Why SCARING Kids is Important - Puss in Boots: The Last Wish | Video Essay
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- Опубликовано: 13 мар 2023
- Puss in Boots is an American live action/computer-animated fantasy comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures. The film is a sequel to the 2011 film Puss in Boots, and explores important concepts like Death, Fear, and Abandonment.’
In this Puss in Boots Video Essay, we’ll explore how Scaring Kids and Scary Kids Movies are far more important than people might think. Using media to evoke fear in young people, but also teach them that they are capable of overcoming the things that frighten them, is something more Hollywood films should do. And this is why Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is as scary as it is wonderful.
I'm Dylan, and THIS is The Writer's Block
Music Credits:
Music by Slip.stream - chief. "new space" - slip.stream/tracks/ad8b1404-b...
Music by Slip.stream - Purrple Cat "Fake Mustache" - slip.stream/tracks/cb1dbdb2-1...
Music by Slip.stream - Kupla "Afterglow" - slip.stream/tracks/21508c7a-4...
Music by Slip.stream - Purrple Cat "Lullaby" - slip.stream/tracks/e0481ea4-0...
Music by Slip.stream - Purrple Cat "Nocturne" - slip.stream/tracks/ad616474-c...
Music by Slip.stream - Mu'gambi "Sunset in Ipanema (Por do sol em Ipanema)" - slip.stream/tracks/0563f1e3-d...
#whypussinbootsthelastwishissogood #pussinbootsthelastwishwhydeathissogood #scarykidsmovies #pussinbootsthelastwish #thelastwish #thewritersblock #pussinbootstherapy #pussinbootsthelastwishscaryscene #pussinbootsemotional #pussinbootsabandonmentissues #pussinbootscharacteranalysis 
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Should more Kids Movies be SCARY?!?
kids movies shouldn't be a thing, why should there be a distinction between kids movies and adult movies?
Well I mean like... there are definitelu movies you shouldnt show kids. Like i kniw what youre getting at and I agree movies for kids should also be quality enough to appeal to adults, but there definitely should be a distinction between movies that are ok for kids to satch and movies that arent
@@TheWritersBlockOfficial nope, no distinction
@@thejuiceking2219 lowkey tho your a forehead
@@thejuiceking2219 *adult movies saying the fucking n word*
I just LOVE that there were no jokes at Death's expense (except for his little angry outburst at the very end), he is portrayed completely straightforward, really makes him seem more menacing and every time he appears it's always tense
i think the outburst at the end is very fitting as a resolution (if we are talking about the "porque diablo yo estoy jugando con mi comida" that is)
And the joke near the beginning of him "wanting" Puss's "autograph", which was a good way to introduce his character and his intent with Puss.
neither of those are at his expense.
The angry outburst does show weakness, which is an expense. The joke with the autograph is a joke at PiB's expense, not death. And "porque diablo yo estoy jugando con mi comida" = "why the devil am I playing with my food", shows that he needs to get serious, meaning that this whole time he has had the power to just end PiB.
If Disney had made this movie, Kitty & Goldi would've teamed up to save Puss from Death, while making Death look like a bumbling idiot in the meantime.
@@boggless2771 Yeah in all fairness Death did "play with his food" hense the " I enjoyed the chase"
My theory is Kitty actually lied to Puss about her not coming to Santa Coloma to make Puss feel better. I mean, why would she be very mad at Puss up to that point if she didn't come either, and how would she knows that Puss didn't come if she wasn't there either.
This is probably the biggest problem in the movie, if she did show up, it wasn't well communicated that she was lying in the slightest, and if she didn't then it makes no sense for her to be so hostile towards puss.
@@Potatoboii2 probably cause puss didn't seek her out which probably was a hint for her and she knew puss very well, reading him like a book. Besides, it's still fitting for the movie, both acted preemptively.
