GKIDS Announces Decorado English Dub Release

GKIDS, the Academy Award-winning distributor known for bringing world-class animation to North American audiences, has officially announced that Alberto Vázquez’s latest feature, Decorado, will receive a theatrical release on May 15, 2026.

The film, which recently won Best Animated Feature at the 2026 Goya Awards (Spain’s equivalent of the Oscars), marks the third collaboration between GKIDS and the visionary Spanish director, following his acclaimed previous works Birdboy: The Forgotten Children and Unicorn Wars.

The Story: A Surreal “Truman Show” with Rodents

Decorado is a darkly comedic, existentialist fable that expands on Vázquez’s Goya-winning 2016 short film of the same name. The story centers on Arnold, a middle-aged, unemployed mouse caught in the middle of an intense personal crisis.

As his marriage to his wife Maria begins to crumble and his best friend Ramiro dies under mysterious circumstances, Arnold becomes increasingly convinced of a terrifying truth: his entire world is a hollow set, his life is a scripted performance, and everyone he knows is an actor. His paranoia leads him to the ALMA corporation (Almighty Limitless Megacorporative Agency), a faceless entity that appears to be pulling the strings behind the “scenery” of his reality.

Visual Style and Influences

Vázquez is renowned for his “disturbing-yet-cute” aesthetic, and Decorado pushes this further by blending 19th-century engraving styles (reminiscent of Gustave Doré) with the classic look of early 20th-century cartoons.

The North American Release

GKIDS VP of Distribution, Chance Huskey, described the film as “the culmination of Alberto’s film work,” noting that it exceeds the high standards set by his previous two features.

The North American rollout on May 15 will offer audiences a new English-language dub (casting details for which are expected to follow).

Decorado arrives at a time when adult animation is seeing a “prestige” boom. By using anthropomorphic animals to tackle heavy themes like consumerism, hyperconnectivity, and mental health, Vázquez provides a universal metaphor for the modern human condition. As the director himself puts it, the film is a “critical fable about the meaning of life and human liberty,” suggesting that the only way to escape a “manufactured” world is through genuine, heartfelt human connection.

Alberto Vázquez’s Decorado arrives in North American theaters on May 15, 2026.