There are mild spoilers in this interview.
Puss In Boots (Antonio Banderas), the swashbuckling, fear-defying, carefree feline who thrives on deceit and skullduggery first appeared in the works of Giovanni Francesco Straparola in the 1550s. His character slipped into his boots and sashayed his way into Shrek 2 in 2004. In 2011, Puss outgrew his supporting character status and demanded his own film, starring himself in the lead. Over a decade later, the outlaw cat discovers his reckless lifestyle has him down to his last life. Where did the other eight go? We spoke to co-writer Paul Fisher (The Croods: A New Age, The Lego Ninjago Movie) on granting Puss In Boots… his last Wish.
“Puss In Boots is a fearless hero, a living legend who buys into his own myth and loves telling the story of his own heroics,” says Fisher. Although Puss revels in the hedonistic rockstar lifestyle, he doesn’t find it entirely satisfying. Fisher meets Puss at the top of his game in The Last Wish, “where he grapples with his own mortality, but also his identity.” Who is he if he’s not the fearless hero who laughs in the face of death? His existential crisis leaves him vulnerable. Are his best years really behind him or are they yet to come?
Paul relishes the chance to write a character so different than himself. “Puss In Boots is so extroverted and presentational and likes to be on the big stage. He’s full of confidence and bravado, and acts without thinking about the repercussions.”
Talk of a sequel to Puss In Boots began in 2012 after its successful run. “It began with the notion that Puss In Boots was on the last of his nine lives,” states Fisher. This came from Tom Wheeler, who is a credited writer on the original. Wheeler and Tommy Swerdlow (who co-wrote The Last Wish) laid down the framework for The Last Wish in terms of structure, the key story beats. Swerdlow and Wheeler left the project in good shape and bequeathed a solid draft to Paul Fisher.
This carried through to when Paul Fisher took the reigns of the screenplay where he injected his flair. “In one incarnation, Puss met the forty thieves and the magic lantern,” recalls Fisher. Puss’s existential crisis came about later in the development stage to ground his character. “Puss does some serious soul-searching when he becomes the fallen star and down to one final wish.” Therein lies his emotional and spiritual growth.
Despite Puss’s reckless daredevil antics, there is a spurious morality in his actions. “He’s a sketchy hero. At his core, if there’s a choice between doing the right thing or the wrong thing, he chooses the right thing.” He may not choose the right way because he likes to have a little fun along the way. And he’s not good with rules.
Paul Fisher. Photo by Lara Rossignol
Puss In Boots has one last wish in the sequel – to find the Wishing Star and restore his previous eight lives. If he doesn’t succeed, Puss would continue with his final life as a much wiser cat. The legend of cats having nine lives is folklore. “Ultimately, we all have one life and we all have to face death one day by ourselves. But, if we fight for the things we believe in and share those moments with loved ones, one life is enough.” Puss’s affection for Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek Pinault) proves the point. It all comes down to living one life and living it well.
The Last Wish slightly drifts away from the irreverent tone of Shrek in terms of its tone and flow. “We still added jokes and takes on fairy tale characters such as Goldi(locks) to make it funny,” says Fisher. There are some darker tones reminiscent of the Grimm fairytales, but telling the story using comedy would satisfy both long-time fans and newcomers alike.
Paul Fisher is cognizant of how to present the concept of mortality and death to family audiences. He achieves this through a fun and fearless adventure rather than morbid imagery. But there is one key point in The Last Wish. “Puss isn’t actually dying. He’s just down to his last life and it needs to count if he can’t get his wish.”
The Last Wish introduces Wolf (Wagner Moura) straight out of Little Red Riding Hood, who is the physical embodiment of death. He states that he’s out to kill Puss for having such little regard for his lives. “The dramatics of that worked well for the story,” continues Fisher. “We always wanted this to be a life-affirming story rather one than focusing on death and loss.”
The Eight Lives Of Puss
There is a stunning death montage in Puss In Boots: The Last Wish where we witness Puss squandering eight of his lives in a comedic sequence. “It was full of nutty ideas such as Puss going to Japan and losing a Sumo match.” There were sixty-five death ideas explored before settling on the final eight.
This instrumental moment also has many versions especially in the tone and pacing. “A lot of what changed was how that montage was structured. There were versions where Puss marinated over the idea more and described his deaths. The pacing that worked best was very brisk with a line of dialogue to lead us in and one to lead us out.”
The comedy in The Last Wish is full of silly, cartoony-based gags. “The ones we like best are character moments from their own points of view. We had to make room for them in the screenplay. I love dialogue moments and character reactions to them.” Ostensibly, some of the jokes are edgy/ adult, and may not be fully appreciated by everyone – and that’s a good thing. This guiding principle held firm for the dramatic moments too. After all, Fisher was writing a family film. He didn’t overthink it. “I told the story in an honest way with guardrails in place. Is it too much to show a trickle of blood on Puss’ face?”
Big, four-quadrant family studio films tend to stick to safe boilerplate stories to appeal to the widest audience. The Last Wish seems a few degrees separated from this template with an underlying independent film sensibility to it pushing boundaries. “It has a freshness to it. All the edges get rubbed off in many studio films, but this still has some edges left,” asserts Fisher.
Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek Pinault), Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) and Perrito (Harvey Guillén) Photo courtesy of DreamWorks Animation
Paul Fisher looked to film like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Zorro, and It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World to contour Puss In Boots: The Last Wish. These films had a heist/ caper structure to reference. “There are multiple people going for the same prize. We wanted a lot of antagonists in the mix to balance it out.” As an ensemble piece, “there was a lot of scene shifting and making sure each character moment fell in the right place.” The production team gave a few discreet winks to other films like Apocalypse Now.
There are some references to various fairy tale characters that border on delightful parody. These include the Goldi (Florence Pugh) leader of the Three Bears crime family, “Big” Jack Horner (John Mulvaney) and even Pinocchio (Cody Cameron).
Writing ensemble films requires judicious use of scene allocation. “We introduce them quickly and later learn a bit more about them and how they came to be.” Fisher didn’t want to interrupt the rhythm and flow of the story with excessive stopping and starting every time a new character was introduced. Characters were gently dropped into the narrative in an uncluttered and organic away so there was a nice ebb and flow.
Paul Fisher believes that his creative thumbprints appear in much of the dialogue in the film. “I hear my own music in the dialogue.” Dialogue shouldn’t be set in concrete. “Characters should be given the space to perform and tell their own stories.” He also notes that characters in animated films talk as little as possible in the belief that the audience will get bored with excessive dialogue. Fisher cites the scene when Wolf has tracked Puss to a bar and compliments him on his boots while his intention is to kill him. Wolf declares that he’s not Death in a metaphorical sense, but Death incarnate. “There’s a willingness to as spend time with characters as you do in live action films. These scenes are quite talky but very well-directed to deliver additional story elements.”
As Puss hurtles toward the finish line, Fisher needed to decide if Puss was going to get his wish. He refers to his principle of “no magic required,” for his answer. “If he got his wish, it undercuts the message of the story. You can still lead a good life without getting your wish. The characters got their epiphanies and realized what really mattered.“
