On May 15, the animated film Decorado, by Alberto Vázquez, lands in US theaters. An exclusive clip shows Arnold, a middle-aged mouse, immersed in an existential crisis as he suspects his world is a facade. The paranoia escalates into a crisis of reality, combining satire and surrealism. The film, winner of the Goya and Quirino awards, expands on the 2016 short film.
2D animation and analog metaverse: how the facade was built 🎭
Vázquez uses 2D animation with a graphic style reminiscent of underground comics, employing rough textures and muted color palettes to reinforce the feeling of an artificial world. Arnold's design, with his dark circles and hunched posture, was modeled to convey weariness without resorting to extensive dialogue. The visual narrative uses close-ups and perspective shifts to disorient the viewer, reflecting the protagonist's paranoia. The transition from short to feature film involved expanding settings without losing the original rawness.
Arnold: the office worker who discovered his life was a papier-mâché set 🐭
Arnold suspects his routine is a setup, but at least he doesn't have to deal with Zoom meetings or machine coffee. His crisis of reality is more bearable than that of many humans: he only discovers he is a drawing, while we know we are pixels in a cloud. Sure, if his world is a facade, ours is not far behind.