“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” hit theaters Dec. 21, 2022, and has since grossed over $260 million worldwide. Produced by DreamWorks Animation with a budget of $90 million, the movie follows the story of Puss, an arrogantly humble vigilante cat, on the hunt for a wishing star to regain his lost lives. Throughout the film, he is accompanied by Kitty Softpaws, an old friend he has a long history with, and Perrito, a small dog he meets and befriends.

           Initially, I saw talk of “Puss in Boots” on social media and didn’t understand what people were so excited about. Animation and cartoons are widely seen as things that should be viewed by kids, not something that can be enjoyed by a broader audience. As someone who watches cartoons and animated media frequently, I was interested in seeing the movie and it did not disappoint. The three things I really liked while seeing “Puss in Boots” were the humor, the animation, and the more serious subplots.

           As an artist who has tried animation before, I was both surprised and impressed by the style in “Puss in Boots.” The creators wanted to achieve an animation style similar to “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” using slower frame rates to produce a more stylized look, with the intent of showing scenes in a fairy-tale-like way. 

In my opinion, this design choice was exactly what the movie needed, giving action scenes a more fun, artistic feel, rather than feeling over-polished. In modern animation, tools are available to make things look realistic and meticulously detailed, but “Puss in Boots” takes a different, more unrefined approach that gives everything an extra edge and exciting feel.

           Animated movies directed at younger kids tend to have adult jokes peppered in, to keep parents in the audience happy. I found that in “Puss in Boots,” while there were some innuendos, much of the writing and delivery of the jokes were funny on their own. I appreciated that there was less pandering to adult viewers with exclusively inappropriate jokes, added only for a shock factor, instead having tasteful humor with more thought put in. I think that having jokes that focused on actually making the audience laugh, rather than keeping bored parents awake, raised the quality of the movie, making it more fun to watch.

        “Puss in Boots” also hit on serious topics, including an on-screen panic attack. Throughout the movie, Puss is hunted by Death, which has extra high stakes for him as he starts his ninth life at the start of the movie. Because of this, he becomes increasingly stressed, which leads to him getting his first scratch from an opponent, after previously never having been touched by a blade. 

He is shown running through the woods, becoming overwhelmed by his surroundings. His friend, Perrito, a small therapy dog in training, helps him calm down. The portrayal of the panic attack was not only realistic but showed Puss’ perspective, how it felt to him, instead of just showing him running around, for seemingly no reason. Having realistic examples of things like panic attacks in media that is accessible to younger audiences is important for educational purposes, to help people understand and have empathy for those who are struggling.

           I think that media like “Puss in Boots,” which uses creative styles and appeals to a broad audience, is really interesting and can help defeat the stigma that animation can’t be enjoyed by teenagers and adults. I think that not all media has to be serious all the time and having more silly, playful movies like this would be amazing.