I have one small fact about the italian version of this movie: the bears speak in an italian dialect from a region known to have bears in its national park, Abruzzo. It made the movie even more endearing for us italians. :)
I appreciate his purpose in the film, but I still disliked him by the end as much as I did at the start. Not sure if it's his voice delivery or the writing, but I just found him irritating throughout.
ME! I thought he was there just to crack jokes all the time and I was so surprised how well integrated he was to the themes of the story and that they allowed him to have a serious scene like the one with the panic attack.
That moment when Perrito silently puts his chin on Puss' stomach to calm Puss from his panic attack, and then they not only have a sincere heart to heart, but then Puss and Kitty also have a sincere heart to heart, and only THEN do they have a semi serious joking but heartfelt moment... That's when I knew this movie was special.
It's honestly impressive how well Antonio Banderas plays off his role as Puss, how he gives him so much emotional weight and character, considering that his casting was basically a one-off joke of "lol what if Zorro was a cat?" that was typical of all the gags in the Shrek franchise.
The Cave of Lost Souls scene has to be my favorite in the movie. The film starts with showing the audience how Puss blew his lives, clearly playing it for comedic effect. "Look at all the stupid ways he wasted each life, haha, hilarious!" At the Cave of Lost Souls, it's the same exact statement, but said with the true severity it holds. "No, really, look at all the stupid ways he wasted his lives." There's a common problem in filmmaking and writing nowadays where characters just will not fathom the weight of an event, always making light of whatever situation they're in. It was downright shocking for a movie like this to *start* its plot making light of a topic that could be serious, and then actually refocusing that topic with the seriousness it requires. film good
That's called Reframing in storytelling terms, where you take something that happens that's depicted in one way, and giving new info later or put into another situation that flips its meaning on its head Used wonderfully in that scene of turning what was played as a joke into the real problem of "he played his own lives like a joke"
Also, I love how INCREDIBLY subtle purrito's map is. Most people, including the entire cast of the movie, just see it as "Dog has everything and loves everyone so his map is easy"..........But when you look at the locations in contrast to his past.................It's some of the darkest and most depressing info you can ever find in this movie. Pocket full of Posies is a song literally about the deaths of so many innocent people through disease.......And the river of relaxation + the field of quick and easy solutions are both just massive nods to the fact HIS OWN FAMILY TRIED TO MURDER HIM IN ONE OF THE MOST PAINFUL AND EXCRUTAITNG WAYS IMAGINEABLE. This movie is so good it's not even funny
Yeah. Perrito's map was way darker then the cats ones. Pocket full of posies. Disease. Perrito was runt of the litter. The weakest one. Most likely to die to any disease. Probably biggest reason he was thrown away in the first place. River of relaxation. River Styx. Death meaning no more struggle. Also Perrito being thrown into a river to drown. Field of quick and easy solutions. Suicide. Just giving up on life. Something Perrito never did even after everything that happened to him. Cats have regrets, lonelinesa. Everything Perrito has is connected to death.
@@maxhax367 you can interpret the forest as showing Perrito the worst in his life. But, I have an alternative interpretation. The forest protects the wish, and the way it does so is by trying to make people realize they don't *need* the wish. For Puss, it's the cave of lost souls. It's meant to make him realize how his lives were wasted and how getting more will not change that, as he will just waste those too For Kitty, it's the abyss of loneliness and the peak of misery, reflecting her need for companionship For Goldy, it's the Bear Hut. Where she found her new family. So it's pretty clear that the forest points out what people need and want, to show them the wish isn't the answer. But then, what of Perrito? He has no wish... or does he? He states at some point that he wants to be a therapy dog, which he illustrates with Puss, and even if it's not something he's gonna wish for... the forest reflects that. How? By introducing him to what he'll be confronted to as a therapy dog: sickness and suicidal people. The forest *teaches* Perrito his job, so he won't need the wish
I love what you said at the end: mature stories aren't about removing happy endings, lessons, or good triumphing over evil; people mock such things as naive, or immature-- but they are all part of storytelling. Thoughtful, sincere stories told with care, are even better at maturity than stories that are dark and gritty just for the sake of it.
“If all your stories teach you to do is mock or tear down what others have built…pretty soon you won’t have anything left to celebrate” you just summed up the problem perfectly. I think in a landscape where most stories have already been told, some storytellers are insecure about using well known cliches audiences may pick up on, and feel the need to break the mold but in reality that *mold* has been broken for years and it needs to be glued back together because, wouldn’t you know it, we were using that mold so long for a reason.
If you think all Shrek does is mock or tear down what other have built you weren't paying attention to the film. This idea that old = better is just conservative bullshit. Everything, including stories, is subject to being criticized and overcame.
@@incanusolorin2607old is better than whatever MCU and Disney is crapping out these days. In fact, most old CN cartoon shows were *MILES* better than SU, Craig, etc. “Conservative Bullshit”. What in God’s name does conservatives have to do with this conversation about animated movies anyways?
@@incanusolorin2607 Have you heard of 'Chesterton's Fence'? It's a logical argument made most common by taking a fence built ages ago. This fence is found to hinder a few people in the current age, so a petition is made to tear it down, arguing that it serves no purpose. However, people argue that if you cannot see the purpose, you need to re-examine it. Chesterton's Fence applies here as well. There are commonly built storytelling tropes throughout the ages, and people nowadays want to tear them down and deconstruct storytelling as a whole. However, it is important to see why these tropes and methods exist in the first place before doing so. The Last Wish examines why these tropes exist, and argues that they should remain. There's a quote which I'll paraphrase because I can't remember who said it. "It's fine to discover things for yourself, but you shouldn't live as if others have not come before you."
I think something that a lot of ppl forget regarding the whole "predictability" thing is that a.) Foreshadowing is a literary device and tool that can be used by storytellers to add weight or meaning to different aspects of their tales and B.) Sometimes the author WANTS you to make a prediction or prememptively draw a conclusion, either in earnest or so they may subvert those predictions later. "Predictability" doesnt always equal bad. A good writer knows their tropes and how to use them, the same way a good painter knowns how to use their different brushes to get desired effects.
YES! I see "predictability" as an overused criticism. Because it's not always about knowing the destination, but about HOW you get there. That's why I actually love Pixar's "Turning Red". To an extent, we all know how the story will end. It's set up from the beginning. But it's seeing the relatability in the characters going through the story that makes it meaningful. And while not everyone relates to the characters of "Turning Red", it was something that I especially felt "seen" for in my experiences with growing up with strict expectations that were vastly different from who I really was despite never wanting to let down my family. That's the same thing I think is so great about "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish". You know from the way that the story is set up that Puss will have to come to terms with his predicament in one way or another. But actually watching him during the process of acknowledging mortality and his experiencing a sense of existentialism for the first time was what really hit home for a lot of audience members. Myself included! Not every story has to have the edge of a surprising plot point to be good. Tried and true story tropes exist for a reason: because they can be just as effective when used correctly!
Also, when I think predictability is used as a criticism falls into 2 categories. 1. The person watches so many of the same thing it's tiring for them, like to an inordinate amount. 2. The execution of the story is not good in the first place. Thus by having it predictable just adds to its flaws.
It's much more difficult to surprise people in this day and age than it was 4 or even 2 decades ago. The key is to invoke suspense. Because even if the audience can predict future events well in advance, they'll still feel on edge if the event in question is gripping or heavy enough.
The criticism of "predictability" loses tremendous weight when you factor into that some people love watching or reading their favorite stories over and over, even if they know all the story beats. Something about it resonates either because of theme or they just like seeing it played out. And this is most egregious when we retell stories in culture. Every culture in the world has a variation on "Cinderella," believing it to be the oldest story in the world with the first version dating back to Ancient Egypt. We constantly read and play Romeo and Juliet even though we know at the end they both die (which the play makes no secret in the prologue). And the Orpheus Myth (which always ends with the lovers Orpheus and Eurydice forever separated) was able to be adapted into Hadestown, a folk-blues-country-gospel-rock musical fusion set in Depression America. We retell stories because that's how we share culture: we retell it because something about the story tells us who we and who we are says something about how we tell the story.
Yeah, hell, it's a novel part of any good detective or mystery plotline. Foreshadowing subtle enough to stay hidden for common viewers but not too out of the woods that a keen eyed spectator wouldn't notice and connect the dots to predict the whodunnit ending
I actually also like that Puss's deconstruction doesn't make him an evil or immortal person like some stories do with their heroes. It just builds on an existing character flaw and makes his immoral actions, like leaving Kitty, be driven by a reason (his fear) and also GIVING HIM REGRET. He regretted leaving her. He'd felt horrible about it for a while and seeing her again made it much worse. Character deconstruction and reconstruction for heroes should never destroy their morality completely, and they should always retain their redeeming qualities in spite of their flaws. Puss does this so well
My mother is often by default very dismissive of animation. She’s steeped too deeply in the “cartoons are for kids” mentality to shake out of it. But i got her to watch this with me and she didnt get distracted by her phone or start reading something halfway through. This movie wont/wouldnt change her opinion of the artform entirely but she did genuinely enjoy it. I went in knowing the general beats and reviews for it. I knew it was about Puss coming to terms with his own mortality. My mother went in humoring me and expecting an irreverent Shrek spin-off that’d ultimately be a waste of her time. I was very VERY satisfied with how well my expectations were met. My mom was surprised by how hard hers were subverted.
It sucks that your mother thinks that way, I honestly have no respect for people who have the "animation is for kids" mentality since animation is my passion, I am currently trying to get into a career in animation.
The whole Shrek franchise's irreverence is loaded into Jack Horner's character. He is literarily portrayed as the current Disney. Taking everything magical like fairy tales and other great IPs (Star Wars, Marvel), and hoarding them to make more money. Never being satisfied with it and obtaining more. Working people to the bone and causing them hellish lives. And most importantly destroying pieces of our childhood by brutally remaking them.
Or Jack Horner is anarcho-capitalism? Maybe banks? How about empires? 😅 A lot of things have greed, sociopathy and evil inherit in them. You can say jack's traits are congruent with a lot of things and be right every time. Every corporation would love to be Disney. Every corporation has only 1 job - making money. No matter the expense, even if its peoples lives or happiness, they dont care. That is the true face of anarcho capitalism( also communism which is funny bc those have the same outcome for 99% of people living under that respective totalitarianistic government). That is the beauty of metaphor - it means whatever it means to you.
The thing I'm worried about is other companies taking a look at the success of this film, and attempting to replicate it without having a proper understanding of what makes it truly excellent; and, with how often it's been the case in media as of late, I wouldn't be surprised if Dreamworks itself made a follow up that's not only significantly worse but also retroactively makes The Last Wish itself worse.
Trying to recreate success without understanding why something was successful is a lesson that execs seem determined not to learn. DC did it (or more is still doing it) when they tried to recreate the success of Marvel’s MCU And on the reverse, the failure of Catwoman taught studios for a time (or more reaffirmed the belief) that women couldn’t lead action/comic book movies. When the reason it failed wasnt because of the character, it was because the movie itself was just bad.
Like if "Aliens" had a sequel that completely squelched the happy ending Ripley, Newt, Hicks, and Bishop had rightly earned. I'm so glad that never happened.
I can definitely see them looking at the panic attack scene and thinking the best way to capture what made TLW so special is to _parody_ that scene and lampshade it with quippy dialogue and "witty" observations. They think that if they made you remember TLW, then its magic will transfer to their own movie.
So, you halfway-ish went over this, but not completely. When Puss made his confession, Kitty told him it was okay, and that she didn’t show up anyway. Everyone just accepted it, no thought or anything, just, ‘oh, she said it? It must be true then.’ But can we all take a second to realise how affected Kitty was about Santa Coloma the whole time? - She argued with Puss about holding the map because the last time she trusted him he turned his back. - When she was talking to Perrito about trusting someone, shooting a glance at Puss at the word, ‘betrayed.’ - She kept hitting him with it, like when she was giving him a shave, “Just like in.. Santa Coloma.” - When she overheard Puss talking to Perrito after his panic attack, you could tell she was conflicted and didn’t know how to feel about it. When Kitty heard Puss apologise, that was all she wanted to hear, and probably didn’t want him feeling so horrible, not to mention making her possibly for vulnerable. So she lied to him and came up with an excuse- what I imagine what she realised after she had been waiting at the altar, “I knew I couldn’t compete with your one true love, yourself.” She knew after it was too late for her. It was a good excuse to take, because it was true, and it helped Puss realise who he was a little more. In summary, I think Kitty did show up to the altar, but she didn’t want Puss to feel worse about himself while also making a small fact more widely seen to the one holding it.
@@WobblesandBean it was so bizarre to me how everyone just said 'okay!'. There were so many clues to her lying about it. Even her reaction-during Puss' confession (to Perrito) and when Puss fought the final battle and held through, shows her uncertainty.
Thank God I'm not the only one who think something's off with her statement compared to the trauma she had endured. Upon hearing the truth, Kitty could've confront Puss but instead she forgave what had happened. She knows it's worth nothing and they're better off moving on.
