Decorado is now playing in theaters.
In Alberto Vázquez's surrealist animated fantasy Decorado, Arnold and MarÍa are married mice — a concept that immediately brings Mickey and Minnie Mouse to mind — who have hit a wall in their personal and professional lives.
Their dissatisfaction and unrest grow until they can't be sure how much of the world they live in is even real, giving the 95-minute films its name . Vázquez is no stranger to metaphor in his movies, and his previous animated works have netted him several Goya Awards already. But his most recent project feels aimed directly at the heart of capitalism, and the A.L.
M.A Corporation at the center of proceedings hits closer to home than some viewers might be comfortable with. In an interview with ScreenRant, Vȧzquez broke down how Decorado evolved from an animated short to a feature-length film, why he chose certain visual representations for his protagonists, and what he hoped to drive home with his The-Truman-Show-meets-Mickey's-Christmas-Carol tale. The Origins Of Decorado Revealed By Alberto Vázquez ScreenRant: Decorado was first a short film a decade ago.
How did you decide to expand it into a feature, and why was now the right time for it? Alberto Vázquez: Actually, none of this was planned from the beginning. Decorado first started as a series of comics and short stories that I published around 2012. They were gags, small one- or two-page pieces starring anthropomorphic animals going through existential crises.
Years later, in 2017, I decided to revisit that material and adapt it into a short film. It was also built around gags and had a non-linear structure, in black and white, with backgrounds inspired by 19th-century engravings and a very particular visual style. Later on, I met Xavi Manuel, the co-writer of the film, and together we started developing an adult animated series based on that universe.
The series never got made, but during that process, we wrote new storylines, new characters, and new situations. At some point, we realized that if the series was not going to happen, we could try to transform all of that material into a feature film. Since I had already made two feature films before , it felt possible. So, it was not a decision made from the start.
It was more a chain of coincidences, encounters, and people who made it possible, like Xavi, José Luis Ágreda, the art director, Pamela Poltronieri, whom I had been working with for many years and who was the animation director, and of course the producers. ScreenRant: Why is the protagonist a mouse? Do characters correlate to their respective animal in any way?
Alberto Vázquez: The protagonist is a mouse, and Maria is also a mouse because, in some way, they echo Mickey and Minnie Mouse. There is something of a parody in that, of course, but in this case, they are middle-aged characters, quite worn down by life. You get the feeling that they were handsome or beautiful when they were young, but not so much anymore.
As for the relationship between the characters and the animals they represent, sometimes there is a fairly clear correspondence, and sometimes there is not. In some cases, I work with very classical associations: cats, mice, police dogs, the wise owl... These are images that almost belong to the collective imagination. Animals are also very interesting because they are universal; they can be understood anywhere in the world, and they do not belong to any specific time or place.
But at the same time, all of that is mixed with a much freer and more surreal mythology: inverted mermaids, ghosts, demons, mushroom men... For example, those mushroom beings represent, in a way, the workers of the ALMA company, very submissive and depersonalized figures. So there is one layer of classical symbolism, but also another that is much more intuitive, absurd, and open.
Breaking Down The Symbolism Of Decorado ScreenRant: When we meet Arnold and Maria, they’re experiencing something of a midlife crisis and have previously had a revolutionary phase that seems to have been sucked out of them. Why was it important to show those glimpses of their past as we watch their crisis unfold? Alberto Vázquez: It felt important to me to show where these characters come from, to make it clear that they were not always like this.
They used to be more rebellious, wilder, more impulsive people, living on the edge and carrying a very different kind of energy. All of that gets cut short when they lose their jobs and, above all, when Arnold is forced to take care of his sick father. That situation gradually leaves him outside society and pushes him into a kind of emotional and social paralysis.
I was interested in showing that past in order to better understand why the characters behave the way they do in the present. Because their crisis is not only economic: it is also medical, existential, and emotional. But even so, they still treat each other with affection. You can feel that, beyond all the problems, there is a real friendship between them.
And that was something I really wanted to preserve. ScreenRant: Other than Arnold and Maria, there are all kinds of characters who bring to mind famous cartoons, such as Depression Fairy being a dark take on Tinkerbell or Pato Roni being a twisted Donald Duck. Which character from the ensemble did you and your co-writer first want to include, and why?
Alberto Vázquez: Pato Roni was probably one of the first characters we wanted to include, as a kind of distorted parody of Donald Duck. We found him especially interesting because of his surreal potential. He is a beggar, but at the same time, he is also a fallen star. He is acting in a new film where he plays a beggar, so that allowed us to play with different layers of fiction and identity.
We also get to know part of his past and see how he was a broken toy of a huge company like ALMA, which produces everything, controls everything, and also destroys its own creations. We were very interested in that sense of decay in the character, but also in his ability to transform in a very comic and absurd way: first he seems to be a real beggar, then he turns into a real estate agent, and later into a figure of power, almost a co-director of the system.
All of that reinforces the idea of a world based on performance, role-playing, and falseness. There were other characters we were also very interested in, like the demon or the Depression Fairy, who clearly feels like a dark version of Tinkerbell, almost a kind of gothic fairy. ScreenRant: There are many beautiful, hilarious, and hallucinatory sequences in the film that tie back to the world being a set.
Were there any vignettes you had to take out of the film for timing or to help the flow of the narrative, but that you still feel have something to add? Alberto Vázquez: Yes, of course. There are always scenes that have to be cut or removed, whether for pacing, narrative clarity, or even budget reasons, because in animation every extra minute makes the film more expensive. I do feel that some interesting things were left out.
For example, Pato Roni’s story was cut down quite a lot, and originally it had much more development. You could see more clearly his childhood, his poverty, and I remember that his father was a kind of manager who exploited him from an early age. There was something quite dark and powerful in all of that, and I found it very interesting.
But in the end, when you make a film, you have to decide which materials really help the whole and which ones, even if they are good in themselves, interrupt the flow of the narrative. ScreenRant: Decorado has already been on the festival circuit before having a wider release. What have been some of the reactions or conversations surrounding the film that have most stayed with you?
Alberto Vázquez: I have heard all kinds of reactions, and I find that interesting. Some people find the film very funny, almost like a comedy, while others find it sad, depressing, or even quite terrifying. The same thing happens with the ending: some viewers feel that it is too open, while others think exactly the opposite, that it is too closed.
That range of reactions catches my attention because it shows that each person enters the film from a different place. In any case, once the film is finished, it no longer belongs to me, but to the audience. Viewers have to draw their own conclusions and interpret things in their own way. I have never been very interested in trying to control those reactions.
I think it is more beautiful when each person finds their own reading of the film. As for me, I am happy with the film and with how it turned out.
Decorado is now playing in theaters. 5/10 Decorado 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed Animation Comedy Fantasy Horror Release Date October 24, 2025 Runtime 95 minutes Director Alberto Vázquez Producers Chelo Loureiro, Nuno Beato Cast Powered by Expand Collapse
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