#Alberto Vázquez

[entrehormigones]

[canmom]

Animation Night 178: Alberto Vázquez

Hiii everyone! Animation night is back. And I've a treat for you tonight...

So. One of the best things about running Animation Night is that doing this (almost) every week gives me a motivation to go roving out looking for stuff I'd probably never watch otherwise. And sometimes the stuff you discover ends up being just insanely good.

This was the case way back on Animation Night 25, the very first Halloween Animation Night. On that night, we took a chance on a film by Spanish director Alberto Vasquez called Psiconautas, los niños olvidados - known in English as Birdboy: The Forgotten Children. I'll tell you a little about that movie in a minute, but it completely blew us all away: emotionally overwhelming, deft in its handling of the heavy shit, and gorgeously animated. (4C were involved).

So. Psiconautas is set on an island inhabited by anthropomorphic animals. It is a land in a state of general decline - its industry collapsed, the land choked with gigantic rubbish dumps, and the people in spirals of futility. Birdboy is a kind of spirit of the land; his father, Birdman, was shot down by police on suspicion of drug trafficking and he now struggles to keep a monster contained inside him and protect the one tiny shred of nature and life. His friends, who steal the pills he needs to keep it in check, are dealing variously with intrusive violent thoughts, uncaring fundamentalist parents, and a parent's addiction manifesting physically in the form of a huge spider. They want out of this hellish island - and they have a plan: with a bit of money, they might be able to buy passage to the city.

But it isn't that easy. Their money goes only so far as a tiny inflatable raft. And in the vast rubbish dump they encounter the Forgotten Children, abandoned by this society and left feral. Birdboy is forced to let his rage manifest. I won't spoil how it ends but - it's not an easy one.

Born 1980, Vázquez got his start in book and magazine illustration, with a style of distorted proportions and watercolours, or murky black, textured shapes as in these illustrations of Lovecraft. He turned to comics in the mid 2000s - which is where Psiconautas was born, along with other works like El evangelio de Judas (Judas the Catholic Squirrel) (2007) and Alter Ego (2008). In comics his style is very heavy, with big blocks of dark hatching. Within a few years he got the animation bug, working together with Pedro Rivero.

At the time, my knowledge of Vázquez's style was limited to short films such as Decorado, which should give you a pretty strong sense of his style.

At first it seems like a series of brief joke vignettes - but soon of course the threads start weaving together, characters from one skit come back in another, the threads of causality start to break down as the main character goes to pieces. It's clever and striking, but of course the deliberate artificiality which is the point means it is all wrapped in a layer of irony, which blunts the impact a bit.

The short films were made with a tiny team, with Vázquez hmself filling in just about every role from writing through layout to cleanup, with only a few other people on board. His later works became much larger projects, pulling in artists from as far afield as the great Studio 4°C in Japan, though I believe the bulk of the animation is still done in Spain.

The result is something great. Psiconautas has its share of black humour, but it's more willing to go for real drama, taking the vibe from 'unsettling' to full on 'fooooof'. I'm so excited to see it again.

But the main reason to return to Vázquez tonight is... he's gone and made another movie!

Just as with Birdboy, Unicorn Wars takes a short film and expands it. This is actually one of Vázquez's earliest animated works, Unicorn Blood (2013) - a work with a rougher cutout animation style, depicting teddy bears who hunt unicorns to try to fuel their cuteness. In the short we see a condescending teddy bear Moffy lecturing and fatshaming his brother Gregorio, as they hunt a unicorn, with abruptly segues into montages of violent religious imagery as a voice sermonises on the necessity of slaughtering the unicorns. They encounter a unicorn, but Gregorio can't shoot before the unicorn throws itself off a cliff - and as Moffy rounds on him, he gets motivation to, well, do a murder. It's a highly stylish work as with anything Vázquez touches, with gorgeous music textures and great use of watercolour.

Unicorn Wars returns to these themes about a decade later. Now the teddy bears are fully in a Vietnam-style war against the unicorns. A troop of teddy bairs are recruited to the war, and we are introduced to the conflicts between brothers Gordi and Azulín and top recruit Coco. Naturally the deployment goes south fast, and these three bears are the only ones left alive. Things get very violent and occult very quickly. There's more than a little cannibalism.

I've been excited to watch this movie for like three years now. It dropped last year, and became available on BD this year, so I've finally been able to get my hands on a copy. Together with that, we'll revisit some of Vázquez's older works. I'm really excited, I've been wanting to run this one for aaaaaages. Now's our chance!