It’s crazy how the sequel to the spin off of the sequel of Shrek is both the sequel to the spin off of the sequel of Shrek *and* the anti-Shrek, *and* both movies came out at times with fittingly opposite media landscapes. Dreamworks keeps winning.
This movie is simply spectacular. I love the gorgeous animation, top notch fight choreography, deep characters, and Puss' magnificent arc. But the best part is definitely Death, one of if not the best DreamWorks antagonist ever. His whistle still sends shivers up my spine. I like how, at the start, Puss was bragging about having "never been touched by a blade." So the moment Death was actually able to cut him, Puss became a scared, anxious mess. It's the moment he realized that he's not invincible after all.
@@talkingfez1265 Wagner Moura absolutely nailed it as Death. He was awesome in Narcos as Pablo Escawar and he brought a level of gravitas and dread to the character that was awesome to see.
Can we also mention just the sheer stroke of genius it is that they used the big bad wolf as the film’s grim reaper. He’s among the most commonly used villains in all fairy tales being up there with witches and evil step mothers and every time he appears he brings in one key motif, the fear of the unknown. Whether it be sexual predation in little red riding hood, dangerous strangers in the tale of billy goats, or the dangers of the outside world in the three little pigs. The wolf is the unknowable predator that lurks in the shadows beyond our comprehension and what unknowable shadow is greater than death. As while some of us might laugh like puss did and sing “who’s afraid of the big bad wolf,” death is the predator we cannot run from, that we all must face someday and the one thing we can never know for sure is what happens next after we meet him
Wolves and dogs have been associated with death in mythology too- werewolves in Europe, Fenrir in Norse mythology foretold to kill Odin, Anubis the Egyptian god of death and the underworld and Cerberus, the 3-headed dog that guards the Greek underworld.
ngl I was so disinterested when this movie was coming out. When the overwhelmingly positive reviews came in, I thought it was some sort of joke. Intrigued me enough to go see it in cinemas myself, and holy shit. Deadass one of my fav movies of all time
@@rustyshackelford4224probably misinterpretation, a movie can sound, and look uninteresting by trailers but once people start talking more and more about it those people get curious how good it could be and ends up liking it. Like example, me: I didn’t want to watch the New spiderverse movie, as Spider-Man, and marvel isn’t for me and it just didn’t look that too good. But I saw how many people loved it and I got curious, so I watched it. Favorite movie all time.
Your ending note about mature media is also why I really loved Monsters University. A kids film on the surface having a humbling and real message that you can’t be whatever you want to be, and that it’s okay.
Not to mention they ended up taking a very unconventional path to end up where they wanted to end up! Mike and Sully getting expelled was not the ending I would have expected especially from the first film which established them to be pretty high up in the scaring business but it was a nice touch of realism that even if things don't look to be working out the way you thought they would doesn't mean you can give up on yourself.
yes this video's maker also feels like a guy who will enjoy Monsters University more than most. Despite having a lot of tropes and cliches and playing a lot of its cards straight, it tackles hardships of life more directly and feels like it has something to say about them while also maintaining optimism.
Puss in Boots 2 was an indictment of modern storytelling. It subverted every step of modern tropes. There is no twist villain, we have a completely evil villain that makes no apologies, and his "excuse" is played for laughs. The sympathetic villains are entertaining and aren't used to make us feel bad but root for them as much as the heroes. It's got actual stakes and let us feel emotions rather than present us something and then move on in five seconds. The panic attack is treated with dignity instead of giggles. Puss in Boots 2 subverts modern movies simply by championing traditional storytelling, and gives us a tweak on Goldilocks and the Three Bears to enhance the moral of appreciating what you have instead of chasing an illusion.
I found the expression on Deaths face after Puss says "Hasta la muerte" to it interesting. Death's stare changes from a hesitant and skeptical gaze to an almost satisfied and content expression. When this is uttered by Puss, Death seems satisfied. Not just from the hero learning from his encounter with this force of nature, but from this instance of respect it's been given. It mirrors a message of the film very well: Do not fear death, but respect it. Subtle details are what make good movies great
I must be quite daft. I did not see any of the plot beats ahead of time. I never thought that the wolf would actually be Death until it was told to me, and that reveal was incredibly powerful for me.
I definitely think that it's a good movie when you can have both be a good storyline, knowing or not. I definitely knew the wolf was... something special, something more than the doubtless dozens of bounty hunters before him, but I didn't think he was Death until the reveal. I thought they were doing a metaphorical allusion to it. Was not expecting them to just say it!
@@beesbrowniesAnd I, as a furry artist, was seeing other artists draw him and tag the character "Death" the day the movie came out. (I knew someone who sat in the theater with a sketchbook.)
Your not daft. far from it, your too used to today's cliches that you don't think about older ones. I think "Cliche" is just another word for "commonly done in the present." rather then something bad. I supposed id refer to it a literacy infancy, as when you start on newer medias and never look at older ones, these things don't jump out immedatly.
The only plot point that surprised me was (spoilers) when Perrito ran towards Jack in the final battle. I really thought they were going to go down the route of killing Perrito and having to use the wish to bring him back (as falsely telegraphed by Kitty saying he should have the wish earlier) or bargaining with Lobo. I'm glad they didn't.
Yeah I feel like if they did that it would have side track the narrative. Plus is would have gone against the whole "accepting death when it comes for you" bit.
Yes! There’s so much trope subversion/inversion that happens, it’s easy to miss those moments. I had the same thought. I literally yelled “No, Perrito!” 😭 I’m so glad they didn’t kill him, even temporarily.
This is gonna be a good one. I'm shocked it took you this long to get around to covering the last wish. Genuinely the best animated film I've seen in YEARS
Literally one of the first things I said when I finished watching this for the first time was “it was so genuine. I haven’t watched a genuine movie in so long.” Because yeah, a lot of other movies just feel like they’re checking the most popular boxes. I love this movie even more than the first Spiderverse, and that movie was amazing. But yeah, I’m glad they made this.
The bottom line of that last analysis for authors and creators is to just write what you want. Write what you want, and don't let the attitudes of others or society hinder your work's integrity. You could be crafting the world's next masterpiece.
I'm not old, but I'm not as young as I used to be. My wife doesn't want me doing any of the risky stunts I used to do when I was younger. So for Puss to deal with the very real problem of getting too old to adventure really hit me hard. My six year old kid loved it because it was fun and colorful, but I loved it for its maturity just behind the fun.
The only reason why I watched this film was because I couldn’t sleep and I was familiar with the Shrek franchise but didn’t care much for it, nonetheless I thought this would just be a 5/10 dumb fun movie to turn my brain off at, right I realized how wrong I was in my expectations after the first scene with death, from that point on I was completely hooked and dragged into the story kicking and screaming, this film will always have a special place in my heart for helping me with prioritizing the present above all else
I can't be bothered to find the right words to express this more succinctly nor eloquently but your section on how so much of today is simply made to go against what exists instead of having a point in itself is so wonderfully thought provoking. Reminds me a bit of Schaffrilas's words at the end of the Ratatouille video; it's easy and fun to tear down a bad piece of art but doing so contributes less to the world than said art, if for no other reason than the effort it took and that it dared to try to say something
I think my personal favorite scene is the one where Puss has a panic attack and Perrito calms him. I'm someone who has panic attacks myself, and I actually had to pause the movie after that scene. It felt so raw and real and genuine. The filmography was beautiful, the way they portrayed the feeling in visuals was stunning. And seeing Perrito run up worried, before recognizing what was going on and placing his head on Puss's stomach in silent support, as Puss worked to slow his breathing while slowly stoking Perrito was just so close to home. It remains one of my favorite scenes.
The only moment that did me. Was Perito describing his family abandoning him and trying to drown him. At which point i said "Every single adult, just said an F word, that very minute"
So glad you covered this one because you put into words things that I can't, even though I feel the same, and then you analyze it all masterfully. I didn't quite realize how much the current trends have abandoned simple and sincere storytelling and replaced them with constantly overthrowing old tropes - which maybe at this point are not even tropes anymore. As someone who just loves simple stories with deep themes (and happy endings, I'm afraid I can't let go of those), this movie was a breath of fresh air. I thoroughly enjoyed the watch, thank you :)
And Disney needs to start taking notes. DreamWorks made a far superior film and story about wishes than “Wish,” which is literally based on their iconic song “Wish Upon a Star.” They should be embarassed.
@@lilscenechick1995 disney aint about that actual good story telling, never really has been for god knows how long now. wish was basically just the rug pull for some people who still think that they actually care. i'm glad that the movie technically flopped just to stick it to that greedy company, but they won't learn from it because they only see the profit loss.
35:45 I see what you did there Awesome video, The Last Wish should definitely be remembered not for being "subversive" but for being sincere. It doesn't matter if you turn a trope on its head or play it completely straight. What matters is does the writer really believe in the story they're telling.
Watching you talk about puss confronting death at the end and seeing death's reaction again, I was reminded of something that stuck out to me about that moment but that I couldn't quite put my finger on before. And I think I understand it better now. Death's anthropomorphization (for... lack of a better term?) in this movie is really cool and feels like it struck such a nice balance to me. Acting as a character with a real presence, motivation, etc. while simultaneously being merely a personification of an endpoint. Doing both at once and fully convincingly is quite difficult, but they nailed it. And the final nail in the coffin is the very specific nature of how he reacts to puss gaining a respect for his life and it's ultimate end. (heavily leaning on my own interpretation, but life's too short to not have some fun) It's a moment where the character and the force of nature of death clash, the character should be as pissed as ever, puss can't get out of it that easily, he's had his second chance and then some and death has finally had it. The force of nature, on the other hand, couldn't care less about what puss did or didn't do in the past, the only reason it was even visibly here in the first place was because puss finally realized how nearly he came to walking into it blindfolded. As soon as puss no longer lets his fear of death control him (and lead him right to death's door) death no longer needs to show itself, it's now just an eventuality to be dealt with when it comes. So how does the wolf, who is both the character and the concept deal with the inherent contradiction? Well he's just kinda upset at himself for playing a part in puss's transformation, inadvertently ruining his own fun (he says something along the lines of "why did I have to go and play with my food!?" to himself once he realizes). Death, the character, can no longer antagonize puss and it's not because of honor, respect for puss, some unspoken rule governing his actions or anything of the sort. The cat he wanted simply doesn't exist anymore, I believe the character of death still fully holds the grudge just as heavily as he did before, it's just that in his own mind the grudge simply cannot transfer to the new puss in boots that's there now. This is very likely not entirely how the creators of this movie saw it but to me this demonstrates something about the wolf that I've come to learn myself. He isn't fooled by the illusion of an inherent self-ness to things such as a ship that may have belonged to a man named Theseus once, or even to a man himself. The man of yesterday and the man of today are the same man, but only so far as they resemble each other. And for the vast majority of purposes those two men are nearly identical, we may inherently know this from instinct or we may learn it from observation but in my experience myself and everyone else I've known has this down pretty well. People have continuity, when you know someone today you know therm tomorrow, it's the same person after all. But in learning this very fundamental fact we can sometimes unlearn or simply never grasp the more fundamental truth, that the continuity of a person is made entirely of their similarity to their past, and their ability to recall it. At the end of the movie, puss in boots is still the same puss in boots in nearly all respects, a more refined version of himself. But in the one respect that was sole focus of the character of death, the previous puss was already dead and gone. It's a distinction that isn't even worth considering for any other character in the movie, probably even puss himself, except perhaps in a poetic sense that gets a little at a deeper truth. And it's because that part that is gone was never the true nature of what made puss who he was, to them. It was what made him who he was to death. Which is a particularly long-winded way of saying that I realized that the way the movie handled death's reaction in that moment was not just fitting, but so insightful into this version of death's whole character, as to convince me that it was created by someone (someones) who had already had the same moment with death that puss just had. Though it may not exactly have been that dramatic hehe. In that moment, in what most likely just looked like a little joke followed by a cliche line, the movie took me aside and showed me an intensely deep understanding of life, death, and even the limits of the very concept of it. And I understood it. 11/10 good movie, come for the animation stay for the uh, you'll get it, don't worry.
Wanted to agree with your analysis. Antonio Banderas had experienced a near fatal heart attack and was recovering while voicing Puss. He identified with the battle with Death, apparently contributing to the role.
they manage to again turn an overworn cliche, which is a villain giving the hero a bit of room for escape in order to make it more "fun" or whatever but is really just a lazy way of the writers giving the hero an extra chance and being subversive, and make it genuine and earned.
