, teddy bears have been locked in an ancestral war against their sworn enemy, the unicorns, with the promise that victory will complete the prophecy and usher in a new era. Aggressive, confident teddy bear Bluet and his sensitive, withdrawn brother Tubby could not be more different. As the rigours and humiliation of teddy bear bootcamp turn to the psychedelic horrors of a combat tour in the Magic Forest, the two brothers come to determine the fate of the entire war.

I wanted to combine my own directorial universe with the iconography of the war-movie genre. Unicorn Wars is a homage to certain films I love, such as Apocalypse Now and Platoon. That is combined with the enchanting world of the magical forest and unicorns, which reminds me a little of Bambi. The story also references the Bible several times, which is one of my favorite works of fiction. In fact, the bears have their own religion and their own moral conflicts. I tried to show how fanaticism can generate a story about war, and how it can shape public opinion. These ideas weren’t really conscious decisions: they came to me gradually, as I wrote the script. I have always wanted to do a story about war and surviving in nature, and this concept meshed with my other storytelling obsessions.

Director Alberto Vázquez