The pessimistic spirit of Charlie Kaufman lives in Decorado's cute animated mouse

Arnold’s aimless wanderings through the company town of Anywhere, dominated by the omnipresent branding of ALMA (Almighty Limitless Megacorporate Agency) are as dispiriting as the pills he takes every morning—manufactured by ALMA and made with “100% happiness.” Around his SSRI-deadened stupor are all the charmingly animated signs of degradation that medication is helping him ignore. Arsonists set forest fires, then blame scapegoats; listless demons play the harp for monstrous mermaids; a mushroom man’s starving children take bites out of each other; roving bands of abusive police dogs rough up anyone foolish enough to cross their path; and impoverished shantytowns pop up on the fringes of the community.

Whether outrageous or too close to home, these are what make up the stage and setting—the decorado, as an opening definition explains—of a life that feels increasingly unreal. The oddly specific signs telling Arnold that there are no jobs for him only emphasize the point, and serve as one of the film’s best sight gags. This is a world set against one mouse, or at least one that feels like it. But it also feels like that to some of Arnold’s down-and-out friends, like Pollo Crazy (Raúl Dans) and Ramiro (Ander Vildósola), both of whom suffer terrible fates at the hands of the corporatist state. This leaves Arnold mostly alone to investigate the strange goings-on and maybe-conspiracies of his town.

Like the postmodern lamentations of Kaufman, and even Lars Von Trier (there are images here that access some of the depressed profundity of Melancholia), Decorado rages against the machine with half a smile. Of course, that smirk can be too self-satisfied, like when Vázquez introduces a literal Depression Fairy making Maria’s life hell, but for the most part, the biting little jokes and myriad animated details are clever without relying on edgelord provocations. The bigger issue is the script’s structure, which plateaus quickly as Arnold begins suspecting his environment and treads water too long before finally descending into something suitably stirring in the final few minutes.

The film’s most powerful moments, though, allow us the space to consider how the self-reflections of Decorado feel specific to its creator, yet broadly applicable to any artist trying to create while the world burns. An indie animator like Vázquez addressing the empty victories attained through conformity using a mouse-and-duck story isn’t subtle, but it doesn’t need to be; neither do the self-effacing jabs at arthouse films that nobody sees. It makes for a winningly frustrated film, one that doesn’t imagine either the end of the world or the end of capitalism, but one that imagines a shared struggle through a personal, pithy lens.

Director: Alberto Vázquez
Writer: Alberto Vázquez, F. Xavier Manuel Ruiz
Starring: Asier Hormaza, Aintzane Gamiz
Release Date: May 15, 2026