Puss N Boots the Last Wish is one of the best animated films I've seen in a long while. As much as I've enjoyed the Spider-verse movies, this is the kind of movie I argue we needed, an action, adventure film. Instead of just aping the Spider-verse style of animation, this movie took that aesthetic and really made it its own. The backgrounds and the action setpieces are a delight to see. I also appreciated how this movie very much felt like a unique examination of the Shrek world but it didn't feel like it needed to shoehorn Shrek. And any references to the franchise were brief cameos and well done. But for me, where this movie shines is the character work. Puss's arc is a story that can resonate with kids and adults. The idea of taking what you have for granted is a great message but also the fact that Puss came to realize that he really didn't have much going for him in those past lives is also great. It shows that external validation like that only gets you so far. Rather what matters is treasuring what you have and looking forward. That's why the line where he tells death he'll never stop fighting for his last life really hits hard. The movie I argue does something that very few DreamWorks movies have done since Kung Fu Panda 2 which is play things serious. Note; I understand this movie and past films had jokes. But if you notice, Joel Crawlford and company didn't resort to any kind of dumb joke to create bathos. The scene with Puss having a panic attack is brilliant(a term I don't use often) in that it would have been so easy to have Perrito be an idiot and joke but he isn't. If anything, his reaction with no dialogue and just being there showcases a level of maturity and situational awareness that a lot of folks can learn from. Take notes, Velma. I could go on but yeah; I really love this movie. It's one of the few films I've purchased on physical and goes to showcase what animation can do, and will be something I look to and study for my own work. More of these kinds of movies, please.
Perrioto's path is also a "show don't tell" way of expressing that despite all the horrors of his life he prefers to see the cup as half full. Pocket Full of Posies: a practice before deodorant and such were around to drown out the stench of the world by carrying a pocket of posies (a pouch of dried herbs) on your person. Became really popular during The Black Death since it could keep out the stench of the rotting bodies. River of Relaxation: Most likely the River Styx from which the souls of the dead drank so they could forget their prior existence. Field of Quick and Easy Solutions: In pop culture, suicide is considered a "quick and easy solution." (If anyone feels suicidal ideation please call the appropriate hotline.)
The pocket full of posies thing is probably not true (the nursery rhyme was only ever recorded in written accounts several centuries after the Black Death) but the urban legend has definitely affected popular culture’s perception of the song so I get what you mean
@@lindseylindsey9200 it was still probably about some kind of disease though. Maybe not exactly the Black death specifically, but it probably has to do with death. Why else would they sing about ashes or "all fall down" that the end?
Honestly, I dont often sit down and actually watch longer TH-cam videos like these, my attention span just doesnt let me. But I love this movie so much, and to see this video posted so recently, almost a year after the movie came out, is such a pleasant surprise that I just HAD to watch this! This movie is downright genius, and is one of Dreamworks' greatest films they have ever created! Dare I say it's one of the best animated movies to ever exist. It just hits so many marks, it takes itself seriously, it's visually stunning, it's captivating, it's highly relatable... it's just an extremely memorable, well crafted film over all! And I am SO happy that Dreamworks took their time with this movie instead of rushing it for money or to gain attention for bringing back Puss or the Shrek franchise. Very few, if anyone, even asked for a sequel to Puss In Boots. The first movie he had wasnt _bad_ , in my opinion, but I can understand where people come from when they say they forget what it's about. It's nothing masterful, it's not gonna blow you outta the water. It's just acceptable, and really only exists to offer some background to Puss as a character. But this movie? This is the movie that made me LOVE Puss In Boots. Up to this point, he's always been shown as the cliche hero, the egotistical cat with bold remarks who's brave and crafty, and who can't express much vulnerability because he has to maintain that "cool, smart, undefeatable" persona we've grown to know him for. I never cared for it. But The Last Wish took the chance to break him down by LITERALLY making him break down, and I love it for that. We dive so much more into his personality and fragile side, we see him actually have to work on himself and become a better person. He literally has to fight for his life and earn the respect of Death himself because he's made so many mistakes. This movie didnt have to go this hard. It didnt have to be emotional, serious, or genuinely touching and relatable. Shrek's movies arent known for that on such high scale. They're always intended to have comedic vibes, some meta humor, references and what-not mixed into their plots. Which isnt bad, but when people think of Shrek, they dont think of it as being an emotional rollercoaster y'know? But Puss In Boots is on an ENTIRELY different level. This movie actually made me feel genuine investment and joy, and it's hooked me so hard on its storyline and wonderfully crafted level of depth and clever details, and properly written characters in a way I havent felt in years. I know Dreamworks has had its rough patches. It's had some movies that are admittedly bad and forgettable. But man, when they hit, they REALLY hit!! This is a film I can't see anyone calling bad no matter how hard you try to scrape away at it. There is no excuse this time, this movie is amazing through and through!!
Your last analysis/conclusion in this video perfectly communicates what I want in the American animation industry as well. "Mature" is a word many people in this day and age tie directly to mean violence, sex, and swearing, when in reality, the word within the context you presented, and therfore in the context of animated content as a whole, should simply mean that it presents it's adult themes, concepts, and ideas seriously and in a manner of sincerity. I want actual mature stories told through the medium of animation instead of whatever Family Guy is. Anyway, W video. I could not have communicated that message any better if I tried.
@@rustyshackelford4224 Cuz it got old. It's like listening to a really funny joke over and over again on loop until it stops being funny...at least in my opinion.
It's only subversive in that it's quality where none was expected. KInda like the trope of some of the best food you have ever tasted being served in a grungy dive of a restaurant. You would normally not expect something good from there, but it's great.
This one hit me pretty hard. Thanks for being such a gem of a TH-camr. You’re very underrated and on here but I’m grateful that I found you. Thank you.
I have no words to express how much I enjoyed this amazing analysis of this amazing movie. I have always enjoyed journey-type stories, particularly the types with MacGuffins like the Map/Wishing Star and the One Ring. It depends, but it can get kinda dull after a while if the entire story is just set in one area, especially if set in a large fascinating world. I remember seeing the first movie in theaters and enjoying it (the Humpty-Dumpty twist made me laugh hard), but I never saw this one in theaters and I wish I did. I saw it on my phone and absolutely loved it. Perrito was my favorite new character of the series, and you really described why I enjoyed his presence in the movie. He is not annoying or unlikable, he manages to bring Puss and Kitty back together, and he (and the movie as a whole) shows us to appreciate the things that are right in front of us, to appreciate what life has to offer in the moment, and cherish the life you've got because, at the end of the day, you only have one. Big Jack Horner was such a breath of fresh air from all the poorly-done sympathetic and/or twist-villains Disney had been throwing at us, and I enjoyed every scene he was in. Goldi and the bears were great too, and the conclusion to her arc was heartwarming. I appreciate and aim to write the kind of stories that have something to say without being too preachy, edgy, or cringe. Thank you this great video! I always look forward to the next one.
Your experience and takeaway with this movie is exactly the same as mine. Right down to knowing everything being set-up, how it would be paid off, and being so glad you were right because deconstructive cynical affairs are exhausting and unpleasant.
Actually, that's what makes it unpredictable in a sense. You'd expect the writers to pull (it being a Hollywood production) some shit like "Perrito was an evil mastermind all along actually" to make the audience gasp, just to defeat him 5 minutes later. I was entertaining it as a possibility because of how the film industry conditioned me in the past decade or so
It would also be neat if you did a video on the movie Rango. I find the movie to start rising in popularity recently. I admire the film's aesthetic, as well as the quirky aspects in the film that pay homage to western movies, as well as surreal elements that still kind of stump me. (Like the walking cactuses, the huge eye, etc.) It would be really cool! I also really like this video. The Last Wish is one of my favorites in regard to relatively new movies, besides Guardians of the Galaxy 3.
This film is truly a marvel. I wish I hadn't missed out on it in its original theatrical run, but it was fun watching it on my small screen regardless. I loved so many elements of this (the animation, the characters, the humor, the themes it tackles with such smooth brush strokes). I sincerely hope this film will kindle a new wave of animated films in the decades to come. Especially for Disney, with how creatively bankrupt they have become in the past decade.
About deconstruction i feel one of the genre or subplots that most suffered was romance. Specially in Disney remakes, make it the conection in characters more dull and idk how explain it, but dont show how intense and passion is the sentiment of love. Thats why when i watched Elemental from pixar that show two characters sincery loving each other was like men why this cant be the standard 😔
Here's an interesting thing: At around 8:55, he said that Death was wielding scythes. However, based on their appearance and structure, they are more likely to be sickles, since scythes are meant to have longer handles, and the stereotypical sickle has a circular blade. Just something interesting.
i love that there’s a hidden meaning to the final duel with death. death is here to kill the arrogant hero, Puss in Boots. over the course of that journey, you could say that the arrogant hero… is dead. the him who he was no longer exists. so in a certain sense, death did get to take the final life of the one who spurned him so. but a new man took his place.
21:10 on of my favorite quotes is from Ferris Beuller's Day Off and is "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
One of the most satisfying small details you can miss is at 28:08 when he says "No, just one", his hat covers Kitty and Perito, only revealing them in the shot when he raises his head to look Death in the eye as he says his line Beautiful framing and timing, glad ya brought it up somewhat ^^
I feel that the recent One Piece Live Action adaptation did this nicely as well. Maybe, almost. An anthropomorphic wolf representing the reaper, and an anthropomorphic alien-dragon-goat representing the origins of Hylian life itself in Zelda. What a year it has been. I am satisfied on the media-front
I honestly think puss in the end laughed death in the face by calling him lupo which means wolf in italian. Not Death, not Reaper but Wolf, not acknowledging that this fight could be his end. He didnt laugh literally but for me it felt like "yeah i am mocking you, what are you going to do about it"
While quite late, this is an excellent video essay with so much to say, and you said it well. Puss In Boots: The Last Wish is sincerely my favorite animated film of all time. I discovered it at my lowest point and it spoke so loudly, so clearly, that I ended up watching it once or twice a day when I had the time to myself, every day for about a month, because I felt like every time I watched it I healed a little bit, and at the end of that insane binge marathon, I didn't put it down because I was sick of watching it but because I was whole. It's just an animated film on the surface, but, underneath, it is the sum of the human condition. Almost every human being can watch this movie and walk away thoroughly entertained while pondering theirnown mortality and just what are they doing with their lives. For me it will always be a therapy session with the goodest of bois: Perrito. ❤️
Perrito was such a breath of fresh air, you know? Usually overly optimistic characters are straight up stupid and annoying, but Perrito was one of the most endearing and charming characters I came across. I was literally "awing" everything he did, telling my boyfriend "I love this dog, its so cute". Perrito is a bit naive, but he is just adorable and so sweet and so kind, it really is impossible to hate him
And this is why I unironically believe that the best way of ending Game of Thrones was to literally have the Night King straight up win and kill everyone. Because the last season turned out so awfully for the specific reason that they wanted to "subvert expectations". They wanted to shock fans more than actually deliver on the plot beats and story development. Suddenly Rhaegal the dragon gets sniped out of nowhere. Suddenly Arya kills the Night King. Suddenly Daenerys goes full Mad Queen in an instant instead of building it up. And it's all cobbled together in a half-assed "happy ending". If there was any series that, without any hint of irony, could pull off a full-on downer ending, it was Game of Thrones. A series that had the potential to deliver on its overall theme of the unfairness of medieval society and the cruelty of people in power and the betrayals borne of greed and lust for the throne. It was building up to that exactly: the White Walkers being an all-powerful threat that the different houses refused to unite against, too preoccupied in their conflict over a glorified chair to realize the danger that is coming to destroy them all equally. And the complete downer ending would have been the perfect way to pay that off: to have the consequence of their own doing blow up in their faces, to rub in how meaningless their desire for power or wealth or glory truly is, and to leave them, in their final moments of despair, be struck by the the inescapable truth that they all had doomed Westeros, and it is now too late to do anything but wait helplessly for the eternal winter to consume all.
I want a sequel to this film that has puss and kitty’s kid trying to live up to their prior legend and infamy. With them helping the kid come to terms with how their pasts had destructive consequences and it was through giving up their statuses did they end up truly happy.
I could literally go on for hours about this movie but for the sake of everyone’s time, I’ll keep my thoughts brief This movie is quite possibly my favourite film of all time because EVERYTHING about it works for me. I cannot find any major flaw with it and every single aspect of the film just appeal to me. It’s literally got everything I could possibly want in a film for amazing action to gorgeous visuals to brilliant characters and a wonderful amount of heart and emotion. It’s also scary and funny and just brilliant I really need to get around to finishing my own video on it Either way, this is probably one of the best analysis videos I’ve seen on this film
I wish I missed it entirely. Everything I know about this flick I know without my consent and nothing about it has made me want to watch it, free or otherwise.
"When I say I want more mature story telling, THIS is precisely what I have in mind. What I want more then anything else, are stories with something to say." I can't say how much this statement resonates with me, only that you have just voiced what I have yearned for, for years, and it is deeply appreciated. Thanks.
just listening to any background song, especially Perritos, reminds me of watching this movie again and again on a DVD with fast play, and waking up in the middle of the night to it. Wierdly enough, it's almost nostalgia, even though the movie hasn't been out for that long.
Oh yeah I agree Deaths appearance in The Last Wish was a fantastic touch. It also happened to parallel almost exactly...another figure from the popular game Elden Ring that was released around the same time.... That being Maliketh The Black Blade.... Who was the guardian of 'Destined Death'... A strange and ancient power that could kill even the Gods.... Maliketh was to serve as the reaper for when the time of the gods was up, but he never got that chance..... It was honestly beautiful synergy as well that Death in the Last Wish shared his canid appearance as a White wolf dressed in all black! Haha ...