@@carolthepyro899 Okay, say she ditched and knows puss did too, that makes her hostility even worse, because she is getting on puss's case for doing the same thing she did
@@Potatoboii2It's also possible that the writers added this part and couldn't afford to rework it. The anxiety attack scene was meant to be a scene where Puss ditches Kitty while she sleeps to go after the Star where he was discovered by Perrito. The details are unclear, but Perrito mentions how Kitty wanted to share a private island with Puss but Puss thought that she wanted to share it with "The Legend" and that he "would have nine lives" to make up for his betrayal, so they were probably planning to go in a very different direction with Puss and Kitty's relationship. They replaced the scene because it made Puss look too unsympathetic. Kitty's claim about not showing was meant to clarify two things: a) Kitty was someone in his life who wasn't interested in "The Legend" and b) Puss is his own "true love". Puss doesn't even argue with her regarding the matter, reinforcing her claims. The film's plot also revolves around Puss' self-perception, so the incident at Santa-Coloma was more likely only meant to reinforce the idea that he could have had a meaningful life without "The Legend" but whenever the opportunity arose "The Legend" was more important.
(If you're curious, the name of the deleted scene is called "Wall-O'-Snakes".)
@@ThePrincessCH Then that's another error arisen from cutting scenes out, one comes from when puss and kitty first escape with the map and get a trident thrown at them, this trident was supposed to be used in a scene where the pair would get away on a boat, been a while since I saw it so I don't remember why, but the thing is, Jack packs the trident into his bag (presumably for this cut scene) despite already having thrown it in a way it couldn't be easily retrieved. I love this film like heck, and it's probably my favourite since up in 2009, but it's beginning to seem pretty rushed in retrospect. Also I though wall o' snakes replaced the caves of lost souls.
My interpretation of Perrito is he always knew what the things they were doing to him were bad, but he doesn't tell the story that way so he doesn't burden people with his trauma. I think him having this unfortunate background is what pushed him to want to pursue being a therapy dog because he seemed very insightful when speaking to Goldi about her adoptive family. Perritio in my eyes is the personification of the quote from the late Robin Williams "I think the saddest people always try their hardest to make people happy." and I firmly believe his little cinnamon roll chooses to see the best in others trying to make their journey in life a bit better.
That's a great reference to Robin Williams! Speaks about Perrito really well!
The Robin Williams quote made me cry. Perhaps it's time for some introspection.
Perrito is a good boy
I think you nailed it
I absolutely agree! We never see Perrito alone. He is always around other people. So maybe his overpowering happiness is something he only acts out when others are around and that is what makes him such a good person. But when he is alone of his own, hes a little depressed potato.
Children need fear in their entertainment. Fear is a healthy thing to teach them, so long as it's done in a responsible way.
When I was a kid my mum read me Roald Dahl books, some of which had scary concepts like the witches or the giants from the BFG, concepts that sometimes children die, without it being gratuitous, in a way to create fear for a young mind.
Movies like Coraline, or ParaNorman are examples of introducing frightening concepts to children without the need of being graphic.
If you don't allow children to face fearful concepts in a healthy way growing up, they will never be prepared for when really tough things hit them later in life.
Exactly! It's not whether or not you're afraid, but what you do in the face of fear that matters
I remember reading the witches when I was 10 and was terrified for 2 weeks. Then read it again 2 more times immediately after that😂
Thats like coraline for me
Mattel and the writers should retain that in Thomas & Friends during the CGI series.
Not the Witches one. Too scary. I remember when I read it that I was scared the Witches would get me. It ended up with me beating up a Woman that fit the description in the book
I also love how Perrito never so stupid that he doesnt understand what is happening. even he got that Puss left Kitty at the altar and the way he says it makes clear he too thinks its a shocker. he also understands people want to kill him, like when Jack Horner points the crowsbow at him. He also joins the fight for the map. And he gets that Jack Horners wish is really bad.
He is not stupid, but just has a different perspective on things. And that is something I havent seen in a sidekick character for a looong time.
He was joking about Puss and Kitty how he never saw his Litter mates again
But against Goldilocks he recognized that he is an orphan
I feel like the writers really wanted to include jokes about a naive optimist trying to find the good in Jack Horner. But they didn't want to make Perrito into that character, because they wanted to treat Perrito's optimism seriously. They didn't want to take the cynical route of presenting him as a vulnerable idiot.
So they created the Ethical Bug to be the moral foil to Jack's blatant villainy, allowing Perrito to embody an actually healthy version of that optimism.
