Decorado
"Fritz the Cat" meets "The Truman Show" with a side order of Salvador Dalí in this bleak, black animated comedy from Spain about a middle-aged mouse fighting his dystopia.
“Decarado” is a bleak, black animated comedy about a depressed, middle-aged mouse fighting against the dystopia in which he lives. It’s very much not intended for kids, with lots of swearing and gore. There are also elements of science fiction distortion about the nature of reality and an absurdist approach to storytelling.
It’s “Fritz the Cat” meets “The Truman Show” with a side order of Salvador Dalí, if that makes any sense.
As a critic, I sometimes get asked why I compare new movies to old ones, the premise being that every work of art or entertainment is unique and juxtapositioning films is demeaning. Certainly this is true in the “high” arts — you don’t generally find a critic comparing operas or paintings.
My answer is simple: this is the way people actually think, and not just those watching movies but the ones making them, too. Filmmakers constantly mimic, borrow and ape the things they’ve seen and liked. And it’s also good shorthand for expressing complicated ideas in simple sound bites.
If we stop with the simile, then I agree it’s a disservice to the filmmaking. So let’s dive a little deeper.
Arnold (Asier Hormaza) is a mouse living in an anthropomorphized world where pretty much every critter talks, and even some plants like mushrooms. Once a passionate, rebellious rodent, he’s now become complacent and self-pitying. His wife, Maria (Aintzane Gamiz), works herself to the bone to support them as Arnold’s been unemployed for years. Even so, they’re behind on the rent and are on the verge of being evicted.
The live in a modern, dispirited world that seems to consist entirely of a nasty, polluted city ruled by ALMA (Almighty Limitless Megacorporative Agency), a faceless corporation that owns and runs, as the name implies, everything. Surrounding it is a dangerous, impenetrable forest where only society’s castoffs live, as it’s hunted by a massive, godlike owl that likes nothing better than to munch on folks of Arnold’s ilk.
Through a series of misadventures, Arnold becomes convinced this reality is constructed, a la “The Matrix,” and that he and Maria are being closely watched. He becomes bolder and bolder in his willingness to act out against ALMA and its brutish dog police, led by Gregorio (Iñaki Beraetxe), a high-level executive rat who used to be Arnold’s boss and still lusts after Maria.
At its heart, “Decorado” — which in this usage means the decorated set for a play or screen production — is a parable about conformity, and the need to have weirdos, cranks and dreamers like Arnold who question why things are the way they are, even if they face the direst punishment for their transgression.
“What matters is the system. That people live in society. That’s what being civilized is,” Gregorio instructs.
The movie was directed by Alberto Vázquez from a screenplay he cowrote with F. Xavier Manuel Ruiz, based on a short film of the same name they previously made. It’s a colorful, depressing but also exhilarating world they’ve created, filled with a menagerie of fantastical and horrifying creatures.
My favorite thing about the film was simply watching Arnold wander around, getting into all sorts of encounters with these strange denizens. Like the toothpick-tall black demon of the forest who lures creatures with his harp, or the beguiling mermaid in the pools nearby — except she has a fish head and human legs, instead of the other way around.
There’s a frog neighbor who seems to be involved in any kind of musical production, and a toadying mushroom whose job is to be a door-to-door salesman for products nobody wants.
Mr. Arnold’s best friend is Ramiro (Ander Vildósola), who lives in the “country” on the edge of the forest and has detached from society, along with his roommate, Crazy Chicken (Raúl Dans), a very excitable fowl. Later, Ramiro will get killed and resurrected as a ghost and Chicken is framed for arson.
Probably the daffiest figure is Duck Roni (voiced by Vázquez himself), the star of cartoons Arnold loved as a child, who variously morphs into a street hobo or an ALMA boss as circumstances progress. Imagine if Goofy got a corner office but retained his same level of intelligence and “gawrsh” catchphrase.
The relationship between Arnold and Maria is a little sketchy. He’s constantly worrying that she will leave him, and honestly after spending some time with him, we wonder why she didn’t do so years ago. A brief flashback to their youth feels a little tacked-on; I wanted to learn more about how they get from then to now.
Now that I think about it, “Decorado” also reminds me of another movie: Terry Gilliam’s brilliantly dark “Brazil,” about a corporate lackey who winds up becoming its apocalyptic savior (maybe). The moods are a match: deeply cynical about human nature and yet filled with boundless promise about our capacity to overcome the prisons we build for ourselves.
Maybe that’s one comparison too many, but it’s how my brain works — and maybe yours does, too.