20:30 - 22:28 wow, i thought i was alone in that observation and was thinking of it just last night. you are the only human on earth who has ever pointed it out, it seems. society, hopelessly cynical, spits on every instance of sincerity, ruthlessly gutting each moment with spiteful jokes. no one can love anything because there is no sincerity to be found. i was that optimistic dog in my early 20s. i wasnt much different. i was relentlessly bullied as a kid, and held myself together with self love and optimism as a young adult, unbothered by events others saw as troubling even when i had experienced similar. life was fun and i was high on it. then i saw that others were not like me, and were attacking optimistic "fools" like me with mockery. i grayed myself out into an unhappy mess in my mid 20s - early 30s as a means of self defense. i choked out every passion in me so that i could appear detached and uncaring just like everyone else, and have never been more miserable. its so hard to experience positive emotions now. i cant feel anything when i try. when i get a glimmer of some fun emotion about something i (want to) enjoy, my brain involuntarily introduces a sabotaging thought and crushes the emotion. not only is it hard getting back into doing what i loved, but i cant find new things to love. what a coincidence that you even discussed that point, because that is most strongly on my mind as the primary motivation to getting back to my spirited, enthusiastic self in recent times.
Would someone please forward this to all of the writers in charge over at Disney. You know before the figurative tree topples from rotting from the inside out.
The Last Wish, and Arcane are the types of stories I wish (haha) to see more of. The kind where they stay for as long as they NEED, with well thought out plots, and amazing animation!
in a lot of medias, you can see the ending coming a mile away, unless you're reading a mystery novel. but most of the times, it's not about the destination, it's about the journey. what a lot of people don't seem to get. the road you takes to your goal is often more important than the goal itself. the last wish is a perfect case for that. i mean the goal they set out for isn't even the same at the end, the journey having changed them.
So awesome you did a video for this movie. I got a bit giddy when you noticed the same details I did, too! This movie had huge emotional impact and I'm not afraid to say I teared up. In this movie, even though Death is an antagonistic force, I don't think he's a villain. It's hard, impossible even, to understand the motives of gods/spirits such as him, but I suspect he does love life and has an ultimate understanding of its value, hence why he is so hostile to Puss' bloated hero persona. Death is invisible, unnoticed, until there is an imbalance. The extreme of that imbalance is Jack Horner's self destructive, wasteful selfishness, as you pointed out. Another really neat thing is I thought about the Joseph Campbell's Hero's journey, and looking through the phases, I came to a conclusion on why the Death wolf's impact is so great. This is just my take, it could be wrong, but I think the fight with death fits the Atonement with Father stage of the hero's journey. Death is initiating Puss by teaching him the ultimate value of his life in a trial of combat. We have to have trust in life if we are to live, trust in our friends, and we can't live and feel alive if we constantly gnash our teeth in fear and flee from uncertainty to live in a comfortable delusion. We have to have faith that when we take our steps, the ground will be under our feet, in other words. Now what does the value of life look like when it's understood? Ironically if can be seen clearest when we stand psychologically, or literally close to death. There is a scene, perhaps my favorite scene, in Black Fox Running by Brian Carter, that captures it perfectly. I'll cite below. "Such gatherings were memorable. The old prophet guided them through his visions. And as the sun crossed the western sky, bathing him in its glow, it seemed he had been turned to gold like a real companion of Tod. Rowanfleet glided between the dogs in a cloud of musk. Brown and amber fires burnt in her eyes and her chest fur was the white of button mushrooms fresh with dew. She was mysterious and beautiful, and her words fell upon his knowing like water from a moorland stream. ‘When I was a cub,’ Stargrief said, ‘the blood of the grass was on my teeth. My mother rested and licked my muzzle while I stood under her waiting for her to settle in drowsy song. ‘We stood in the field close to the sky, two shadows on the summer, already forgotten and doomed like the grass. But we left a presence on the seasons.’ O sea of stars carry me through this winter, the old fox prayed. His haggard face was tilted to catch the last of the sun. How like a fantasy of all vixens was Rowanfleet. The snow blinked golden at her feet and something ancestral climbed through his blood to his brain. He was running with the dream of foxes before the ice that daily crept nearer. But the great rivers of ice did not carve and grind and stultify the moors. Bear and wolf, fox and man shivered in the arctic twilight. But they lived. In Rowanfleet’s beauty was immortality and salvation." So what does this all mean? Well, I totally feel you when you spoke of the nihilistic irony of the cultural landscape - the fact that many people are afraid to be vulnerable, intimate, to truly care about something, and love others and I do think that fear of death is behind it, especially when the snapping at each other's throats starts happening. It's complicated, as many things are, but it is urgent to understand that there is no time for that, because life, your life is being spent second by second, day by day. Life doesn't wait, and so the nihilistic irony and cutting down of anything that could enhance your life, change your perspective, and enrich being alive is wasting the one golden ticket we get to see this planet and all the other living things, and that's the real irony. Great stories like this challenge us and I'm glad that this movie got the recognition it deserves. I wholeheartedly agree with you on predictability not being bad. What matters is execution with something meaningful to say. There is one thing that is predictable for all of us. We are food for worms, lads and lasses. All that matters is the execution from here to there. I'll leave you all with this, because its crucial that we have some creative inspiration to live. th-cam.com/video/-7OE6bDfM2M/w-d-xo.html Now go forth and live and suck the marrow out of life, you wonderful animals.
It's not death's job to make it personal and kill someone. Even death implied this (puss:"but I am still alive, that's cheating", death: "shh don't tell"). He is also a sadistic psychopath that incites psychological torture to puss. If he really wanted to kill puss or some of say "teach puss a lesson" (which is a complete BS), he would have killed puss much sooner instead of tormenting him, he clearly have the ability to know a get to wherever puss is. Why I said death is a sadistic psychopath, well look at some of his lines, "I like the smell of fear", "Go ahead, run, makes it more fun to me", when puss finally realise to to value his life, death expresses his disappointment and said: "why did I play with my food, you're ruining this for me" it kinda like when you eat animals why they still alive 😬. Are all of those lines suggest that he is "doing his job" or "teach puss a lesson"? NO 😂, it suggest that death is a resentful, sadistic, battle-hungry psychopath that like to torture his victims. All of that said, death is Evil, and that makes him a villain.
If you really want an apethetic and unable reason with, antagonist, just watch castaway. Because the castaway antagonist is the mother nature itself. It doesn't care if tom hank's character is rich, poor, arogant, kind, environment terrorist or whatnot. It just nature you can't reason with it. But death on the other hand clearly hunted puss life because he was arrogant, laughs at him, doesn't value life. Death clearly has reasons to go after puss.
I love how you point out the different approach this movie has in regards to fairy tales, in contrast to the Shrek franchise. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish embraces its fairy tale inspiration, as this genre is pretty much the background of the whole Shrek franchise. But unlike the original Shrek, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is not trying to make fun or subvert them. To me, it really understands fairy tales in the way it makes you laugh, tear up, feel whimsical, then afraid, reflect, project and finally get to the end of that experience feeling energized, touched and a bit more clever. It's not trying to give you a lesson. It tells you a compelling story which you can learn and take inspiration from.
I loved the sincerity in this movie! It’s balance of snarky humor and genuine character growth makes me feel better about the future of pop entertainment
I find it hilarious how they got the legend himself Antonio Banderas to voice the cat on multiple occasions, who is obviously a parody to Antonio's iconic Zorro character
I’ve never found predictability to be a really bad thing, as unpredictability is only good the first time around. If you can see the ending, it’s not really bad. What sucks is when you can predict all of the details on the first viewing.
Same. I watched it when it came to Netflix and I was surprised by how good it was. The only other movie in the franchise I'd seen was the first Shrek movie, which I thought was mediocre at best. Definitely not worth killing mainstream 2D animation for.
you are so elegantly spoken and the script is so well written, i am extremely envious of it. i try to explain things in such a way, especially when it comes to personal growth, and i always over simplify them. but that's just how i am, and that's okay. thank you so much for this video.
I feel like I would've enjoyed this film at least 10% more if I didn't already know the twist of the wolf being Death thanks to the absurd degree of pop culture osmosis the film experienced not long after release.
I don't think the reveal of the wolf is as obvious as you might think. So many people go into the movie by now knowing already. While some might guess who it actually is, most blind watches of this movie I've seen people not know until the reveal. I myself went into it as blind as possible and just thought it was a bounty hunter. The wolf had all the hallmarks of one including holding a wanted poster on his person.
You don't get the feeling that wolf is death at first. But you do know he is not just a bounty hunter. There is something more. And when you finally realize it (the coins in the eyes on the street for me) you also know that there is no way he is anything else.
@@maxhax367 Not sure I agree. I think they laid the foundation for the wolf to just be a scary and skilled bounty hunter. Wanting to demoralize his target through dark gestures. Without prior knowledge of motivations, why would death be after the still alive puss in boots? Why would we go out on a limb to believe this is the manifestation of death itself when just a bounty hunter fits?
8:27 another animation studio (like illumination for example) would have had the wolf say something like "what's the matter, cat's got your tongue?" at that moment
You should play pathalogic 2 if you like narratives that confront mortality. Absolutely amazing games and even better stories. Sulmutal has a really good set of videos on pathologic 1 & 2
I think most people never really thought of any animated movie ever having any sort of 'serious' tone to them like irl movies do, but Puss in Boots The Last Wish nailed it on the head
I simply love, that CGI-animation is at a point, where animators play with those things like sharp lighting, exadurated color and give these scenes an almost impressionistic approach. Finally they and the studios are realizing, that animation can do so much more than mimic reality.
i love this movie, a lot. it’s one of my favorite films period. im really upset the hypes died down, even if its to be expected. i miss seeing this masterpiece on every corner of the internet
I have one small fact about the italian version of this movie: the bears speak in an italian dialect from a region known to have bears in its national park, Abruzzo. It made the movie even more endearing for us italians. :)
Thats just a neat detail!
Aww, cute!!!!
In Latin American Spanish, the bears speak in Argentinian accent for some reason
@@shadowmax889 thats so fun
@@shadowmax889maybe because we have a ton of Italians and a culture heredity, or funny accent goes brrrrrr
I feel like we all had the experience of expecting Perrito to be the worst and most annoying character before appreciating how amazing he is
I would go to war for Perrito
He wouldnt want me to, but i would
I appreciate his purpose in the film, but I still disliked him by the end as much as I did at the start. Not sure if it's his voice delivery or the writing, but I just found him irritating throughout.
ME! I thought he was there just to crack jokes all the time and I was so surprised how well integrated he was to the themes of the story and that they allowed him to have a serious scene like the one with the panic attack.
@@PeninsulaPaintingsboooo
That moment when Perrito silently puts his chin on Puss' stomach to calm Puss from his panic attack, and then they not only have a sincere heart to heart, but then Puss and Kitty also have a sincere heart to heart, and only THEN do they have a semi serious joking but heartfelt moment...
That's when I knew this movie was special.
It's honestly impressive how well Antonio Banderas plays off his role as Puss, how he gives him so much emotional weight and character, considering that his casting was basically a one-off joke of "lol what if Zorro was a cat?" that was typical of all the gags in the Shrek franchise.
puss in boots is hands down my favorite shrek character
@breadandcircuses8127 this movie, plus none of the other characters are as cool as PiB, not even PiB himself in Shrek 2
He was inspired a lot for this film from his own near death experience which I assume makes a lot of emotion more genuine
He's played Puss In Boots in five movies and Zorro in one, it's amazing.
Puss and boots IS an old story you know? Far older than zoro
The Cave of Lost Souls scene has to be my favorite in the movie. The film starts with showing the audience how Puss blew his lives, clearly playing it for comedic effect.
"Look at all the stupid ways he wasted each life, haha, hilarious!"
At the Cave of Lost Souls, it's the same exact statement, but said with the true severity it holds.
"No, really, look at all the stupid ways he wasted his lives."
There's a common problem in filmmaking and writing nowadays where characters just will not fathom the weight of an event, always making light of whatever situation they're in. It was downright shocking for a movie like this to *start* its plot making light of a topic that could be serious, and then actually refocusing that topic with the seriousness it requires.
film good
"You are all selfish jerks... which is very conflicting for me!"
Film good indeed
@@KeitieKalopsia I hear film tastes great with ketchup too.
That's called Reframing in storytelling terms, where you take something that happens that's depicted in one way, and giving new info later or put into another situation that flips its meaning on its head
Used wonderfully in that scene of turning what was played as a joke into the real problem of "he played his own lives like a joke"
Film not good…
Film is best of decade so far. 🥰
Also, I love how INCREDIBLY subtle purrito's map is. Most people, including the entire cast of the movie, just see it as "Dog has everything and loves everyone so his map is easy"..........But when you look at the locations in contrast to his past.................It's some of the darkest and most depressing info you can ever find in this movie.