Now, I need to get some food before the shops shut, so the plan is to start in about an hour, at 10pm UK time - in the usual place, https://twitch.tv/canmom. Hope to see you there!

[brokehorrorfan]

Unicorn Wars will be released on Blu-ray on May 9 via GKIDS in association with Shout Factory. Described as Bambi meets Apocalypse Now, the 2022 Spanish-French animated film is currently available on VOD.

Comic book artist turned filmmaker Alberto Vázquez (Birdboy: The Forgotten Children) writes and directs the combination of horror, comedy, war, and action. Jon Goiri and Jaione Insausti lead the voice cast, with Ramón Barea serving as narrator.

Unicorn Wars is presented in its original Spanish with English subtitles. Read on for the special features, trailer, and synopsis.

Special features:

Interview with the writer-director Alberto Vásquez

Working in Blender featurette

Feature-length animatic

Trailer

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 rigors and humiliation of teddy bear bootcamp turn to the psychedelic horrors of a combat tour in the Magic Forest, their complicated history and increasingly strained relationship will come to determine the fate of the entire war.

Pre-order Unicorn Wars.

[1day1movie]

Unicorn Wars (2022) Alberto Vázquez.

[moviemosaics]

Unicorn Wars

directed by Alberto Vázquez, 2022

[fearsmagazine]

UNICORN WARS (animated) - Review

DISTRIBUTOR: GKids

SYNOPSIS:  “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 Bluey and his sensitive, withdrawn brother Tubby could not be more different. As the rigors and humiliation of teddy bear boot camp turn to the psychedelic horrors of a combat tour in the Magic Forest, their complicated history and increasingly strained relationship will come to determine the fate of the entire war.”

REVIEW: Alberto Vázquez’s UNICORN WARS is a hypnotic and surreal film that is an adult fable in the tradition of Ralph Bakshi’s animated films, most notably his 1977 film “Wizards.”

Vázquez’s screenplay replaces all the religious symbolism with fantasy, unions and teddy bears. There is a teddy bear priest who quotes a sacred scripture about the rise of the bears and the struggle with the unicorns. However, there are no god-like characters or elements, boarding more on something like the legends of Beowulf or King Arthur. Plot points reflect the numerous military conflicts Spain has been a part of, and is still a part of,  and most notably their civil war. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that there is no specific reason why the bears should hate the unicorns other than tones of species hatred standing in for racism and imperialism. One of the characters suffers trauma during a conflict and it fuels his fanaticism, driving him to destroy the last unicorn in order to take advantage of a legend he has put his faith in. That moment becomes an interesting transition point in the narrative as it is fueled by these insects containing a hallucinogenic drug that are consumed by the bears. It is this “Apocalypse Now” moment that goes full tilt horror.  In contrast, the wounded bear’s brother remains in the forest and comes to his own understanding of the true nature of the unicorns and the role they play in the world. In the background, there is an evil that is seeking form and trying to rise up that the unicorns have managed to keep at bay.

There are a variety of artistic styles employed in the film. These feral, warlike, teddy bears are designed after a fashion that reminded me of “The Care Bears.” The unicorns are not white, They are all black or dark brown, depending on the scene. They feel like these ethereal spirits of the forest. They feel more organic than regal, which is what we might expect from a unicorn. The design of the military base is sparse, utilitarian design that feels like a wasteland. In contrast, the forest has this flowing, magical environment that feels like a subdued version of the forest from the Disney animated feature “Sleeping Beauty.” All of this is enveloped in technicolor. It makes the bears stand out and the battle sequences pop. The graphic nature of the war scenes are more intense. Those scenes are even more impactful due to the epic nature of the sound design. They’re gritty and visceral sounds that transform the visuals. Joseba Beristain adds another layer to the visuals and creates the perfect movement for the hallucination sequence.

Distributed by GKids, this is clearly not their typical animated release. You might think that by dealing with teddy bears and unicorns it would eliminate genitalia, but all these teddy bears, of course males, have genitalia and we see it. In fact, the battle sequences are as gory as 2021’s animated epic “The Spine of Night.” But all that aside, UNICORN WARS is an adeptly constructed allegory that makes a bold statement as to what the loss of magic and innocence will give rise to. I appreciated the satire of an early scene where these ape-like creatures inhabit church-like ruins, upon which resides this unformed, alien evil. It’s indicative of the entire film where there scenes create these visual prophetic gestures, adding to the parable of the narrative. You can view this film as entertainment, and be in for one hell of a mind trip. You can view it as an intense thought-provoking piece. But it is a rare film that allows you to take due paths and come out totally blown away.

