Puss In Boots and The Three Villain Types | Puss In Boots : The Last Wish (2022) - Video Essay

spoiler warning this video will go over massive spoilers for Puss in Boots The Last Wish if you don't want to know what happens I highly recommend watching this awesome movie first before coming back to this no seriously everyone's right about it go see it Puss in Boots The Last Wish what can be said about it [Music] no really what can be said about it that hasn't already been said everybody loves this film and has analyzed it to death death from its animation Characters themes morals Etc leaving very few things to discuss however one thing I would love to talk about is how the movie handles its villains me talking about villains no idea what I would think of that yes everyone's also talked about the villains in this film I could list all the great videos out there but I'll be here until next week if I do that just look up Puss in Boots Last Wish villains and you'll find a bunch of really good videos about them so I ask myself what could I bring to the table well a couple things one naturally is my own personal thoughts on them and the other is to focus specifically on the type of antagonist each one is as the film surprisingly is able to incorporate several of them at once what do I mean by this well I want to analyze each character by dissecting what villain archetypes I think they best belong to how they serve the narrative and how they oppose the protagonists because believe it or not when it comes to antagonists in films there are many different types with their own terms and qualities that Define each one so with all that said and done let's go through each of them one at a time starting with those with the most amount of screen time and arguably the least bad foreign though all four are completely different characters they serve as the same type of antagonist they're established early on as a crime family which is an ingenious idea to keep up with the satirical nature of the Shrek universe and given their interest in needing puss's help at first the film makes it look as though they have some history with him or at the very least believe in its legendary status but once puss overhears them talking about the Wishing Star this sets him up on his journey to find it himself and claim back the eight lives he lost so he can preserve his legend in the film's narrative Goldilocks serves as a rival to put us in company given that they are both after the same thing but why I would categorize her is what I would call a mirror villain type someone who is on equal footing with the protagonist in almost every way both groups are usually evenly matched whenever they see each other what separates the two are both their methods of obtaining their goals and their individual motivations imposing Goldie's cases their unique wishes drive both characters in the same direction in a race to get what they desire both also keep said wish is secret from the others plus does so out of Shame while Goldie if anything does it to lead the Bears on into helping her but I will definitely argue there is a big parfa that doesn't want to hurt their feelings as her wish is to find what she would call a proper family of course her Arc in the film yes villains and antagonists can have their own arcs as well is about finding out that the families she sought after was right in front of her the whole time even though she doesn't truly realize this until the end this leads me to a second category I would personally classify her as the anti-villain this may sound odd but let me explain an anti-villain for those who don't know is when a villain or antagonist has a goal that may seem Noble or good but they have extreme means of obtaining it an anti-villain can also be when the character has an objective of a seemingly selfish nature but deep down they're not necessarily bad people and in some cases may be willing to work with the protagonist if their goals align the latter description certainly fits Goldilocks better though she and the Bears flaunt themselves as a crime family they are by no means purely evil villains we don't quite see the extent of the crimes they have committed but the most we see them do over the course of the film is they're making violent threats to setting up traps all of which are related to getting the wish have you perhaps seen him foreign out that each of their wishes are honestly pretty harmless All Things Considered goalie wants a real family papa wants to hibernate baby wants a purple suit for some reason and mama wants her daughter to be happy but once they have what they needed the whole time which is to say each other they end up teaming up with puss and the gang in order to defeat Jack Horner and destroy the Wishing Star as none of them truly needed it yeah after all that it is getting more and more difficult to straight up call them the villains on another note they're just so lovable the way they work together Baker and play off each other is just so funny endearing and even tear-jerking at times that I honestly was rooting for them several times to win Hell one last point I'll mention before moving on is how some people argue that Goldie and the Bears could potentially redeem themselves and change their ways and you know I can fully understand that we're left to wonder what will become of them at the end of the film and given how they all have what they need who knows what they'll make of themselves it wouldn't Shock Me in the slightest if we see them again only this time a family doing good things instead of bad now on to arguably the worst of the bunch foreign ER he is a villain plain and simple if I were to describe him to you right now these evil selfish not tragic not complex and irredeemable you might think he sounds like the most generic one-dimensional villain you've ever heard on in quite some time and you 'd be somewhat right to think that here's what's so bizarre at least to me that's why he's so great and oddly refreshing I'll refer to a quote I said in a previous video there has been a significant change especially in recent years to make villains more like a better word human it's become more and more common to see more three-dimensional villains with understandable motives actions they feel are Justified and of course a tragic backstory that sets them on their path I certainly stand by my statement but the most important thing is that it all depends on what kind of Stories being told as that will Define what kind of characters are needed within it and in this case we already have an antagonist that serves as a rival a mirror and equal with Goldie but as this is a story about cherishing what you have what was needed was a villain who was the complete opposite Jack Horner is what we would call a mustache twirler and it's exactly what it sounds like a stereotypical villain with no real motivation but to be evil yes he does have a basic goal