Pocket full of Posies is a song literally about the deaths of so many innocent people through disease.......And the river of relaxation + the field of quick and easy solutions are both just massive nods to the fact HIS OWN FAMILY TRIED TO MURDER HIM IN ONE OF THE MOST PAINFUL AND EXCRUTAITNG WAYS IMAGINEABLE.
This movie is so good it's not even funny
Yeah. Perrito's map was way darker then the cats ones.
Pocket full of posies. Disease. Perrito was runt of the litter. The weakest one. Most likely to die to any disease. Probably biggest reason he was thrown away in the first place.
River of relaxation. River Styx. Death meaning no more struggle. Also Perrito being thrown into a river to drown.
Field of quick and easy solutions. Suicide. Just giving up on life. Something Perrito never did even after everything that happened to him.
Cats have regrets, lonelinesa. Everything Perrito has is connected to death.
@maxhax367 😧 Dang you're right...
@@maxhax367
you can interpret the forest as showing Perrito the worst in his life.
But, I have an alternative interpretation.
The forest protects the wish, and the way it does so is by trying to make people realize they don't *need* the wish.
For Puss, it's the cave of lost souls. It's meant to make him realize how his lives were wasted and how getting more will not change that, as he will just waste those too
For Kitty, it's the abyss of loneliness and the peak of misery, reflecting her need for companionship
For Goldy, it's the Bear Hut. Where she found her new family.
So it's pretty clear that the forest points out what people need and want, to show them the wish isn't the answer.
But then, what of Perrito? He has no wish... or does he?
He states at some point that he wants to be a therapy dog, which he illustrates with Puss, and even if it's not something he's gonna wish for... the forest reflects that.
How? By introducing him to what he'll be confronted to as a therapy dog: sickness and suicidal people.
The forest *teaches* Perrito his job, so he won't need the wish
@@maxhax367damn I never thought of it that way
@@diersteinjulien6773 that’s actually a good interpretation
I love what you said at the end: mature stories aren't about removing happy endings, lessons, or good triumphing over evil; people mock such things as naive, or immature-- but they are all part of storytelling. Thoughtful, sincere stories told with care, are even better at maturity than stories that are dark and gritty just for the sake of it.
Examples of badly written stories that are just edgy for the sake of being edgy?
@@rustyshackelford4224 family guy
@@minmune bruh
@@rustyshackelford4224 game of thrones season 8
There's no happy endings if the writers are evil themselves.
“If all your stories teach you to do is mock or tear down what others have built…pretty soon you won’t have anything left to celebrate” you just summed up the problem perfectly. I think in a landscape where most stories have already been told, some storytellers are insecure about using well known cliches audiences may pick up on, and feel the need to break the mold but in reality that *mold* has been broken for years and it needs to be glued back together because, wouldn’t you know it, we were using that mold so long for a reason.
But have you considered that only shootingstars can break the mold..
I'm sorry.
If you think all Shrek does is mock or tear down what other have built you weren't paying attention to the film.
This idea that old = better is just conservative bullshit. Everything, including stories, is subject to being criticized and overcame.
@@incanusolorin2607old is better than whatever MCU and Disney is crapping out these days. In fact, most old CN cartoon shows were *MILES* better than SU, Craig, etc.
“Conservative Bullshit”. What in God’s name does conservatives have to do with this conversation about animated movies anyways?
@@incanusolorin2607 Have you heard of 'Chesterton's Fence'? It's a logical argument made most common by taking a fence built ages ago. This fence is found to hinder a few people in the current age, so a petition is made to tear it down, arguing that it serves no purpose. However, people argue that if you cannot see the purpose, you need to re-examine it.
Chesterton's Fence applies here as well. There are commonly built storytelling tropes throughout the ages, and people nowadays want to tear them down and deconstruct storytelling as a whole. However, it is important to see why these tropes and methods exist in the first place before doing so. The Last Wish examines why these tropes exist, and argues that they should remain. There's a quote which I'll paraphrase because I can't remember who said it.
"It's fine to discover things for yourself, but you shouldn't live as if others have not come before you."
"You don't get material breaking other peoples builds" - Fortnite quote of one day
I think something that a lot of ppl forget regarding the whole "predictability" thing is that a.) Foreshadowing is a literary device and tool that can be used by storytellers to add weight or meaning to different aspects of their tales and B.) Sometimes the author WANTS you to make a prediction or prememptively draw a conclusion, either in earnest or so they may subvert those predictions later. "Predictability" doesnt always equal bad. A good writer knows their tropes and how to use them, the same way a good painter knowns how to use their different brushes to get desired effects.
YES! I see "predictability" as an overused criticism. Because it's not always about knowing the destination, but about HOW you get there. That's why I actually love Pixar's "Turning Red". To an extent, we all know how the story will end. It's set up from the beginning. But it's seeing the relatability in the characters going through the story that makes it meaningful. And while not everyone relates to the characters of "Turning Red", it was something that I especially felt "seen" for in my experiences with growing up with strict expectations that were vastly different from who I really was despite never wanting to let down my family.
That's the same thing I think is so great about "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish". You know from the way that the story is set up that Puss will have to come to terms with his predicament in one way or another. But actually watching him during the process of acknowledging mortality and his experiencing a sense of existentialism for the first time was what really hit home for a lot of audience members. Myself included!
Not every story has to have the edge of a surprising plot point to be good. Tried and true story tropes exist for a reason: because they can be just as effective when used correctly!
Also, when I think predictability is used as a criticism falls into 2 categories.
1. The person watches so many of the same thing it's tiring for them, like to an inordinate amount.
2. The execution of the story is not good in the first place. Thus by having it predictable just adds to its flaws.
It's much more difficult to surprise people in this day and age than it was 4 or even 2 decades ago. The key is to invoke suspense. Because even if the audience can predict future events well in advance, they'll still feel on edge if the event in question is gripping or heavy enough.
The criticism of "predictability" loses tremendous weight when you factor into that some people love watching or reading their favorite stories over and over, even if they know all the story beats. Something about it resonates either because of theme or they just like seeing it played out.
And this is most egregious when we retell stories in culture. Every culture in the world has a variation on "Cinderella," believing it to be the oldest story in the world with the first version dating back to Ancient Egypt. We constantly read and play Romeo and Juliet even though we know at the end they both die (which the play makes no secret in the prologue). And the Orpheus Myth (which always ends with the lovers Orpheus and Eurydice forever separated) was able to be adapted into Hadestown, a folk-blues-country-gospel-rock musical fusion set in Depression America.
We retell stories because that's how we share culture: we retell it because something about the story tells us who we and who we are says something about how we tell the story.
Yeah, hell, it's a novel part of any good detective or mystery plotline. Foreshadowing subtle enough to stay hidden for common viewers but not too out of the woods that a keen eyed spectator wouldn't notice and connect the dots to predict the whodunnit ending
I actually also like that Puss's deconstruction doesn't make him an evil or immortal person like some stories do with their heroes. It just builds on an existing character flaw and makes his immoral actions, like leaving Kitty, be driven by a reason (his fear) and also GIVING HIM REGRET. He regretted leaving her. He'd felt horrible about it for a while and seeing her again made it much worse. Character deconstruction and reconstruction for heroes should never destroy their morality completely, and they should always retain their redeeming qualities in spite of their flaws. Puss does this so well
My mother is often by default very dismissive of animation. She’s steeped too deeply in the “cartoons are for kids” mentality to shake out of it. But i got her to watch this with me and she didnt get distracted by her phone or start reading something halfway through.
This movie wont/wouldnt change her opinion of the artform entirely but she did genuinely enjoy it.
I went in knowing the general beats and reviews for it. I knew it was about Puss coming to terms with his own mortality.
My mother went in humoring me and expecting an irreverent Shrek spin-off that’d ultimately be a waste of her time.
I was very VERY satisfied with how well my expectations were met.
My mom was surprised by how hard hers were subverted.
It sucks that your mother thinks that way, I honestly have no respect for people who have the "animation is for kids" mentality since animation is my passion, I am currently trying to get into a career in animation.
Show the the Happy three friends. Lets see if she still thinks the cartoons are for kids.
@@maxhax367 Is it really for kids if I watched it when I was a kid?
Now go show her Berserk
Have her try Arcane
The whole Shrek franchise's irreverence is loaded into Jack Horner's character. He is literarily portrayed as the current Disney. Taking everything magical like fairy tales and other great IPs (Star Wars, Marvel), and hoarding them to make more money. Never being satisfied with it and obtaining more. Working people to the bone and causing them hellish lives. And most importantly destroying pieces of our childhood by brutally remaking them.
I didn't think of this, but you're so right!!
Holy shit how did I never notice this! You’re so right Jack Horner is literally the embodiment of Disney’s horrible greed and gluttony
What a great analysis. This is the same sort of thing they did with Farquaad back then so it makes a ton of sense to try it again.
@@opossumboyo and it still works so well ROFL
Or Jack Horner is anarcho-capitalism? Maybe banks? How about empires? 😅
A lot of things have greed, sociopathy and evil inherit in them. You can say jack's traits are congruent with a lot of things and be right every time. Every corporation would love to be Disney. Every corporation has only 1 job - making money. No matter the expense, even if its peoples lives or happiness, they dont care. That is the true face of anarcho capitalism( also communism which is funny bc those have the same outcome for 99% of people living under that respective totalitarianistic government).
That is the beauty of metaphor - it means whatever it means to you.
The thing I'm worried about is other companies taking a look at the success of this film, and attempting to replicate it without having a proper understanding of what makes it truly excellent; and, with how often it's been the case in media as of late, I wouldn't be surprised if Dreamworks itself made a follow up that's not only significantly worse but also retroactively makes The Last Wish itself worse.
Unfortunately, I'd say that's inevitable.
Trying to recreate success without understanding why something was successful is a lesson that execs seem determined not to learn.
DC did it (or more is still doing it) when they tried to recreate the success of Marvel’s MCU
And on the reverse, the failure of Catwoman taught studios for a time (or more reaffirmed the belief) that women couldn’t lead action/comic book movies. When the reason it failed wasnt because of the character, it was because the movie itself was just bad.
Like if "Aliens" had a sequel that completely squelched the happy ending Ripley, Newt, Hicks, and Bishop had rightly earned. I'm so glad that never happened.
I can definitely see them looking at the panic attack scene and thinking the best way to capture what made TLW so special is to _parody_ that scene and lampshade it with quippy dialogue and "witty" observations. They think that if they made you remember TLW, then its magic will transfer to their own movie.
It's gonna happen no matter what, sadly.
So, you halfway-ish went over this, but not completely. When Puss made his confession, Kitty told him it was okay, and that she didn’t show up anyway. Everyone just accepted it, no thought or anything, just, ‘oh, she said it? It must be true then.’ But can we all take a second to realise how affected Kitty was about Santa Coloma the whole time?
- She argued with Puss about holding the map because the last time she trusted him he turned his back.
- When she was talking to Perrito about trusting someone, shooting a glance at Puss at the word, ‘betrayed.’
- She kept hitting him with it, like when she was giving him a shave, “Just like in.. Santa Coloma.”
- When she overheard Puss talking to Perrito after his panic attack, you could tell she was conflicted and didn’t know how to feel about it.
When Kitty heard Puss apologise, that was all she wanted to hear, and probably didn’t want him feeling so horrible, not to mention making her possibly for vulnerable. So she lied to him and came up with an excuse- what I imagine what she realised after she had been waiting at the altar, “I knew I couldn’t compete with your one true love, yourself.” She knew after it was too late for her. It was a good excuse to take, because it was true, and it helped Puss realise who he was a little more.
In summary, I think Kitty did show up to the altar, but she didn’t want Puss to feel worse about himself while also making a small fact more widely seen to the one holding it.
Right? I don't know why everyone just assumed she was telling the truth.
@@WobblesandBean it was so bizarre to me how everyone just said 'okay!'. There were so many clues to her lying about it. Even her reaction-during Puss' confession (to Perrito) and when Puss fought the final battle and held through, shows her uncertainty.
Thank God I'm not the only one who think something's off with her statement compared to the trauma she had endured.
Upon hearing the truth, Kitty could've confront Puss but instead she forgave what had happened. She knows it's worth nothing and they're better off moving on.
i thought this was the point and very obvious. people thought she was telling the truth??
Yea an obvious lie. Wasn't even subtle.
It’s crazy how the sequel to the spin off of the sequel of Shrek is both the sequel to the spin off of the sequel of Shrek *and* the anti-Shrek, *and* both movies came out at times with fittingly opposite media landscapes.
Dreamworks keeps winning.
Memento mori! Which movie were you talking about for anti shrek?
@@beesbrownies This one, actually. Yeah I confused myself too rereading this.
This movie is simply spectacular. I love the gorgeous animation, top notch fight choreography, deep characters, and Puss' magnificent arc. But the best part is definitely Death, one of if not the best DreamWorks antagonist ever. His whistle still sends shivers up my spine. I like how, at the start, Puss was bragging about having "never been touched by a blade." So the moment Death was actually able to cut him, Puss became a scared, anxious mess. It's the moment he realized that he's not invincible after all.
I have a HUGE crush on this wolf!
