Anime Herald: Who is your favorite character, and what is it you like about them?
Alberto Vázquez: Oh, there are lots of characters that I like, but one of my particular favorites is Pato Roni or Duck Roni. He’s sort of a parody of Donald Duck. I enjoy the character because I really like that sort of meta language and what happens to him where he goes from being a famous cartoon star to being a beggar who is forced to act in this show about Arnold. Also, I did the voice for him. That is a fun element of it as well.
Anime Herald: You are clearly familiar with film and animation history. Are there any references that you would like our readers to be on the lookout for?
Alberto Vázquez: The whole film is sort of a parody of classic Disney films and cartoons, but also mixed with real themes. There are dramas and crises. There are health crises, existential crises, financial troubles, and marital crises. Also, this idea of mega corporations who are controlling both us and our data. So that’s all in the mix.
Of course, there are specific references to animation; Duck Roni is a reference to Donald Duck. But also a lot of dystopian literature. A cynical, biting sense of humor. That’s something that comes particularly from me. It’s a bit sarcastic.
I like using classic cartoons because they’re universal and don’t necessarily belong to any one time or place. Anyone from any culture can understand them.
Anime Herald: Why did you create a world in which it is “impossible to dream?”
Alberto Vázquez: Because sometimes, the real world is sort of like that, where it feels impossible to dream. It’s sort of a hard thing to understand what is going on in the world with all of these mental and psychological problems we have. I wanted, and thought it was interesting, to explore the other side of these traditional family films, with a message that is completely distinct from what you traditionally get from a Disney film.
What I am interested in doing is provoking emotion from the spectator. Maybe it is not something the viewer necessarily enjoys, or something that they understand. I think animation is an adult medium, and for that reason, it needs to deal with all topics.
Anime Herald: I can understand where you’re coming from. My favorite character is El Buho (the owl). He had what I thought was a wonderful line: “The world is a beautiful stage, but it has a deplorable cast.”
Do you agree with El Buho?
Alberto Vázquez: Yes, I agree that the owl is a very interesting character. I sort of view him as the security guard to the forest. We don’t really know who the boss is. We hear a lot about who the #2 is and the deputy director of ALMA, but we don’t know who the #1 is. Could it be the owl, could it be someone else?
Also, owls are very wise, especially in traditional and classic fables. They are these creatures of the night, who are very wise and very old. I like using that character because I think he can make statements that are both really important and really impactful.
Anime Herald: We see Gregory bring out El Buho at the end of the movie with chains around El Buho’s ankle. It looks like Gregory is in charge of the owl, but you obviously know what happens. Was that a kind of metaphor?
Alberto Vázquez: It’s sort of what I was saying before. Gregory is the deputy director, and it looks like he’s leading the owl out, but it’s the owl who is leading Gregory out because the owl has more power than Gregory.
It feels like, for a business, that the employees don’t really matter. And so, for the owl, even though Gregory is the deputy director, El Buho doesn’t care about putting an end to him, because ultimately Gregory is not important to ALMA as a whole.
Anime Herald: Thank you very much for your time.
Alberto Vázquez: Thank you very much.
(Editor’s note: As I noted in the interview, I loved El Buho. You can consider him a villain, but perhaps he might be viewed as a literal force of nature. Decorado is a very dark nihilistic film. Trigger warning abound. If you are up for it, it is a beautifully animated story well told. Just don’t expect a Disney-style happy ending.)
Talking “Decorado” with Director Alberto Vázquez – Seth Burn