CAST (voice): Jon Goiri, Jaione Insausti, Gaizka Soria, Iker Diaz, Estívaliz Lizárraga, Pedro Arrieta, Alberto Vázquez, Txema Regalado, Manu Heras, and Ramón Barea. CREW: Director/Screenplay/Art Direction - Alberto Vázquez; Producers - Chelo Loureiro & Iván Miñambres; Score - Joseba Beristain; Editor - Estanis Bañuelos; Animation Director/Animation Supervisor/Character Designer - Khris Cembe. OFFICIAL: gkids.com/films/unicorn-wars/ FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/GKIDSfilms TWITTER: twitter.com/GKIDSfilms TRAILER: https://youtu.be/31ee-Ma9NxM RELEASE DATE: Alamo DraftHouse March 6th, in theaters March 10th, 2023

**Until we can all head back into the theaters our “COVID Reel Value” will be similar to how you rate a film on digital platforms - 👍 (Like), 👌 (It’s just okay),  or 👎 (Dislike)

Reviewed by Joseph B Mauceri

[gebo4482]

UNICORN WARS | Official Trailer

Dir: Alberto Vázquez Star: Jon Goiri / Ramón Barea / Maribel Legarreta

[ryanmoody]

UNICORN WARS | Official Trailer

It's not Disney keeping animation alive…..it's Europe and Japan.

[indistressandwantstoletitallout]

There is light and beauty, even in the darkest of worlds.

– Birdboy: The Forgotten Children

[retroactivosigue]

La Felicidad Llegó, y de la mano de Alberto Vázquez. Cover al tema de LaVerne Baker.

[suchananewsblog]

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Unicorn Wars’ on VOD, a Deranged Animation About The World’s Most Violent Teddy Bears

This week on WTF Theater is Unicorn Wars (now streaming on VOD services like Amazon Prime Video), which is your average incredibly violent animated film about cutesy-poo religious-zealot teddy bears bent on slaughtering all the unicorns in the land and therefore bringing about a prophesied utopia. I can read your thoughts now: “Again? Didn’t 80 for Brady JUST cover that exact same material?”…

[otakunoculture]

Unicorn Wars is an Anti-Fable With a Strong Message

For those who missed @GKIDSfilms Unicorn Wars at @vicfilmfestival, fret not! It's coming to #theatres and #vod very soon! For information about this #animation, and a #moviereview, please visit:

GKIDS Played at the Victoria Film Festival Feb 9th Coming to theatres and VOD beginning March 10, 2023 Anyone enamoured with the colourful visual teases from the trailers for Unicorn Wars by Alberto Vázquez will get more than an anti-fable presented to them. That’s how this filmmaker describes his work. Here, his animated work looks at the conflict for power at the Magic Forest, where the teddy…

[citasliterarias]

Y es que no existe locura más insondable que la de quien elige volverse loco por voluntad propia.

Piratas (Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa)

[welele]

Los 10 reyes magos, de la mente de Alberto González Vázquez.

Va in crescendo. De que Baltasar sea mi rey favorito he pasado a Renato.

[minnesotafollower]

Cuba Dismisses Ministers of Economy and Food Industry

On February 2, the “Cuban government suddenly fired its ministers of economy [Alejandro Gil] and food industry [Manuel Santiago Sobino Martinez]. . ., after days of angry public response to an austerity plan rolled out last month that, among other things, planned to hike the price of gas five-fold in the midst of the island’s most severe economic crisis in decades.”[1] This development was…

[valencianistaspl]

Powrót Jesúsa Vázqueza bardzo bliski

Zawodnik odbył część sesji treningowej z resztą kolegów z drużyny. Alberto Marí robi duże postępy. #ValenciaCF

Zawodnik odbył część sesji treningowej z resztą kolegów z drużyny. Alberto Marí robi duże postępy. Valencia trenowała dziś rano w Ciudad Deportiva de Paterna po wczorajszym remisie na San Mames. Zawodnicy pierwszej drużyny wykonali pracę regeneracyjną. Dobrą wiadomością z sesji była obecność Alberto Marí i Jesúsa Vázqueza wraz z resztą kolegów z drużyny. Marí i Vázquez ukończyli pierwszą część…