'Puss in Boots: The Last Wish' directors Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado on the 'Shrek' series, the power of animation, and the pitfalls of AI art

• "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" is our first return to the "Shrek" universe in over a decade.
• The film's mature storytelling and animation have earned "The Last Wish" widespread acclaim.

A bride abandoned at the altar. The inescapable claws of Death. A ruthless crime lord threatening to shoot a puppy. No, we're not talking about a Scorcese thriller. These are all plot points from "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish."

The latest spinoff from DreamWorks' wildly popular "Shrek" series follows the feline outlaw Puss in Boots on his quest for a magical wish to restore his wasted nine lives. Having garnered over four times its budget in ticket sales, rave reviews, and dozens of award nominations, "The Last Wish" hits a rarefied cinematic sweet spot: it's both popular and pretty damn good.

It's been over a decade since the first "Puss in Boots" film, our last foray into the "Shrek" universe. But in that time, the series hasn't lost any momentum. If anything, it's grown, as Shrek has evolved from a children's movie star into a bonafide meme juggernaut. (Though memes alone don't make for popular or good movies. Just look at "Morbius.")

Since its release in December, "The Last Wish" has been showered with praise for its innovative animation style and mature themes. It's a fantastic addition to DreamWorks' catalog and a great example of how non-Disney studios are pushing the boundaries of children's animation.

Ahead of the movie's home video release, Insider spoke to "The Last Wish" director Joel Crawford and co-director Januel Mercado about why they decided to focus on Puss in Boots instead of Shrek, the movie's dark themes, and its experimental style. We also touched on the controversies behind AI art, and why we shouldn't call it the future of animation.

The following interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

William Antonelli: "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" is the first entry in the "Shrek" universe in over a decade, yet Shrek himself only appears in the DreamWorks logo, and for about a second as a silhouette. Walk me through the thought process behind returning to this big universe with a Puss in Boots tale.

Joel Crawford, director: While we wanted to honor the legacy of the characters that we came from, there was just so much story to tell. Puss in Boots is such a beloved character in the "Shrek" world. It started with the premise of this movie, being a cat on the last of his nine lives. In that premise, there's such a big story to tell. We wanted to make this story feel like an appreciation of life, and a celebration of the life we can live and who we can share it with. We didn't want to do anything that distracted from that big story.

Januel Mercado, co-director: There's that thing in media where there's fan service for things that you just want to see. You brought up our very quick Easter Eggs, like seeing Shrek very briefly. We're always talking about how we want to do this tastefully and honestly, where you pay homage, and you address this nostalgia that we all have, but you don't want to take away from this being a "Puss in Boots" movie.

Antonelli: Was there any executive pressure to include Shrek or the other bigger characters in this universe?

Crawford: It was a very open conversation with the studio. From the very beginning we all agreed on the journey of this movie were committed to expanding expectations of what this movie could be. We've not only switched up the visual style to be like you're in this impressionistic fairytale painting, but we've pushed the animation style, and we've taken on new inspirations from Grimm fairytales that hit darker tones.

We had this ambitious goal of having the audience go on this rollercoaster ride that expresses the full spectrum of life, going from joy, to trust issues, and then to connections we can have and appreciation.We all had our eye on the prize from the beginning.

Mercado: To go back to these little cameos, or references to our existing Shrek characters, it's always in service of the story. You see the silhouettes of Shrek and Donkey, and the story behind that is that it's Puss's lives flashing before his eyes. And then the cameo of Gingy [The Gingerbread Man], it's during a flashback showing Puss wasting his life. And the fun Pinocchio appearance provides the backstory to Jack Horner and his motivation for being a butthole [laughs]. There's always a reason behind it, it's not just to plop it in.

Antonelli: Staying on a similar topic, "The Last Wish" delves into some pretty dark themes. Is there anything you wanted to put into the movie that ended up getting cut for being too mature, too dark?

Crawford: There is the rated R cut of this movie! [laughs] We set out to tell the story as a comedy, and I feel like we succeeded in that, with some other tonal introductions. For us, it was all about making sure everything is authentic. We didn't put darker moments in for shock value. For example, when Puss is confronted by the bounty hunter Wolf at the bar, we kept reworking that scene, trying to find the right emotional reaction.

