Puss in Boots: Last Wish creators looked at Shrek to reinvent Shrek

“When the first Shrek movie came out, it was quite groundbreaking,” Joel Crawford, co-director of The Last Wish for Puss in BootsIn an interview with Polygon, she said that CG was so impressive. “With CG, it was so impressive [with]The detail you felt, the audiences loved that pursuit of photorealism. So 20-something year later, The Last Wish: Puss in BootsFeel like you’re in a fairy tale, that is what we called it. It is important to keep pushing it.”

Januel Mercado, his codirector, did the same. Contrary to the Shrek four movies and first Pussy in Boots movie which each follow the same approach to photorealism and lighting design, this film is different. The Last WishThe backgrounds are more stylized. They are rich in background. It is less photorealistic and looks more like an impressionist painting. These movements look more dramatic and catchy. It’s a massive departure from what audiences have come to expect from the Shrek franchise, but it was a departure the filmmakers were eager to take.

“It’s been over 10 years since the last Puss in Boots, and over 20 years since the first Shrek came out,” Mercado says. “We’re always talking about just how marvelous animation technology and its visual storytelling has evolved over the years. We felt like there’s been enough time where we could retain the essence of this world and these characters, but we could take full advantage of the new technology and styles [with]These stories can be shared with others. We weren’t about to miss that opportunity.”

Animated films like “Mercado and Crawford” inspired Crawford. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, ArcaneAnd The Bad GuysNot only for the use of stylized animated animation, but because they celebrate the mediums that inspired these stories. For Spider-VerseComic books were the original source of comics. For The Last WishThis was fairy-tale illustration.

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“I remember growing up with children’s books,” recounts Mercado. “Especially fairy-tale books and illustrations, and how vivid these spreads would be, and how simple they are for kids, with just simple texts and storytelling. However, as a youngster I can recall spending hours simply looking at the illustrations and paintings and observing all the details. […]With the film medium, we wanted to achieve the same. Puss in boots.”

“Our production designer, Nate Wragg, was really the one who helmed how to express our specific story,” explains Crawford. “Specifically in this fairy-tale style. So it was trial and error. We looked at the things, then we went. Oh, that’s too flat and graphic, Oder That’s too realistic. And so it’s really a process of finding it.”

The animation wasn’t the only element Crawford and Mercado hoped to evolve withThe Last Wish. After all, 2001 saw the emergence of this phenomenon. ShrekNot only was it groundbreaking for the CG, but because of the edgy humor as well as the more mature references. These were the reasons that American animation saw a significant shift over the past decade. To continue Pussy in Boots The 2020s are relevant because the filmmakers wanted the film to be relevant again. They also wanted the movie’s themes to expand and tell a deeper story.

“With the original Shrek movies, there’s a fun play on what we know as fairy tales and Disney princesses that we love. There’s always that subversive take that’s clever and hilarious to experience,” says Mercado. “It’s always just like, This is so much fun! I’ve never thought about it this way. It’s cool to turn things on its head. We wanted to keep that one aspect of our fold. The other aspect of the story is an authentic message. [an] emotional story to tell.”

Puss in Boots – The Last WishIt is available as a download, on Blu-ray and DVD.