‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’ Sneak Peek in Annecy Reveals Darker Tone, New Look for Spaghetti Western Fairytale

variety.com:

Ben Croll Nearly two decades after the character broke out in “Shrek 2″ and 11 years since his last solo outing, Puss in Boots – that Antonio Banderas-voiced rapscallion who wields his saucer eyes as dangerously as he does his sword – made his swashbuckling return to the big screen at an Annecy Intl.

Animation Film Festival presentation that saw the first 27 minutes of DreamWorks’ upcoming “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” screen before a packed auditorium.Cheering before the opening song gave way to an action scene, the Annecy crowd greeted their feline friend with a pop idol’s welcome – neatly mirroring the energetic musical number happening on screen.“At the forefront of our minds was not just reintroducing Puss to the world, but introducing the world to where the character is now,” director Joel Crawford tells Variety. “For us, it was really just about introducing this larger than life legend, this fairy-tale character, in a different way than before.” “You could imagine he’s the world’s first celebrity,” adds producer Mark Swift. “We’ve compared him in all ages to Mick Jagger that lives off the crowd, that loves the attention, and has a healthy ego as well.

As we were talking about that opening sequence, it was like, well, ‘What’s the rock star version of reintroducing Puss in Boots?’”As we watch our hero overtake an aristocrat’s estate, leading the peasants in a chorus that asks, “Who’s your favorite fearless heeeeeero?” before cutting out to fight a lumbering giant who threatens the town, we find the cat vigilante on top of the world – but those high spirits do not last.

How could they, when that opening melee ends up costing Puss one of his nine lives? To make matters worse, it was life number eight.“There are.