The tail-end of 2022 brought to the big screen a surprise smash-hit in the form of the Shrek spin-off Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. It's success is easy to verify based on its immense popularity online as well as it being runner up for this years Best Animated Feature at the Oscars, but what are the appeals of the poster that was released for the movie?
The movie, like any other, has several posters. I have selected this one for my analysis, starring our titular protagonist, Puss in Boots, standing in front of a large, glowing, stylised P, the characters iconic signature from his appearance in the Shrek franchise. The presence of the main character, as well as how brightly coloured he is, is likely to straight away attract a younger audience, likely between the ages of 5-18, as well as the fact that the movie is marketed as being from "The Fairy Tales of Shrek". This textual code, however, has another audience it can attract of older teenagers or even young adults in their 20s, as Shrek is now a 22 year old franchise, and many who grew up with his films would likely be adults, some perhaps even with their own children they may want to bring to see this film. As they say, a movie for younger audiences needs to look appealing to the adults who bring their children to see it as well. There is another textual code below which reads "The Legendary Legend Returns". This also has more than one level of appeal as on one hand, some may find the repetition of 'Legend' amusing, but it also links to this movie being a sequel, meaning fans of the first Puss in Boots will be drawn in as they will want to see where the character is after we last saw him on the big screen in a solo movie in 2011.
Relating to the 4Cs model, the first group this will appeal to is obviously going to be the mainstream audiences. The movie is a sequel as well as a spin-off from a $4 billion tetralogy, as well as being an animated movie, which is typically associated with children. However, animation has been having a sort of renaissance in recent years, with films like Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse, The Mitchells vs The Machines and The Bad Guys being held in high regards for their creative art styles as well as the recently teased Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, so this may appeal to an explorer audience member who enjoys seeing unique animated films, and with the unique, watercolour-esque art style of Puss in Boots being somewhat present in this poster, it may hook them into a cinema seat to see it.
While the poster does not feature a cast as such, Puss in Boots is a character already present in media, so it is safe to assume that Spanish actor Antonio Banderas will return to play him. As well as this, the movie is a sequel so it would not be a gamble to assume that Mexican co-star Salma Hayek will also return from the first movie. This gives someone for those of Hispanic or Latino heritage to identify with, as Spanish protagonists are not super common in mainstream media. While this isn't featured in the poster itself, the movie does also feature a majority Latino or Hispanic main cast, giving even more to identify with as well as being set in a presumably Spanish or Portuguese speaking country due to Spanish being spoken by background characters. Of course, while the majority to see this movie will probably be white, it is likely to have a large Latino/Hispanic audience as well due to these factors.
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