Movie Review: Decorado (CCFF 2026)

If you just saw screenshots of the characters of Alberto Vázquez’s Decorado, you might think it’s a fun animated film with a pair of adorable mice at the center. While the mice and some of the other characters are indeed pretty cute, this is not a nice and fun animated movie. Decorado is a dark, twistedly funny adult animated film about a mouse and his community struggling to live in a capitalist society.

Arnold (voiced by Asier Hormaza) is a mouse going through a midlife crisis in the town of Anywhere. He has been unemployed for years after getting fired from the one factory in town, and his wife, Maria (voiced by Aintzane Gamiz), takes care of everything in the house while she works as a local artist. When Arnold’s friend Ramiro dies under mysterious circumstances, Arnold starts to believe that his life is under constant surveillance by the corporation that runs the whole town.

Decorado is another fantastic animated movie to come out this year, along with Hoppers and Goat. But unlike the other two, this one is not kid-friendly. While Arnold and Maria might look cute, with their big heads, expressive eyes, and tiny bodies, they are dealing with timely real-world issues, like financial issues and the strain that can put on a marriage, the death of a friend, and being lost in a world you don’t recognize, along with some more fantastical problems like feeling like you’re constantly being watched, fighting a battle that you seemingly can’t win, being hunted by mysterious creatures, and a murder mystery. Anywhere is a hellscape, a rundown city run by an evil corporation. On the outskirts of the city, people are being forced out by the corporation looking to expand, which forces them and others from the city to live in tents in the woods, where violence, mania, and terror ensue. Our adorable, animated mice live in a stressful Orwellian dystopia that is terrifying and shockingly familiar.

Vazquez’s animation is spectacular and unique. The characters are expressive and lively in their movements and facial reactions. While they may look cute and fun, particularly our two main characters, their adorableness is perfectly contrasted by the dark dystopian Anywhere Vazquez creates. But they mesh perfectly to show how even the nicest people (or mice) can be pushed to their limits. Decorado is stunning in every way. The colors pop, it’s energetic, the character designs are inventive, and the action is thrilling, and it’s all done with immense skill.

Decorado can be looked at as a bleaker, darker version of The Truman Show, or a stylized look at what our future holds. Or maybe a mix of both, all resting on the shoulders of a small, stressed-out mouse trying to get by. Decorado is a powerful, twisted tale and one of the best animated movies of the year.

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