Guillermo del Toro made a big statement about animation at the 2023 Golden Globe Awards and, surprisingly enough, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish proves its legitimacy. At the 2023 Golden Globe Awards, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature, which marks del Toro’s first Golden Globe win since The Shape of Water. Upon receiving the award, del Toro gave an emotional speech about how strong a year 2022 was for cinema which, according to him, also meant it was a good year for animation because “animation is not a genre for kids, it’s a medium”.
Guillermo del Toro’s Golden Globes defense of animation calls attention to one of the biggest areas of discourse surrounding the medium: whether or not animation is only for a younger audience. While animation certainly is often used for TV shows and movies designed specifically for kids, it is no less capable of reaching wider audiences than something made in live-action. Examples like Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Studio Ghibli’s film catalog are all famous for how popular they are with both children and adults, and another movie that adds to the idea of animation’s universal appeal is, oddly, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.