@@tbotalpha8133 Hadn't considered that, but yeah, that's a damned good theory.
very interesting character. he is simple but not foolish
@@tbotalpha8133true
Also in Puss in Boots 1, Kitty's backstory is revealed to be she was taken in and loved by a family after being a stray, but then they took her claws away. She FELT that betrayal of trust, and it carries over into this movie with new betrayals as well. Stellar writing, really.
lol don't forget that she also betrayed people who trusted her
Puss in Boots 2 is to fear what The Lion King is to grief. Yes, we need to expose kids to these emotions and how to deal with them. It’s much more entertaining to have a story with meaning and message anyway. Worlds with no problems are boring.
Oh snap, Lion King is such a great comparison! Good call
Yep lion king was about trauma death depression and so on I mean when he was rescued Simba wanted to move on until he dies 😬
Kids can handle anything you throw at them as long as you give them a happy ending. Excellent video, my dude 👍
Thank you!
What about Star Wars III XD
@@galakros That's more of a bittersweet ending. And the story wasn't over yet
I don't know, I remember a scary story I was told as a kid (8-9 years) that had a happy ending. Got me to start using a nightlight, and one of the first instances my family and I point to as proof of me not handling horror.
Don Bluth’s philosophy was this ^^^
I think something important too is that, to children, the world IS scary. Strangers can be scary. New places can be scary. School can be scary. Kids are scared of things that adults know are safe ALL THE TIME. They're still learning, it's part of growing! Movies that have an element of scaryness are so important for developing confidence and disconnecting fear from inaction.
What a great point! I was one of those kids who was terrified of talking to adults I didn't know for a long time. Acknowledging and accepting that kids are afraid of things is super important when it comes to teaching them to overcome said fear
Since when are Crocodiles a safe thing?
Yes, it's good if a movie shows scary thing and the protagonist being scared as well, as long as the story shows he the protagonist overcomes the fear. Bravery is overcoming fear, after all, not brainless non-stop snarkiness.
If you haven't or heard, Coraline is one of my favourite stop motion films and it terrified me with the other-mother spider form.
(Edit didn't expect to this amount of likes.
And thank you. 😊
I adore that movie
@@TheWritersBlockOfficial same 😁
It is one of my favourite movies!
@@Nidhiflix same
@@sagemaster1357 no just no, I had nightmare from that movie for quite som time😣
I always had severe anxiety growing up and “kids horror” media definitely helped me by giving me a safe way to explore the things that scared me. Doctor who, the twilight zone, scooby doo mystery inc, etc, really helped me as a kid that was scared of everything. It’s important for kids movies to explore a range of emotions to teach kids how to deal with them. That’s why when I saw people saying “puss in boots is way too scary for kids” I was confused. Not to mention horror aimed at a younger audience can often be even more scary than adult horror as it often focuses on psychological elements rather than just gore.
Hahaha, watching Scooby-Doo as an adult, I cringe at how dark the tropes actually are.
I couldn't agree more.
And oh man, your Doctor Who reference hit me hard. I introduced my boys to it (then 6,7), watching up to the season finale with 10, Rose, and the Daleks/Cybermen. I will never forget the three of us curled into a collective ball, crying our hearts out. And having to field the questions posed by my little boys after vicariously experiencing a loss of that magnitude.
Scary movies and shows, when done well, can be so so helpful and healthy.
And i think psychological horror might be more scary for children without them needing to realise it. They rekate unknwoingly
When I was young (maybe 10) the first Doctor Who that was introduced to me was the Weeping angels Blink episode. Now I was terrified of the dark for a lot of years. But honestly I am happy that I saw it.
That episode gets you psychologically and intellectually terrified
You say we need to see “the man behind the legend”, but actually he’s a cat.
He is featherless and a biped. I need not explain further
@@TheWritersBlockOfficial > Featherless
> Biped
THIS IS A MAN
The man behind the legend!? this is gonna make for a lot of FNaF jokes.
@@Lukkak09 Bro stop, please Matpats already on his way.
I honestly thought Kitty lied to puss about not coming to make him feel better after hearing how tore up he felt about it.
Yeah its ultimately not clear and I love that room for interpretation
I said the same thing to my wife. I think she lied as well.
I don't think she did. It would be counter to her character of being trusting and wanting to find someone trusting.
I think she knew that he didnt come on a deeper level than he did, which explains why she blamed him, even though she also didnt show up.
