Puss In Boots: The Last Wish Director Says Audiences Don't Want 'Perfect' CGI Animation Any More
After being dormant for many years, "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" revitalized the long-standing "Shrek" spin-off franchise in more ways than one. Through an inspired performance by Antonio Banderas, the sequel featured a shockingly poignant, family-friendly story about accepting the fragility of life. "The Last Wish" raised the personal stakes of the titular character and those around him, without losing what made the "Shrek" universe so much fun in the first place. However, the "Puss in Boots" sequel looks strikingly different from other animated offerings in the film series. Instead of only using the familiar CG animation in which the character originated, "The Last Wish" combined several art styles to bring the existential crisis to life.
If the animation in "The Last Wish" reminded you of "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse," that's kinda the point. The Miles Morales-led film paved the way for mainstream animation to hop off the realism bandwagon for more creatively challenging art styles. In fact, according to the director of "The Last Wish," the audience doesn't want perfect CG animation anymore. Naturally, we agree with him. And judging by the box office returns, the updated look has successfully brought back the lovable feline for a new era of stylistic animation.
'There's also a longing for tangibility'
In an interview with SFX Magazine, "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" director Joel Crawford discussed moving away from strictly-CG animation, stating that audiences have been primed for the stylistic switch-up:
"I think "Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse" opened up the mainstream animation industry to realize that audiences don't just want a CG movie that looks totally like CG. I remember on the first Shrek movie there was this quest for realism, and it was so impressive what computers could create – it was like, 'Wow, you can see the hairs on their arms!'
Just like "Shrek" was a product of its era, "The Last Wish" has aptly taken advantage of the current state of animation. The "Puss in Boots" spin-off merged the 3D animation with a "painterly" aesthetic, a combination that prioritized artist-driven style over realism. The team behind the film was able to play more freely with the animation by not worrying about the pesky, relatively unimportant details CG-heavy work usually boasts. As Crawford put it, "the computer wants to make things perfect, but I think there's also a longing for tangibility."
A new age in animation
During the interview, Crawford appropriately mentioned "Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse" as the precedent that injected a new flavor of animation into the mainstream. In fact, "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" borrows the slow frame rate action from the Spider-Man film. However, an equally refreshing aesthetic permeates throughout "The Last of Wish." From the painting-like art to the free-flowing camera movement, the film lives and breathes in its own stylized skin without worrying about looking "real." Every frame is picture-perfect, not in its likeness to reality, but in its search for vivid and dramatic imagery. And it's not the first time DreamWorks switched up its animation style, either.
Before "The Last Wish," DreamWorks previously tapped into a similar aesthetic for "The Bad Guys." The animation studio ditched realism for an art style that felt more hand-painted than anything. That said, "The Last Wish" takes it up a notch. The film is an amalgamation of experimentation in the animation genre, one that pushes the standard to the next level. In other words, "Into the Spider-Verse" walked so "The Bad Guys" could jog, just so that "The Last Wish" could run. The squeaky-clean look has its own advantages, but there is more than enough room for the animation present in "The Last Wish." Let's just hope that the inevitable "Shrek" sequel does the same, too.