@@talkingfez1265 Wagner Moura absolutely nailed it as Death. He was awesome in Narcos as Pablo Escawar and he brought a level of gravitas and dread to the character that was awesome to see.
I watched some of Narcos. It's dark@@Avarn388
So this guy has a hate on for Shrek™ but a hard on for The Incredibles™? No reason to give his opinion any consideration as far as I'm concerned.
@@JPs-q1o stop posting this comment on every thread and touch grass
Can we also mention just the sheer stroke of genius it is that they used the big bad wolf as the film’s grim reaper. He’s among the most commonly used villains in all fairy tales being up there with witches and evil step mothers and every time he appears he brings in one key motif, the fear of the unknown. Whether it be sexual predation in little red riding hood, dangerous strangers in the tale of billy goats, or the dangers of the outside world in the three little pigs. The wolf is the unknowable predator that lurks in the shadows beyond our comprehension and what unknowable shadow is greater than death. As while some of us might laugh like puss did and sing “who’s afraid of the big bad wolf,” death is the predator we cannot run from, that we all must face someday and the one thing we can never know for sure is what happens next after we meet him
Wolves and dogs have been associated with death in mythology too- werewolves in Europe, Fenrir in Norse mythology foretold to kill Odin, Anubis the Egyptian god of death and the underworld and Cerberus, the 3-headed dog that guards the Greek underworld.
@@jadewolf22 the black shuck in Ireland
ngl I was so disinterested when this movie was coming out. When the overwhelmingly positive reviews came in, I thought it was some sort of joke. Intrigued me enough to go see it in cinemas myself, and holy shit. Deadass one of my fav movies of all time
Why is that?
@@rustyshackelford4224probably misinterpretation, a movie can sound, and look uninteresting by trailers but once people start talking more and more about it those people get curious how good it could be and ends up liking it. Like example, me: I didn’t want to watch the New spiderverse movie, as Spider-Man, and marvel isn’t for me and it just didn’t look that too good. But I saw how many people loved it and I got curious, so I watched it. Favorite movie all time.
Your ending note about mature media is also why I really loved Monsters University. A kids film on the surface having a humbling and real message that you can’t be whatever you want to be, and that it’s okay.
Not to mention they ended up taking a very unconventional path to end up where they wanted to end up! Mike and Sully getting expelled was not the ending I would have expected especially from the first film which established them to be pretty high up in the scaring business but it was a nice touch of realism that even if things don't look to be working out the way you thought they would doesn't mean you can give up on yourself.
yes this video's maker also feels like a guy who will enjoy Monsters University more than most. Despite having a lot of tropes and cliches and playing a lot of its cards straight, it tackles hardships of life more directly and feels like it has something to say about them while also maintaining optimism.
10:39 I knew the moment that Puss touched blood on his forehand, that this was gonna be a very serious film😳.
Still a kids movie but with darker themes.
what is a kids movie?
when i first saw that i kinda accidentally thought the wolf spilled some wine on him, lol......
@@GalekC you're too pure for this world
Puss in Boots 2 was an indictment of modern storytelling. It subverted every step of modern tropes. There is no twist villain, we have a completely evil villain that makes no apologies, and his "excuse" is played for laughs. The sympathetic villains are entertaining and aren't used to make us feel bad but root for them as much as the heroes. It's got actual stakes and let us feel emotions rather than present us something and then move on in five seconds. The panic attack is treated with dignity instead of giggles.
Puss in Boots 2 subverts modern movies simply by championing traditional storytelling, and gives us a tweak on Goldilocks and the Three Bears to enhance the moral of appreciating what you have instead of chasing an illusion.
I found the expression on Deaths face after Puss says "Hasta la muerte" to it interesting. Death's stare changes from a hesitant and skeptical gaze to an almost satisfied and content expression. When this is uttered by Puss, Death seems satisfied. Not just from the hero learning from his encounter with this force of nature, but from this instance of respect it's been given. It mirrors a message of the film very well: Do not fear death, but respect it.
Subtle details are what make good movies great
I must be quite daft. I did not see any of the plot beats ahead of time. I never thought that the wolf would actually be Death until it was told to me, and that reveal was incredibly powerful for me.
I definitely think that it's a good movie when you can have both be a good storyline, knowing or not. I definitely knew the wolf was... something special, something more than the doubtless dozens of bounty hunters before him, but I didn't think he was Death until the reveal. I thought they were doing a metaphorical allusion to it. Was not expecting them to just say it!
@@beesbrowniesAnd I, as a furry artist, was seeing other artists draw him and tag the character "Death" the day the movie came out. (I knew someone who sat in the theater with a sketchbook.)
I wouldn’t say “daft.” You don’t have to figure everything out right away.
Your not daft. far from it, your too used to today's cliches that you don't think about older ones. I think "Cliche" is just another word for "commonly done in the present." rather then something bad. I supposed id refer to it a literacy infancy, as when you start on newer medias and never look at older ones, these things don't jump out immedatly.
The only plot point that surprised me was (spoilers) when Perrito ran towards Jack in the final battle. I really thought they were going to go down the route of killing Perrito and having to use the wish to bring him back (as falsely telegraphed by Kitty saying he should have the wish earlier) or bargaining with Lobo. I'm glad they didn't.
Yeah I feel like if they did that it would have side track the narrative. Plus is would have gone against the whole "accepting death when it comes for you" bit.
Right? That would have been so damn cliche.
Yes! There’s so much trope subversion/inversion that happens, it’s easy to miss those moments. I had the same thought. I literally yelled “No, Perrito!” 😭 I’m so glad they didn’t kill him, even temporarily.
basically the Wish Dragon plotline
This is gonna be a good one. I'm shocked it took you this long to get around to covering the last wish. Genuinely the best animated film I've seen in YEARS
Creating a thoughtfully written, well edited, 45 minute minute long video takes time.
Im pretty sure this video took him months to make
This and the two Spider-Man movies about Miles Morales
Literally one of the first things I said when I finished watching this for the first time was “it was so genuine. I haven’t watched a genuine movie in so long.” Because yeah, a lot of other movies just feel like they’re checking the most popular boxes. I love this movie even more than the first Spiderverse, and that movie was amazing. But yeah, I’m glad they made this.
The bottom line of that last analysis for authors and creators is to just write what you want. Write what you want, and don't let the attitudes of others or society hinder your work's integrity. You could be crafting the world's next masterpiece.
is there such thing as audience entitlement?
@@BestOneEver247 No. Living your life trying to impress or appease others will leave you with nothing that you yourself can be proud of.
@@whyplaypiano2844 even in turns of creating media and fiction?
I'm not old, but I'm not as young as I used to be. My wife doesn't want me doing any of the risky stunts I used to do when I was younger. So for Puss to deal with the very real problem of getting too old to adventure really hit me hard. My six year old kid loved it because it was fun and colorful, but I loved it for its maturity just behind the fun.
"But as always, it comes down to the execution"
-He says over B-roll of the Mouth of Sauron getting beheaded
I see what you did there.
Thank you was about to post the same thing, lol
The only reason why I watched this film was because I couldn’t sleep and I was familiar with the Shrek franchise but didn’t care much for it, nonetheless I thought this would just be a 5/10 dumb fun movie to turn my brain off at, right
I realized how wrong I was in my expectations after the first scene with death, from that point on I was completely hooked and dragged into the story kicking and screaming, this film will always have a special place in my heart for helping me with prioritizing the present above all else
I can't be bothered to find the right words to express this more succinctly nor eloquently but your section on how so much of today is simply made to go against what exists instead of having a point in itself is so wonderfully thought provoking. Reminds me a bit of Schaffrilas's words at the end of the Ratatouille video; it's easy and fun to tear down a bad piece of art but doing so contributes less to the world than said art, if for no other reason than the effort it took and that it dared to try to say something
I think my personal favorite scene is the one where Puss has a panic attack and Perrito calms him. I'm someone who has panic attacks myself, and I actually had to pause the movie after that scene. It felt so raw and real and genuine. The filmography was beautiful, the way they portrayed the feeling in visuals was stunning. And seeing Perrito run up worried, before recognizing what was going on and placing his head on Puss's stomach in silent support, as Puss worked to slow his breathing while slowly stoking Perrito was just so close to home. It remains one of my favorite scenes.
The only moment that did me. Was Perito describing his family abandoning him and trying to drown him. At which point i said "Every single adult, just said an F word, that very minute"
So glad you covered this one because you put into words things that I can't, even though I feel the same, and then you analyze it all masterfully. I didn't quite realize how much the current trends have abandoned simple and sincere storytelling and replaced them with constantly overthrowing old tropes - which maybe at this point are not even tropes anymore. As someone who just loves simple stories with deep themes (and happy endings, I'm afraid I can't let go of those), this movie was a breath of fresh air. I thoroughly enjoyed the watch, thank you :)
I'll never get tired of people showing their love for this movie, Dreamworks needs to stick with this level of quality.
And Disney needs to start taking notes. DreamWorks made a far superior film and story about wishes than “Wish,” which is literally based on their iconic song “Wish Upon a Star.” They should be embarassed.
@@lilscenechick1995 disney aint about that actual good story telling, never really has been for god knows how long now. wish was basically just the rug pull for some people who still think that they actually care.
i'm glad that the movie technically flopped just to stick it to that greedy company, but they won't learn from it because they only see the profit loss.
35:45 I see what you did there
Awesome video, The Last Wish should definitely be remembered not for being "subversive" but for being sincere. It doesn't matter if you turn a trope on its head or play it completely straight. What matters is does the writer really believe in the story they're telling.
Watching you talk about puss confronting death at the end and seeing death's reaction again, I was reminded of something that stuck out to me about that moment but that I couldn't quite put my finger on before. And I think I understand it better now.
Death's anthropomorphization (for... lack of a better term?) in this movie is really cool and feels like it struck such a nice balance to me. Acting as a character with a real presence, motivation, etc. while simultaneously being merely a personification of an endpoint. Doing both at once and fully convincingly is quite difficult, but they nailed it. And the final nail in the coffin is the very specific nature of how he reacts to puss gaining a respect for his life and it's ultimate end.
(heavily leaning on my own interpretation, but life's too short to not have some fun)
It's a moment where the character and the force of nature of death clash, the character should be as pissed as ever, puss can't get out of it that easily, he's had his second chance and then some and death has finally had it. The force of nature, on the other hand, couldn't care less about what puss did or didn't do in the past, the only reason it was even visibly here in the first place was because puss finally realized how nearly he came to walking into it blindfolded. As soon as puss no longer lets his fear of death control him (and lead him right to death's door) death no longer needs to show itself, it's now just an eventuality to be dealt with when it comes.
So how does the wolf, who is both the character and the concept deal with the inherent contradiction? Well he's just kinda upset at himself for playing a part in puss's transformation, inadvertently ruining his own fun (he says something along the lines of "why did I have to go and play with my food!?" to himself once he realizes). Death, the character, can no longer antagonize puss and it's not because of honor, respect for puss, some unspoken rule governing his actions or anything of the sort. The cat he wanted simply doesn't exist anymore, I believe the character of death still fully holds the grudge just as heavily as he did before, it's just that in his own mind the grudge simply cannot transfer to the new puss in boots that's there now.
This is very likely not entirely how the creators of this movie saw it but to me this demonstrates something about the wolf that I've come to learn myself. He isn't fooled by the illusion of an inherent self-ness to things such as a ship that may have belonged to a man named Theseus once, or even to a man himself. The man of yesterday and the man of today are the same man, but only so far as they resemble each other. And for the vast majority of purposes those two men are nearly identical, we may inherently know this from instinct or we may learn it from observation but in my experience myself and everyone else I've known has this down pretty well. People have continuity, when you know someone today you know therm tomorrow, it's the same person after all. But in learning this very fundamental fact we can sometimes unlearn or simply never grasp the more fundamental truth, that the continuity of a person is made entirely of their similarity to their past, and their ability to recall it. At the end of the movie, puss in boots is still the same puss in boots in nearly all respects, a more refined version of himself. But in the one respect that was sole focus of the character of death, the previous puss was already dead and gone. It's a distinction that isn't even worth considering for any other character in the movie, probably even puss himself, except perhaps in a poetic sense that gets a little at a deeper truth. And it's because that part that is gone was never the true nature of what made puss who he was, to them. It was what made him who he was to death.
Which is a particularly long-winded way of saying that I realized that the way the movie handled death's reaction in that moment was not just fitting, but so insightful into this version of death's whole character, as to convince me that it was created by someone (someones) who had already had the same moment with death that puss just had. Though it may not exactly have been that dramatic hehe. In that moment, in what most likely just looked like a little joke followed by a cliche line, the movie took me aside and showed me an intensely deep understanding of life, death, and even the limits of the very concept of it. And I understood it.
11/10 good movie, come for the animation stay for the uh, you'll get it, don't worry.
Wanted to agree with your analysis. Antonio Banderas had experienced a near fatal heart attack and was recovering while voicing Puss. He identified with the battle with Death, apparently contributing to the role.