I can't believe how many people think she didn't show up.
I remember being a kid and "children's films" I watched had a lot of very dark moments. They stuck with me, but in a good way, teaching me things like courage or how to keep going.
Exactly!
Pinocchio scene scared me with the children smoking scene… damn i never touched a cigarred nowadays 😂
Woody’s nightmare scared me in Toy Story 2, my favorite Toy Story film. Even though I looove Toy Story 2, I still hate Woody’s nightmare.
as someone who has gone through adoption goldilocks story in this film always makes me tear up tbh
As an aspiring screenwriter, I noticed the majority of my stories are almost always about found families at their core. Which I was always confused about cause I have a really wonderful and positive biological family of my own. Going through life though, I've realized that my family isn't wonderful and positive because we're related, but because they're good people who choose to support and care for others. We're related by blood, but family by choice. That choice is what's important, and the Goldilocks storyline really emphasizes that. Incredibly well integrated into the movie, and consistently gets me choked up when I think about it for too long (which is all the time because it's just so darn good).
It reminds on penny from the rescuers she also had a bad time with the adoption and even got told by the villain Medusa that no one would ever adopt her it's so sad
I've said for years that kids are smarter than people seem to give them credit for. I feel like so many people don't remember what it was like to be a kid, which makes me sad.
A lot of people lose empathy for groups they are no longer a part of sadly
Proof that just because a movie has a PG rating doesn't mean it's just for kids
PG means it's for older kids (8+)
@@maevblog9955 They shouldn't be treated as a "kids movie" though
It **is** for kids. But it still handles mature themes and is worthy of respect. Just because it is kids media doesn’t mean it can’t tell a compelling or thoughtful story-in fact, the best kids media often does just that. It respects its audience even if they are children ❤ and I think that’s an important distinction
@@forresttherunner4092 It's a FAMILY movie. It's for the whole family. The Shrek Films, and the Puss In Boots films by extension, have always been made for adults and minors.
@@the_furry_inside_your_walls639 you’re right! The term completely slipped my mind but that is exactly it!! Yes 👏
Kids absolutely need more scary material. I’m not for this whole thing of “what if we traumatize them?” when that’s not what the word means. That entails actual events happening directly to you, and fiction has been proven it will not affect you the same way. If it did, _nobody_ on earth would ever be able to read or watch anything. I saw scary things in movies and was fine. While not all children are the same, it allows them to experience uncomfortable emotions in a safe environment. This video needs way more views, as this is an imperative part of childhood that lots of folks want to remove altogether. Great work!
Let me tell you about Struwwelpeter
don't get me wrong, you're generally right, but seeing something that isn't specifically happening to you can still be traumatic. thing is, kids are a LOT tougher than they're given credit for and it can be very patronizing to try to hide them from ever feeling fear. I mean, if death wasn't so damn intimidating in this movie, where would the plot even _be?_ the hard fact that there are some genuinely scary things in life is very present here, but also not presented as some kind of pessimistic mess. the whole movie is about accepting that fact and not allowing it to stop you from living a good life. that's a DAMN good message to make, especially for kids
but if a 5 year old saw kekma, yeah I could see that seriously messing them up lmao
Tough them the fuck up and not make grown to be complete pussies, not fully grasp the the gravity of "consequences" and not be too naive about life as a whole is actually insane and need able to deal with it if you care enough. Gotcha.
Agreed. I think as long as that safe environment is upheld. It's fine if a child doesn't consent to being subjected to something they already know they do not like. And parents and people that think it "toughens them up" aren't giving them that safe space to actually process and understand. Different kids will react differently and that's okay. If they need a hug or a teddy bear and don't want to watch anymore, that's just as fine as a kid being super interested and buying all the goosebumps books they can get their hands on. People have different ways of dealing with things that scare them. So long as the child is respected for their interpretation, I'm all for content being a wide array of options, including stuff that is utterly terrifying, even as an adult.
Also, trauma itself is a very loaded term. I can say for certain that I was traumatized by meant for kids scary stuff as a kid. But that trauma is very different than trauma given by trusting someone and being hurt by them or going through an event that causes permanent and difficult to process responses that impede your life quality.
