Julián (2026) Movie Drinking Game
Take a Drink: every time Julian makes a mess
Take a Drink: whenever his imagination turns toward the sea
Take a Drink: for Spanish dialogue
Take a Drink: for the water goddess
Do a Shot: for impolite whispers and “too much”
By: Henry J. Fromage (Two Beers) –
Cartoon Saloon has built an amazing body of work often focused on Irish mythology, but it did stray from that subject matter once with the notably superb The Breadwinner, and does again here with Julián.
Julián follows a creative young boy obsessed with the ocean whose father drops him off to spend the summer with his Dominican abuela in South Brooklyn, where they have some getting used to each other to do before they can help each other with what they truly need.
A Toast
This is a striking new milieu for Cartoon Saloon and animation in general- Julian is staying in south Brooklyn with his Dominican grandma but dreaming of the sea, and the colorful style of the artwork reflects that cultural diversity in simple, joyful strokes. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable immersion in this culture and world.
The headlines on this story aren’t going to be about Coney Island nor the DR, though, but about Julián’s fervent desire to be a mermaid. Julian is an artistic type- not interested in sports, but intrigued by the neighborhood girls creating underwater worlds with sidewalk chalk. Complexity comes in with his abuela’s difficulties understanding this rather different young boy. It’s subtle, but her patriarchal understanding of the world and his entirely uninhibited one conflict even as she does her best to meet him where he’s at- and she won’t stop trying.
This may be an American-set story, but probably did take Europeans (or at least European financing) to make it- while never sexual in the slightest, it’s coded all over with at least cross-dressing and perhaps even trans imagery and themes. This is no propaganda piece, though- it’s all sensitively deployed, and just as important a theme are the abuela demonstrating an immigrant’s longing for the time and place she was from, and the traumas the act of immigration imparts. Learning to embrace the complexity of one’s identity can take many forms, underscored by an absolutely lovely ending where all of the plots themes are unified.
Beer Two
Maybe I’m just too old and crotchety myself, but seeing Julian make a mess everywhere in the real world while on his imaginative jaunts was more stressful than cute or inspirational. Also, eat that good Dominican food, dammit!
Beer Three
This is perhaps a little more kid-leaning than Cartoon Saloon’s usually fare. It’s not a bad thing necessarily, but also this doesn’t feel quite as mythic or challenging as their typical output. The supernatural elements that are there fit a bit oddly with the rest of the story and ring unnecessary.
Finally, yeah, that little squeaky water droplet thing was not for me.
Verdict
Julián is a colorful, optimistic story of a kid whose differences fuel his creativity, and his abuela who learns how to support him in that.
