Universal just dropped the first teaser for Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, a long-in-development and oft-delayed sequel to an incredibly successful predecessor. Puss In Boots was, of course, a spin-off centered on a popular supporting character in the three Shrek sequels. That made sense in late 2011, since folks really liked Antonio Banderas’ fairy tale riff on Zorro yet the character had understandably limited screen time in Shrek 2, Shrek the Third and Shrek Forever After. This wasn’t Solo: A Star Wars Story, whereby a new (mostly unknown) actor was playing an established character who himself had already the co-lead in four previous Star Wars movies. Anyway, this was back when the mere idea of big-budget animation was itself a theatrical driver, and 2011 had a deluge of such toons (Rango, Rio, Kung Fu Panda 2, Cars 2, Arthur Christmas, etc.).
Ironically, the one huge whiff of that year was Disney’s $150 million Mars Needs Moms while Cars 2 (which earned $550 million worldwide) earned Pixar’s first generally lousy reviews and sold fewer tickets domestically than any prior Pixar movie. Meanwhile, while successful ($193 million worldwide on a $36 million budget), Gnomeo and Juliet didn’t exactly take its place among beloved Disney animated classics. Paramount’s Rango would win the Best Animated Feature Oscar that year, even if I’ll argue Kung Fu Panda 2 was robbed. Point being, it’s hard to overstate how different Disney was in terms of market dominance and pop culture saturation prior to The Avengers in 2012 and especially their triple whammy of Inside Out, Age of Ultron and The Force Awakens in 2015. Back in 2011, Pixar, Disney and DreamWorks were toe-to-toe.
Jennifer Yuh Nelson’s Kung Fu Panda 2 (DWA’s best movie and my personal pick for the best “big” movie directed by a solo female filmmaker) earned solid reviews and earned $665 million worldwide on a $165 million budget, while Puss In Boots earned decent reviews (I found it delightful and a visual nirvana) and earned $555 million on a $130 million budget. Fun fact: It opened slightly lower than hoped in late October 2011 with $34 million but then dropped 3% for a $33 million second-weekend. Among all non-holiday weekend holds (IE where the second weekend didn’t fall on Thanksgiving, Christmas, Memorial Day for Shrek or Mother’s Day for the film Mother’s Day), that’s still a record drop for a 3,000-plus screen release. This was right when Paramount was king (Transformers, Star Trek, Paranormal Activity, the pre-Avengers MCU, DreamWorks Animation from 2006 to 2012, etc.) of the blockbuster mountain.
DreamWorks now belongs to Comcast/Universal, where it cannot help but feel like a second banana alongside Illumination (which usurped DWA as Disney’s biggest rival). Paramount lost DWA to Fox, Marvel to Disney and watched as their more homegrown franchises (including briefly successful G.I. Joe and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchises) whither away. I don’t expect Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, which details our hero trying to make the most of his ninth and final life, to be anywhere near as successful as its predecessor. Even prior to Covid, nobody was expecting The Croods: A New Age to match the $587 million-grossing The Croods. To the extent that Puss In Boots played like a four-quadrant affair in 2011, The Last Wish will almost certainly, like The LEGO Movie 2, The Angry Birds Movie 2 and The Boss Baby: Family Business, be viewed as a “just for kids” affair.
Over/under ten-years-later sequels to Antonio Banderas movies can go either way (Once Upon A Time in Mexico > The Legend of Zorro), but nearly every DreamWorks Animation “part two” (save for Boss Baby: Family Business) has been better than the respective “part one.” Shrek 2 is the best of the franchise, as is respectively How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Kung Fu Panda 2 (the two best DWA movies in a walk). Madagascar actually improved with each sequel. Trolls: World Tour was better than Trolls and The Croods: A New Age (which earned $216 million worldwide despite near-concurrent VOD availability during some of the grimmest Covid-era conditions) is better than The Croods. Even Spirit Untamed is at least as good, however different in scale and scope, as Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. Let’s hope Puss In Boots: The Last Wish keeps that streak alive when it opens theatrically on September 23.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish poster
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