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Puss in Boots : The Last Wish [Hot-take Review]

Disclaimer: i've started this review some weeks ago just after i've seen the movie (november 27th)

I've watched this movie in preview some days ago and i absolutely wanted to do a little review about it. Normally there's no spoilers in this post, i will do a more complete review (with spoilers this time) when i would have re-watched it. Also a little disclaimer, this is my first public movie review ever.

Ok now back to the movie. First of all, i didn't want to go watch it. I had personal reasons for that and frankly i wasn't fond of the first movie. To me it was "meh", like it was kind of fun but nothing exceptional. However i finally accepted to give it a try, even if i wasn't excepting anything from this movie.

Aaaaand i loved it. I was into it from the start to the end.

Compared to the first movie, it's more mature and well constructed. No really bad childish jokes, or just a few here and there i must say it didn't marked me (unlike in the first movie were it really bored me). Also the characters are truly well developed and the characters designs are neat. I think if Dreamworks keep up with hybrid animation (like we also saw in "The Bad Guys") and with that kind of good scenarios we'll have gems.

Animation: 9/10

They really did a great job with the hybrid animation. The slow frame rate moments were interesting and i like that they only used it during dynamic fights. It was a little disturbing at first but i got used to it.

The artistic direction (management?) is absolutely incredible, the colors and textures are beautiful. Also the atmosphere is often amazing, but in some scenes the brights colors are just too much. With textured surfaces (like fur for example) it tend to work well, but for flat tints the result was kind of weird and even giving an impression of collage. Sometimes some colors are almost neon, which can hurt to see when the all decor is like that. Sometimes you can see it was on purpose but other times it just gave the impression that it was badly handled.

Of course it's what i remember, i've seen it once some days ago and had to re-watch the trailers to be able to put words on my impressions. So to me the visual is incredible despite some little mistakes.

Scenario: 8.5/10

Really well balanced and incredibly well managed with that much characters development in parallels from one another. The base subject (death and how to confront it) are really well treated and the global message as "classic" as it is (you have to settle for what you already have) is well shown and in differents ways. The only flaws to me are some lines of dialogue who are useless, common or even clichés (in the bad way) as well as some little scenario "easy options". But nothing that, at first viewing, stopped me to fully enjoy this movie. I also liked the really highlighted subtext about egoism and envy.

Characters: 9/10

The characters are truly endearing (even those you wouldn't think so) and most importantly, like i said before, very well developed. Nothing is created, they just used the good basics of a good constructed character and some good clichés to deepen it with a good scenario and interesting subjects who where deeply treated. This good character development is also allowed by the presence of two "static" characters, so those who stay loyal to their principles from beginning to end. This type of process permit to make the others characters evolve around them and tho highlight their change, i've found it truly well used in this movie. Also the relationships between the characters are well handled. There is a different type of relationships showned : friendship, love, family and self relationship.

Conclusion:

8.6/10

One of my new favorite Dreamworks movie. Also as an animation student i would love to work on this kind of movie, i'm so happy to see this kind of animation with a big studio like Dreamworks. I will definitely go watch it again and i totally recomand it!