From ‘Robot Dreams’ To ‘Decorado’: Acclaimed Art Director José Luis Ágreda Explains His Process In New Behind-The-Scenes Video (EXCLUSIVE)

Leading Spanish art director José Luis Ágreda, whose recent credits include Oscar-nominated Robot Dreams and Spanish Academy Goya Award-winner Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles, takes viewers inside his role on Alberto Vázquez’s new feature Decorado in a newly released behind-the-scenes video shared exclusively with Cartoon Brew.

Expanding on Vázquez’s acclaimed 2016 short, Decorado transforms its allegorical, absurdist world into a full-length animated fable that blends dark satire with Golden Era-inspired visuals. The film follows Arnold, a middle-aged mouse whose unraveling personal life leads him to suspect that his entire world is a corporate simulation engineered by the megacompany ALMA. With its biting critique of consumerism and conformity, Decorado continues Vázquez’s exploration of societal decay through animal allegory, a signature approach also seen in Birdboy: The Forgotten Children and Unicorn Wars. Part 1984, part The Truman Show, the film plays out like one of Walt Disney’s nightmares and is the most sophisticated story that Vázquez has delivered to date.

In the new BTS video, Ágreda describes his collaboration with Vázquez to establish the film’s distinctive visual identity. “We started from the visual universe of Alberto Vázquez,” he explains, “and combined it with the world of classic cartoons from the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s.”

A limited color palette was key to the film’s emotional tone. “The color and lighting aren’t meant to be merely descriptive of the surroundings, but expressive of how the character feels,” Ágreda says. “They accompany the emotion. In fact, the color itself can even comment on what the character is feeling and how they’re feeling it.”

Balancing stylized fable and grounded realism, Ágreda and his team crafted a world that is both unsettling and familiar. “Just as there’s something real within the farce that Arnold lives in.”

Decorado premiered at Fantastic Fest, where it earned a special mention, and later won the inaugural Fumi Kitahara Special Jury Prize at Animation Is Film. It’s produced by Abano Producións, Uniko, The Glow, María y Arnold AIE, and Sardinha Em Lata, with international sales handled by Le Pacte.