"Go ahead, RUN for it! *Makes it more fun for me."* i LOVE that line
they manage to again turn an overworn cliche, which is a villain giving the hero a bit of room for escape in order to make it more "fun" or whatever but is really just a lazy way of the writers giving the hero an extra chance and being subversive, and make it genuine and earned.
Puss N Boots the Last Wish is one of the best animated films I've seen in a long while. As much as I've enjoyed the Spider-verse movies, this is the kind of movie I argue we needed, an action, adventure film. Instead of just aping the Spider-verse style of animation, this movie took that aesthetic and really made it its own. The backgrounds and the action setpieces are a delight to see. I also appreciated how this movie very much felt like a unique examination of the Shrek world but it didn't feel like it needed to shoehorn Shrek. And any references to the franchise were brief cameos and well done. But for me, where this movie shines is the character work. Puss's arc is a story that can resonate with kids and adults.
The idea of taking what you have for granted is a great message but also the fact that Puss came to realize that he really didn't have much going for him in those past lives is also great. It shows that external validation like that only gets you so far. Rather what matters is treasuring what you have and looking forward. That's why the line where he tells death he'll never stop fighting for his last life really hits hard. The movie I argue does something that very few DreamWorks movies have done since Kung Fu Panda 2 which is play things serious.
Note; I understand this movie and past films had jokes. But if you notice, Joel Crawlford and company didn't resort to any kind of dumb joke to create bathos. The scene with Puss having a panic attack is brilliant(a term I don't use often) in that it would have been so easy to have Perrito be an idiot and joke but he isn't. If anything, his reaction with no dialogue and just being there showcases a level of maturity and situational awareness that a lot of folks can learn from. Take notes, Velma.
I could go on but yeah; I really love this movie. It's one of the few films I've purchased on physical and goes to showcase what animation can do, and will be something I look to and study for my own work. More of these kinds of movies, please.
Perrioto's path is also a "show don't tell" way of expressing that despite all the horrors of his life he prefers to see the cup as half full.
Pocket Full of Posies: a practice before deodorant and such were around to drown out the stench of the world by carrying a pocket of posies (a pouch of dried herbs) on your person. Became really popular during The Black Death since it could keep out the stench of the rotting bodies.
River of Relaxation: Most likely the River Styx from which the souls of the dead drank so they could forget their prior existence.
Field of Quick and Easy Solutions: In pop culture, suicide is considered a "quick and easy solution." (If anyone feels suicidal ideation please call the appropriate hotline.)
The pocket full of posies thing is probably not true (the nursery rhyme was only ever recorded in written accounts several centuries after the Black Death) but the urban legend has definitely affected popular culture’s perception of the song so I get what you mean
@@lindseylindsey9200 it was still probably about some kind of disease though. Maybe not exactly the Black death specifically, but it probably has to do with death. Why else would they sing about ashes or "all fall down" that the end?
ridiculously underrated channel. Your takes are 10/10 every time
This movie was so good. The writing, the direction, the themes, the animation, the acting... It's a master class in every aspect.
Honestly, I dont often sit down and actually watch longer TH-cam videos like these, my attention span just doesnt let me.
But I love this movie so much, and to see this video posted so recently, almost a year after the movie came out, is such a pleasant surprise that I just HAD to watch this! This movie is downright genius, and is one of Dreamworks' greatest films they have ever created!
Dare I say it's one of the best animated movies to ever exist. It just hits so many marks, it takes itself seriously, it's visually stunning, it's captivating, it's highly relatable... it's just an extremely memorable, well crafted film over all! And I am SO happy that Dreamworks took their time with this movie instead of rushing it for money or to gain attention for bringing back Puss or the Shrek franchise.
Very few, if anyone, even asked for a sequel to Puss In Boots. The first movie he had wasnt _bad_ , in my opinion, but I can understand where people come from when they say they forget what it's about. It's nothing masterful, it's not gonna blow you outta the water. It's just acceptable, and really only exists to offer some background to Puss as a character.
But this movie? This is the movie that made me LOVE Puss In Boots. Up to this point, he's always been shown as the cliche hero, the egotistical cat with bold remarks who's brave and crafty, and who can't express much vulnerability because he has to maintain that "cool, smart, undefeatable" persona we've grown to know him for. I never cared for it.
But The Last Wish took the chance to break him down by LITERALLY making him break down, and I love it for that. We dive so much more into his personality and fragile side, we see him actually have to work on himself and become a better person. He literally has to fight for his life and earn the respect of Death himself because he's made so many mistakes.
This movie didnt have to go this hard. It didnt have to be emotional, serious, or genuinely touching and relatable. Shrek's movies arent known for that on such high scale. They're always intended to have comedic vibes, some meta humor, references and what-not mixed into their plots. Which isnt bad, but when people think of Shrek, they dont think of it as being an emotional rollercoaster y'know? But Puss In Boots is on an ENTIRELY different level.
This movie actually made me feel genuine investment and joy, and it's hooked me so hard on its storyline and wonderfully crafted level of depth and clever details, and properly written characters in a way I havent felt in years.
I know Dreamworks has had its rough patches. It's had some movies that are admittedly bad and forgettable. But man, when they hit, they REALLY hit!! This is a film I can't see anyone calling bad no matter how hard you try to scrape away at it. There is no excuse this time, this movie is amazing through and through!!
Ayyy it's u again
I've seen ur cmt in so many PiB analysis videos that I was wondering if u also cmt on here too
Your last analysis/conclusion in this video perfectly communicates what I want in the American animation industry as well. "Mature" is a word many people in this day and age tie directly to mean violence, sex, and swearing, when in reality, the word within the context you presented, and therfore in the context of animated content as a whole, should simply mean that it presents it's adult themes, concepts, and ideas seriously and in a manner of sincerity. I want actual mature stories told through the medium of animation instead of whatever Family Guy is. Anyway, W video. I could not have communicated that message any better if I tried.
Why do you dislike the TV show Family Guy?
@@rustyshackelford4224 Cuz it got old. It's like listening to a really funny joke over and over again on loop until it stops being funny...at least in my opinion.
exactly basically animated dramas are where it’s at man
That's why the animated DC shows are so good
It's only subversive in that it's quality where none was expected. KInda like the trope of some of the best food you have ever tasted being served in a grungy dive of a restaurant. You would normally not expect something good from there, but it's great.
This one hit me pretty hard.
Thanks for being such a gem of a TH-camr.
You’re very underrated and on here but I’m grateful that I found you.
Thank you.
I have no words to express how much I enjoyed this amazing analysis of this amazing movie. I have always enjoyed journey-type stories, particularly the types with MacGuffins like the Map/Wishing Star and the One Ring. It depends, but it can get kinda dull after a while if the entire story is just set in one area, especially if set in a large fascinating world. I remember seeing the first movie in theaters and enjoying it (the Humpty-Dumpty twist made me laugh hard), but I never saw this one in theaters and I wish I did. I saw it on my phone and absolutely loved it. Perrito was my favorite new character of the series, and you really described why I enjoyed his presence in the movie. He is not annoying or unlikable, he manages to bring Puss and Kitty back together, and he (and the movie as a whole) shows us to appreciate the things that are right in front of us, to appreciate what life has to offer in the moment, and cherish the life you've got because, at the end of the day, you only have one. Big Jack Horner was such a breath of fresh air from all the poorly-done sympathetic and/or twist-villains Disney had been throwing at us, and I enjoyed every scene he was in. Goldi and the bears were great too, and the conclusion to her arc was heartwarming.
I appreciate and aim to write the kind of stories that have something to say without being too preachy, edgy, or cringe.
Thank you this great video! I always look forward to the next one.
Your experience and takeaway with this movie is exactly the same as mine. Right down to knowing everything being set-up, how it would be paid off, and being so glad you were right because deconstructive cynical affairs are exhausting and unpleasant.
Actually, that's what makes it unpredictable in a sense. You'd expect the writers to pull (it being a Hollywood production) some shit like "Perrito was an evil mastermind all along actually" to make the audience gasp, just to defeat him 5 minutes later. I was entertaining it as a possibility because of how the film industry conditioned me in the past decade or so
It would also be neat if you did a video on the movie Rango. I find the movie to start rising in popularity recently. I admire the film's aesthetic, as well as the quirky aspects in the film that pay homage to western movies, as well as surreal elements that still kind of stump me. (Like the walking cactuses, the huge eye, etc.) It would be really cool! I also really like this video. The Last Wish is one of my favorites in regard to relatively new movies, besides Guardians of the Galaxy 3.
The surreal moments are what make that film for me. The walking cactuses stuck with me for a long time. It elevates the film in my opinion.
This film is truly a marvel. I wish I hadn't missed out on it in its original theatrical run, but it was fun watching it on my small screen regardless. I loved so many elements of this (the animation, the characters, the humor, the themes it tackles with such smooth brush strokes). I sincerely hope this film will kindle a new wave of animated films in the decades to come. Especially for Disney, with how creatively bankrupt they have become in the past decade.
I just like that there now exists a children's movie which thesis statement is "Death comes for us all."
About deconstruction i feel one of the genre or subplots that most suffered was romance.
Specially in Disney remakes, make it the conection in characters more dull and idk how explain it, but dont show how intense and passion is the sentiment of love.
Thats why when i watched Elemental from pixar that show two characters sincery loving each other was like men why this cant be the standard 😔
Here's an interesting thing: At around 8:55, he said that Death was wielding scythes. However, based on their appearance and structure, they are more likely to be sickles, since scythes are meant to have longer handles, and the stereotypical sickle has a circular blade.
Just something interesting.
i love that there’s a hidden meaning to the final duel with death. death is here to kill the arrogant hero, Puss in Boots. over the course of that journey, you could say that the arrogant hero… is dead. the him who he was no longer exists. so in a certain sense, death did get to take the final life of the one who spurned him so. but a new man took his place.
14:34 I just noticed theres a scar where death cut Puss for the rest of the movie, thats such a neat detail!
21:10 on of my favorite quotes is from Ferris Beuller's Day Off and is "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
One of the most satisfying small details you can miss is at 28:08 when he says "No, just one", his hat covers Kitty and Perito, only revealing them in the shot when he raises his head to look Death in the eye as he says his line
Beautiful framing and timing, glad ya brought it up somewhat ^^
I feel that the recent One Piece Live Action adaptation did this nicely as well. Maybe, almost.
An anthropomorphic wolf representing the reaper, and an anthropomorphic alien-dragon-goat representing the origins of Hylian life itself in Zelda. What a year it has been. I am satisfied on the media-front
I honestly think puss in the end laughed death in the face by calling him lupo which means wolf in italian. Not Death, not Reaper but Wolf, not acknowledging that this fight could be his end. He didnt laugh literally but for me it felt like "yeah i am mocking you, what are you going to do about it"
While quite late, this is an excellent video essay with so much to say, and you said it well.
Puss In Boots: The Last Wish is sincerely my favorite animated film of all time. I discovered it at my lowest point and it spoke so loudly, so clearly, that I ended up watching it once or twice a day when I had the time to myself, every day for about a month, because I felt like every time I watched it I healed a little bit, and at the end of that insane binge marathon, I didn't put it down because I was sick of watching it but because I was whole. It's just an animated film on the surface, but, underneath, it is the sum of the human condition. Almost every human being can watch this movie and walk away thoroughly entertained while pondering theirnown mortality and just what are they doing with their lives. For me it will always be a therapy session with the goodest of bois: Perrito. ❤️
Perrito was such a breath of fresh air, you know? Usually overly optimistic characters are straight up stupid and annoying, but Perrito was one of the most endearing and charming characters I came across. I was literally "awing" everything he did, telling my boyfriend "I love this dog, its so cute". Perrito is a bit naive, but he is just adorable and so sweet and so kind, it really is impossible to hate him
And this is why I unironically believe that the best way of ending Game of Thrones was to literally have the Night King straight up win and kill everyone.
Because the last season turned out so awfully for the specific reason that they wanted to "subvert expectations". They wanted to shock fans more than actually deliver on the plot beats and story development. Suddenly Rhaegal the dragon gets sniped out of nowhere. Suddenly Arya kills the Night King. Suddenly Daenerys goes full Mad Queen in an instant instead of building it up. And it's all cobbled together in a half-assed "happy ending".
If there was any series that, without any hint of irony, could pull off a full-on downer ending, it was Game of Thrones. A series that had the potential to deliver on its overall theme of the unfairness of medieval society and the cruelty of people in power and the betrayals borne of greed and lust for the throne. It was building up to that exactly: the White Walkers being an all-powerful threat that the different houses refused to unite against, too preoccupied in their conflict over a glorified chair to realize the danger that is coming to destroy them all equally.
And the complete downer ending would have been the perfect way to pay that off: to have the consequence of their own doing blow up in their faces, to rub in how meaningless their desire for power or wealth or glory truly is, and to leave them, in their final moments of despair, be struck by the the inescapable truth that they all had doomed Westeros, and it is now too late to do anything but wait helplessly for the eternal winter to consume all.