Puss in Boots is such a big hero. He sings a whole song about it! It takes a lot to knock him down, to wake him up, to make him feel fear and run for the first time in his life.

So we kept pushing further, just to find that emotional response that not only made Puss understand the stakes, but also make the audience go from feeling like they're in a fun fairytale to realizing the stakes of the movie, too. Everything was for the end goal of wanting people to feel the joy and celebration of what life can be. If you want them to experience the light, you have to dip them into the dark for a little bit.

Mercado: Of course, we always like to go too far, so there was probably slightly more cussing, and maybe a lot more violence and death, but just to see how far you could push it. It was part of our process to dial it back and to find the balance, where you still get the stakes without being gratuitous.

Antonelli: Touching on what you mentioned about the movie's visual style, Joel… Over the last few years, Sony and DreamWorks have really started to break the CGI mold, experimenting with animation and art styles a lot more. We have "Into the Spider-Verse," "The Mitchells vs. the Machines," of course "The Last Wish —"

Crawford: "The Bad Guys!"

Antonelli: There you go, exactly! What do you think is inspiring this sudden push for style experimentation in mainstream CGI?

Crawford: As artists, we've all been inspired by so many different outlets for so long. Being either the traditional Nine Old Men, hand drawn Disney animation, anime, the European animation. There's so many inspirations that we're excited to bring into the storytelling.

What we've seen is that studios have become confident in breaking away from the traditional expectations of what a CG animated movie can be. And in doing so, for us as filmmakers, we don't just do it because we think it's cool — like, "That'd be cool if it looked like a fairytale painting," or "That'd be cool to use stepped animation that's more hand drawn." Everything is for a story reason, and when you can make more specific choices, you're expanding the tools in your tool belt to bring the audience into a story that is unlike anything they've ever experienced.

Mercado: It's really cool. I do keep hearing audiences, and especially animation fans say, "Wow, this is another example of how you can do anything in animation." Like Joel was saying, when Shrek came and he had those early CG movies, I remember when I first saw "Shrek" I was like, "Whoa, this is so cool, look how realistic it is, look at the pores on that ugly guy's face!"

Having seeing the revolution of it, where realistic [animation] is better, it's cooler and more impressive, we're now coming back to these 2D elements. It's more impressionistic, more graphic. Being able to push these mediums, I could feel my brain expanding and these doors of perception opening.

Crawford: When you think about the first "Shrek" movie, it was not only visually new to audiences with CG animation, but it was pushing the boundaries of what comedy could be for an animated movie. It was all of a sudden for adults and kids, and I think what we wanted to do is not just push things in animation, but show that animation can take on subject matters for all ages as well, like anxiety, fear, and connections.

Animation is such a beautiful art form that has the ability to bring together people from all walks of life, all different ages and put them into a fictional character's point of view where they experience an emotion together. That's what we were really excited to do, just really keep pushing the boundaries of what animation can be.

Antonelli: Absolutely. Speaking about the future of animation, we're currently witnessing the start of what could end up being an all-out war between animators, artists, and artificial intelligence. Many AI evangelists claim that the rise of AI-generated art is going to "level the playing field," while many artists say that it's going to push them out of the industry. What's your take on AI art and animation, and do you agree with the points raised on either side?

Crawford: Tools for how we express things continue to advance. The reason we watch movies as human beings — the reason we've always had storytelling — is that we have a desire as humans to escape to fantasy to help understand our reality. And as human beings, we use lots of technology to express human emotions.

But for me, a scene — for example, the panic attack in our movie — is something that was not generated by technology, but generated by our collective human experience. We came up with the idea that Puss needs to feel fear. Antonio Banderas [Puss in Boots' voice actor] and our writer brought their own points of view to that scene and elevated it. Our story artist brought his own panic attack experience into it, and so on and so on.

That's something that, in my opinion, cannot be replaced. And at the point it's replaced, I say, why are we telling stories if we're not human beings connecting to each other?

Mercado: Yeah, why aren't we working on the next robot that will direct our movie for us? [laughs]

Crawford: Ooh! [laughs]

Mercado: Ooh, vacation!