motivated by a past event where he's outperformed by Pinocchio but it's so simple and so petty that it's funny he honestly makes Maleficent's motivation seem more credible by comparison and that's another big appeal to him he's a really funny character all of his humor is based around showing how awful he can be they take it to such an extreme level that you really can't help but laugh at it hell some of his funniest scenes involve him interacting with a parody of Jimny Cricket or Jimmy Stewart Cricket as I like to call him who spends his scenes trying to be his conscience but instead ends up being horrified with what a Despicable excuse of a human being he is you're horrible what took you so long idiot I'll also point out that Jack could have flicked him away at any point before then but instead he let him stay just to [ __ ] with him again that's so horrible that it's hilarious I can't help but feel that if he was handed over to another writer director or actor it probably wouldn't have worked as well I haven't even talked about what he wants yet basically he wants all the magic in the world for himself because he has a deep-rooted jealousy of magical beings that's it it's just pure selfish pettiness he is quite literally a man-child this simple motivation makes him serve as a main threat to all the characters not just puss and unlike Goldie his wish would be catastrophic to everybody and not to mention he has no empathy or morality thus making him the villain that bounces out all the other characters who at the very least learn and evolve from their Journeys to find the wish while he ends up suffering the consequences of his actions what did I do to deserve this I mean what specifically and now for the last one the one that clearly no one ever talks about or even remembers clearly foreign [Music] I am joking of course yes let's talk about death the one everybody loves and I do mean everyone and as you can guess so do I he's easily my favorite of the bunch but why is that well to stick to the theme of this video what I find really fascinating about him is that he's surprisingly difficult to place under one category or even two so here's how I view him as a villain this may sound pretty unusual but I consider death an inner antagonist what that means is an obstacle relating specifically to a flaw within the protagonist usually it is a fault they must learn from or a fear to overcome and this is quite literally puss's main driving force throughout the movie Death is the physical embodiment of that fear the fear of dying the inevitability of death itself all of which is perfectly personified in this character on top of that he is the first villain to show up and is the only one with a personal Vendetta against puss as opposed to the others who are merely obstacles competing with puss for the wish he isn't after the wish himself nor does he make any mention of it whatsoever despite his limited screen time death has the biggest impact as an antagonist towards puss every scene he is in every second he's on screen he's not wasted he serves his purpose and lives up to his name but here's what makes him even more interesting to me there's several ways you can look at death in one way he's merely doing his job as the Grim Reaper since puss starts out by throwing away his previous eight lives without any fear of consequence it is worth pointing out that there is nothing Noble heroic about any of Us's deaths they are all preventable and to be perfectly Frank quite stupid you think puss would have died each time doing something as The Fearless hero he's glorified himself to be but no that's not the case at all pussy's hubris makes him press his luck and brush off the idea of death like it's nothing because he lives in the delusion that as he says the legend will never die and in time however there is an oddly sadistic quality to death himself making him lean towards being a villain as he's targeting someone who is alive and well with the possible intent to just kill him so he doesn't have to deal with him wasting his lives away anymore he seems to enjoy the frill of the hunt hell even finding Delight in causing fear within puss like an addiction or a really sick joke taken to the extreme but then you could also make the argument that he's actually testing puss to see if he really deserves a chance at life to see if he can truly learn not to laugh in the face of death and cherish his life as most mortal being should because cats having Nine Lives is a ridiculous notion to death since they for some reason get so many chances at life in this film's universe whereas most beings have just won death is insulted by that fact but at the very least would tolerate it better if puss would learn to Value every single one of his lives but he doesn't at first and death takes it personally it's only until plus proves to him that he'll never stop fighting for the will to live instead of running away from the prospect of dying the death stops his Pursuit and the two-part ways with mutual respect even acknowledging that they will see each other again when the time is right [Music] foreign now to conclude this video I have one last question to ask how and why do all these villains work so well to me they work for two reasons one they are all simple and easy to understand each one is so well defined in their motivations and what they're willing to do to achieve their goals they make their intentions clear and straight to the point with very little information needed death as a looming personal threat to pus goldia's arrival and Jack as the worst human being you can possibly imagine the second reason is they each serve the narrative in their own way this is achieved by how well each one is categorized as an antagonist whether it's a mirror an inner antagonist or a straight-up villain they are tied in so well that it's impossible to imagine the movie without them and more importantly they completely support the themes and message of the film about appreciating what we have and to cherish the life we are given because it can easily be taken away or taken for granted unless you're Jack Horner who doesn't learn anything to put it best these characters are not too much nor too little in my humble opinion they are all just right [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Gab Art and Film

Views: 356,097

Keywords: puss in boots, puss in boots the last wish, puss in boots the last wish death, puss in boots the last wish reaction, puss in boots 2, puss in boots death, puss in boots jack horner, puss in boots the last wish review, movie review, video essay, dreamworks, dreamworks animation, shrek, puss in boots goldilocks, goldilocks, goldilocks and the three bears, puss in boots last wish, puss in boots the last wish shrek, puss in boots wolf, puss in boots the last wish wolf

Id: ptFoWfsuL98

Length: 13min 54sec (834 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 23 2023