Haven’t finished the series because of how bad everyone talks about the ending. But that sounds downright badass
I want a sequel to this film that has puss and kitty’s kid trying to live up to their prior legend and infamy. With them helping the kid come to terms with how their pasts had destructive consequences and it was through giving up their statuses did they end up truly happy.
I could literally go on for hours about this movie but for the sake of everyone’s time, I’ll keep my thoughts brief
This movie is quite possibly my favourite film of all time because EVERYTHING about it works for me. I cannot find any major flaw with it and every single aspect of the film just appeal to me. It’s literally got everything I could possibly want in a film for amazing action to gorgeous visuals to brilliant characters and a wonderful amount of heart and emotion. It’s also scary and funny and just brilliant
I really need to get around to finishing my own video on it
Either way, this is probably one of the best analysis videos I’ve seen on this film
Totally agree.
Such a magnificent video that makes me appreciate a film I already love.
@supermarios0573 Kitty Southpaws is a very disappointing and one note character...
23:39 "Because to truly care about something is in some sense to be vulnerable" Damn, I was not expecting that to hit me as deep as it did
This is one of the best, most effective, and most profound video essays I have ever watching. I want to sincerely thank you for making it.
I wish I missed it entirely. Everything I know about this flick I know without my consent and nothing about it has made me want to watch it, free or otherwise.
that whistle became a classic instantly
One thing I love about the Wolf's design is how his face is darker than anything else, so from straight ahead it evokes a skull
"When I say I want more mature story telling, THIS is precisely what I have in mind. What I want more then anything else, are stories with something to say." I can't say how much this statement resonates with me, only that you have just voiced what I have yearned for, for years, and it is deeply appreciated. Thanks.
just listening to any background song, especially Perritos, reminds me of watching this movie again and again on a DVD with fast play, and waking up in the middle of the night to it. Wierdly enough, it's almost nostalgia, even though the movie hasn't been out for that long.
I like how puss in boots villains go from an egg to the physical embodiment of death
I absolutely love and admire how eloquent you are. Hearing you talk is such a pleasure.
Oh yeah I agree Deaths appearance in The Last Wish was a fantastic touch. It also happened to parallel almost exactly...another figure from the popular game Elden Ring that was released around the same time.... That being Maliketh The Black Blade.... Who was the guardian of 'Destined Death'... A strange and ancient power that could kill even the Gods.... Maliketh was to serve as the reaper for when the time of the gods was up, but he never got that chance..... It was honestly beautiful synergy as well that Death in the Last Wish shared his canid appearance as a White wolf dressed in all black! Haha ...
Also League of Legends
Your cpmments on sincerity and how the newer generations dont know how to act sincere was so valid.
20:30 - 22:28 wow, i thought i was alone in that observation and was thinking of it just last night. you are the only human on earth who has ever pointed it out, it seems. society, hopelessly cynical, spits on every instance of sincerity, ruthlessly gutting each moment with spiteful jokes. no one can love anything because there is no sincerity to be found. i was that optimistic dog in my early 20s. i wasnt much different. i was relentlessly bullied as a kid, and held myself together with self love and optimism as a young adult, unbothered by events others saw as troubling even when i had experienced similar. life was fun and i was high on it.
then i saw that others were not like me, and were attacking optimistic "fools" like me with mockery. i grayed myself out into an unhappy mess in my mid 20s - early 30s as a means of self defense. i choked out every passion in me so that i could appear detached and uncaring just like everyone else, and have never been more miserable. its so hard to experience positive emotions now. i cant feel anything when i try. when i get a glimmer of some fun emotion about something i (want to) enjoy, my brain involuntarily introduces a sabotaging thought and crushes the emotion. not only is it hard getting back into doing what i loved, but i cant find new things to love.
what a coincidence that you even discussed that point, because that is most strongly on my mind as the primary motivation to getting back to my spirited, enthusiastic self in recent times.
Would someone please forward this to all of the writers in charge over at Disney. You know before the figurative tree topples from rotting from the inside out.
Banderas was really invested in making this movie because it was such a personal story to him
The Last Wish, and Arcane are the types of stories I wish (haha) to see more of. The kind where they stay for as long as they NEED, with well thought out plots, and amazing animation!
I’ve been waiting for this!! I’m so glad you enjoyed this! Death honestly is one of my favorite villains! His voice and personality is the best!.
in a lot of medias, you can see the ending coming a mile away, unless you're reading a mystery novel. but most of the times, it's not about the destination, it's about the journey. what a lot of people don't seem to get. the road you takes to your goal is often more important than the goal itself. the last wish is a perfect case for that. i mean the goal they set out for isn't even the same at the end, the journey having changed them.
So awesome you did a video for this movie. I got a bit giddy when you noticed the same details I did, too! This movie had huge emotional impact and I'm not afraid to say I teared up. In this movie, even though Death is an antagonistic force, I don't think he's a villain. It's hard, impossible even, to understand the motives of gods/spirits such as him, but I suspect he does love life and has an ultimate understanding of its value, hence why he is so hostile to Puss' bloated hero persona. Death is invisible, unnoticed, until there is an imbalance. The extreme of that imbalance is Jack Horner's self destructive, wasteful selfishness, as you pointed out. Another really neat thing is I thought about the Joseph Campbell's Hero's journey, and looking through the phases, I came to a conclusion on why the Death wolf's impact is so great. This is just my take, it could be wrong, but I think the fight with death fits the Atonement with Father stage of the hero's journey. Death is initiating Puss by teaching him the ultimate value of his life in a trial of combat. We have to have trust in life if we are to live, trust in our friends, and we can't live and feel alive if we constantly gnash our teeth in fear and flee from uncertainty to live in a comfortable delusion. We have to have faith that when we take our steps, the ground will be under our feet, in other words. Now what does the value of life look like when it's understood? Ironically if can be seen clearest when we stand psychologically, or literally close to death. There is a scene, perhaps my favorite scene, in Black Fox Running by Brian Carter, that captures it perfectly. I'll cite below.
"Such gatherings were memorable. The old prophet guided them through his visions. And as the sun crossed the western sky, bathing him in its glow, it seemed he had been turned to gold like a real companion of Tod.
Rowanfleet glided between the dogs in a cloud of musk. Brown and amber fires burnt in her eyes and her chest fur was the white of button mushrooms fresh with dew. She was mysterious and beautiful, and her words fell upon his knowing like water from a moorland stream.
‘When I was a cub,’ Stargrief said, ‘the blood of the grass was on my teeth. My mother rested and licked my muzzle while I stood under her waiting for her to settle in drowsy song.
‘We stood in the field close to the sky, two shadows on the summer, already forgotten and doomed like the grass. But we left a presence on the seasons.’
O sea of stars carry me through this winter, the old fox prayed. His haggard face was tilted to catch the last of the sun. How like a fantasy of all vixens was Rowanfleet. The snow blinked golden at her feet and something ancestral climbed through his blood to his brain. He was running with the dream of foxes before the ice that daily crept nearer. But the great rivers of ice did not carve and grind and stultify the moors. Bear and wolf, fox and man shivered in the arctic twilight. But they lived. In Rowanfleet’s beauty was immortality and salvation."
So what does this all mean? Well, I totally feel you when you spoke of the nihilistic irony of the cultural landscape - the fact that many people are afraid to be vulnerable, intimate, to truly care about something, and love others and I do think that fear of death is behind it, especially when the snapping at each other's throats starts happening. It's complicated, as many things are, but it is urgent to understand that there is no time for that, because life, your life is being spent second by second, day by day. Life doesn't wait, and so the nihilistic irony and cutting down of anything that could enhance your life, change your perspective, and enrich being alive is wasting the one golden ticket we get to see this planet and all the other living things, and that's the real irony. Great stories like this challenge us and I'm glad that this movie got the recognition it deserves. I wholeheartedly agree with you on predictability not being bad. What matters is execution with something meaningful to say. There is one thing that is predictable for all of us. We are food for worms, lads and lasses. All that matters is the execution from here to there. I'll leave you all with this, because its crucial that we have some creative inspiration to live.
th-cam.com/video/-7OE6bDfM2M/w-d-xo.html
Now go forth and live and suck the marrow out of life, you wonderful animals.
It's not death's job to make it personal and kill someone. Even death implied this (puss:"but I am still alive, that's cheating", death: "shh don't tell"). He is also a sadistic psychopath that incites psychological torture to puss. If he really wanted to kill puss or some of say "teach puss a lesson" (which is a complete BS), he would have killed puss much sooner instead of tormenting him, he clearly have the ability to know a get to wherever puss is. Why I said death is a sadistic psychopath, well look at some of his lines, "I like the smell of fear", "Go ahead, run, makes it more fun to me", when puss finally realise to to value his life, death expresses his disappointment and said: "why did I play with my food, you're ruining this for me" it kinda like when you eat animals why they still alive 😬. Are all of those lines suggest that he is "doing his job" or "teach puss a lesson"? NO 😂, it suggest that death is a resentful, sadistic, battle-hungry psychopath that like to torture his victims. All of that said, death is Evil, and that makes him a villain.
If you really want an apethetic and unable reason with, antagonist, just watch castaway. Because the castaway antagonist is the mother nature itself. It doesn't care if tom hank's character is rich, poor, arogant, kind, environment terrorist or whatnot. It just nature you can't reason with it. But death on the other hand clearly hunted puss life because he was arrogant, laughs at him, doesn't value life. Death clearly has reasons to go after puss.
I love how you point out the different approach this movie has in regards to fairy tales, in contrast to the Shrek franchise. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish embraces its fairy tale inspiration, as this genre is pretty much the background of the whole Shrek franchise. But unlike the original Shrek, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is not trying to make fun or subvert them. To me, it really understands fairy tales in the way it makes you laugh, tear up, feel whimsical, then afraid, reflect, project and finally get to the end of that experience feeling energized, touched and a bit more clever. It's not trying to give you a lesson. It tells you a compelling story which you can learn and take inspiration from.
I loved the sincerity in this movie! It’s balance of snarky humor and genuine character growth makes me feel better about the future of pop entertainment
I find it hilarious how they got the legend himself Antonio Banderas to voice the cat on multiple occasions, who is obviously a parody to Antonio's iconic Zorro character
"Pastry Industrialist" Is such a funny description. Jack Horner is fantastic.
I’ve never found predictability to be a really bad thing, as unpredictability is only good the first time around. If you can see the ending, it’s not really bad. What sucks is when you can predict all of the details on the first viewing.
I never even watched the first movie, I just watched this one on a whim and man am I glad I did. Glad to see you covering it!
Same. I watched it when it came to Netflix and I was surprised by how good it was. The only other movie in the franchise I'd seen was the first Shrek movie, which I thought was mediocre at best. Definitely not worth killing mainstream 2D animation for.
you are so elegantly spoken and the script is so well written, i am extremely envious of it. i try to explain things in such a way, especially when it comes to personal growth, and i always over simplify them. but that's just how i am, and that's okay. thank you so much for this video.
I feel like I would've enjoyed this film at least 10% more if I didn't already know the twist of the wolf being Death thanks to the absurd degree of pop culture osmosis the film experienced not long after release.
Death has always been about the value of life. It is well executed in this film. I was most shocked that it was so faithfully interpreted here.
I don't think the reveal of the wolf is as obvious as you might think. So many people go into the movie by now knowing already. While some might guess who it actually is, most blind watches of this movie I've seen people not know until the reveal. I myself went into it as blind as possible and just thought it was a bounty hunter. The wolf had all the hallmarks of one including holding a wanted poster on his person.
You don't get the feeling that wolf is death at first. But you do know he is not just a bounty hunter. There is something more. And when you finally realize it (the coins in the eyes on the street for me) you also know that there is no way he is anything else.
@@maxhax367 Not sure I agree. I think they laid the foundation for the wolf to just be a scary and skilled bounty hunter. Wanting to demoralize his target through dark gestures. Without prior knowledge of motivations, why would death be after the still alive puss in boots? Why would we go out on a limb to believe this is the manifestation of death itself when just a bounty hunter fits?
8:27 another animation studio (like illumination for example) would have had the wolf say something like "what's the matter, cat's got your tongue?" at that moment
Perrito is one of the best dogs in film and this is a hill I'm prepared to die on.
20:52 Dang.. i guess i never realized how sad this attitude is.
You should play pathalogic 2 if you like narratives that confront mortality. Absolutely amazing games and even better stories. Sulmutal has a really good set of videos on pathologic 1 & 2
Explain please
I think most people never really thought of any animated movie ever having any sort of 'serious' tone to them like irl movies do, but Puss in Boots The Last Wish nailed it on the head
I cannot wait to hear your take on this movie, you have the most analytical prowess I have ever seen on this funny video site
I simply love, that CGI-animation is at a point, where animators play with those things like sharp lighting, exadurated color and give these scenes an almost impressionistic approach. Finally they and the studios are realizing, that animation can do so much more than mimic reality.
It'll be interesting to hear analysis on this beyond "realistic panic attacks."
i love this movie, a lot. it’s one of my favorite films period. im really upset the hypes died down, even if its to be expected. i miss seeing this masterpiece on every corner of the internet
i'm quite sure its still there you just have to dig