Puss in Boots director Joel Crawford on To A Darker Place like previous In Order To Feel The Bright films

Get into a franchise as legendary as this Shrek series, director Joel Crawford was delighted at the chance to show a new side of the legendary cat. A sequel from 2011 cat in boots Film, DreamWorks Animation Puss in Boots: The Last Wish takes place afterwards Shrek forever, when Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) is accidentally killed by a bell and discovers he is living on his ninth and final life. After an encounter with a mysterious wolf determined to take his last life, Puss decides to spend the rest of his life in hiding. However, he soon learns of a wishing star that can help them get his life back. Crawford wanted the story of cat in boots in a darker direction than the other films in the Shrek Franchise inspired by Grimm’s fairy tales.

DEADLINE: What was the inspiration for the story of the new one? cat in boots Movie?

JOEL CRAWFORD: It must have taken a while to find the right story for the next chapter of cat in boots. It’s been over a decade since the last one, and at DreamWorks there was always the idea that Puss was in the last of his nine lives. But figuring out how to articulate that and what story that leads to has really evolved. When I got to this, I was really excited about the nugget of this idea, a cat living on its ninth life, and this idea that cats have nine lives, it’s absurd. It feels like a fairy tale premise, but what turned me on was that it’s so ridiculous, but it’s also so poignant that Puss only has one life and he has to accept that mortality.

DEADLINE: What was the inspiration for the wolf that created this existential crisis?

CRAWFORD: In conversations between me and Januel Mercado, the co-director, we talked about those samurai movies with larger-than-life characters and those spaghetti westerns. So a foot of cat in boots is immersed in the Shrek Fairy tale world, but another one is in spaghetti western world. So we needed a bounty hunter who could be intimidating enough to basically coax Puss out of his arrogance. And as we dug deeper on the fairy’s side, we ran into each other Grimm’s fairy tales, with which many wolves told cautionary tales. We thought this character had such a rich, haunting tone to Puss.

One of the discoveries in this film is that to feel the message of this film, this celebration of life, we have to go to a dark place to feel the light. So we kept editing the scene in the bar where Puss confronts the bounty hunter and where he gets his hair cut for the first time and realized that this really isn’t the first time we’ve had to scare Puss and get his hair done not standing upright on his arms, but the viewer also feels it and associates it with the dedication of the film. Because without effort there is no joy in the end.

DEADLINE: What was it like working on a film, the sixth installment in the Shrek series, with these characters that have been around for so long?

CRAWFORD: It’s amazing and scary at the same time. There is so much nostalgia and love for these legacy characters from the Shrek World. We wanted to make sure that we honored what people loved about the previous films, but also not just stop there and make more of them, but really rise to the occasion. And it’s been so long, let’s go somewhere else and break new ground. We have this picturesque style that looks like you’re immersed in a fairy tale painting, which really gives the story a new vibe, but also with Grimm’s fairy tales as a reference to be able to sonically venture into more spooky terrain with these characters.

When the hangover set in shout 2, he stole the show. He was this fearless assassin and he was so funny and so charming and the audience loved it. We’ve certainly brought back everything that you strangely love about Puss, but this trip is one of a kind and Antonio is very excited about it because it allows us to see another side of Puss. He’s essentially a superhero who never shows weakness, and because he’s on his last life, he actually lowers his shield a little bit and you see a certain vulnerability, a new side of Puss.

DEADLINE: Can you talk about how the animation changes depending on the type of scene?

CRAWFORD: Margie Cohn, the president of DreamWorks Animation, really pushed to get more specific and use more unique tools to tell the story. We no longer have to look for photorealism with CG, we can use these 2D techniques and make it look like a painting, but all in an effort to tell stories more specifically. With the animation style, we wanted to create a real contrast from Puss’s different angles when we’re in these big action sequences. We are introduced to Puss fighting a giant, but everything feels unbelievable and doesn’t feel grounded. The cameras all feel very smooth, with tracking and pussy having fun, and you get that layered animation that’s closer to anime or even going back to traditional hand-drawn animation, with very strong poses held for multiple frames with it. Your eye can register you. It’s not as smooth as smooth CG animation, but it has the effect of transporting you into this fairy tale of “I’ll live forever.” So everything is more punchy and superheroic and then we go back to traditional CG animation where everything is in one frame, everything is nice and smooth so it feels grounded and like we’re used to. These moments are saved for moments when Puss learns from the Doctor that he is in his past life, or Puss experiences that connection with Kitty Softpaws. It’s about having that contrast, and even if the audience doesn’t get all the geek stuff that we do, they feel like the story takes them through these different emotions with different animation styles.