Bad things happen. Learning how to deal with bad things happening is an important life lesson. If media can preemptively teach that lesson and that courage is not absence of fear, but judgement that something is more important than said fear, then I'd say it has a duty to do just that.
If nothing else, we need two varieties of trauma. The one that sits with you from outside sources such as uncomfortable ideas found in media and one that actually changes how you function and process things from that point onward for the worse.
Trauma doesn't necessarily have to be actual events, it can be the threat of things happening. I think it comes down to delivery and environment. If an environment does not have the needed support, if it does not keep things safe so they can experience and work through all those emotions, if exposure to fear-inducing content is reinforced and unchecked, if those fears are treated as real, when they may not be, then you aren't providing an environment for them to build an inner sense of security, that can lead to all sorts of problems.
90s kids.... we have courage the cowardly dog to thank for scaring the shit out of our pants lol... that show literally made me know what terror is as a kindergartener. not just the jump scare kind of terror... like literal absolute fear
Ah yes
The reason elementary school me couldn’t sleep for a week
Like when I first saw stranger things in high school
It wasn't particularly scary, but I did feel uneasy watching it as a kid.
At the end of the Scooby Doo Alien Invaders VHS, The Curse of Ramses II would play. I'd always fall asleep part way through scooby and wake up terrified to *return the slaaab*
To offer another perspective, I think it's important to acknowledge that different kids have different ways of processing those things. As an adult, when I got through fear, it's not addictive to me in the same way I know it is for others. I just feel sick and depressed imagining people dying needlessly. I know it's fake, but all I think about is actual instances of people being killed in real life. When I was a kid, I felt very much the same and therefore didn't handle depictions of gore, violence and death at all because I didn't understand why anyone would want to explore those topics when I was aware that it existed in real life. It all just felt like a nightmare coming in to remind me that it is reality.
But now, I understand humans better. I understand that we purposefully engage in safe spaces with trust and consent to all kinds of topics we otherwise fear, and rightly so. It's why horror is so popular in general. Courage the cowardly dog was an exploration of that, but for me, I didn't feel like I was in a safe space. Other kids seemed to fully understand that it was for them.
I don't think there is anything that can be done and I'm not saying that shows like it shouldn't exist. I've seen plenty of people talk about the lessons they learned watching and how they appreciate that it wasn't ironically afraid to make them afraid.
I just wish for my younger self that I could have known, because I didn't experience positive things from it. Perhaps because what I was going through was a nightmare itself that I was unaware of.
That said, return the slab, or suffer my curse.
@@chelscaradid you return the slab
It’s so refreshing hearing someone else in the favor of movies scaring children. (Scaring, not traumatizing. Not all fear leads to trauma in general, fear is healthy.) And the way you deconstructed this movie was done so seamless, subbed ✌️
Thank you so much! And the distinction between fear and trauma is a great point that really eloquently points out the difference between unhealthy and healthy exposure for children. Like, a five year old doesn't need to see Saving Private Ryan. That won't do anything but harm. But they're can be dark elements in their media that has complexity and depth
Something I've been wondering is, what exactly is the difference between scaring kids and traumatizing them? Like, how do you scare kids without going overboard?
@cervushericium Oh! Ok! That's... a lot more simple than I thought it was gonna be. ^^;
I feel like though he’s now irrelevant, Humpty still plays a huge part in the story, not by physically being there but by of course his legacy, he wasn’t just an antagonist or Puss’ rival, he was the first person he let into his life and vowed to be with, being brothers in each other, and despite their loose connection, both him and death are the only people to draw blood from Puss and coincidentally stalked him his whole life without him knowing and the climax of revealing their true intentions with him in their respective stories, their blood moments also kicks the relationship off because of that, so when he was betrayed by Humpty and Kitty, Puss now lives with that regret, though he didn’t lose a physical life, he lost the one he had in San Ricardo and the goodwill of the people, so in retrospect, it kinda enhances the first movie by building off those subtle ideas
Underrated comment.
Humpty in general is kind of an underrated villain. He has a believable fall from grace and redemption arc in the span of a couple minutes, with none of it feeling contrived or like it came out of nowhere (looking at you, Disney) because of how well the plot points are set up beforehand. Like, he's one of those twists you see coming because all the clues are there, but it could've just as easily been played straight while still feeling credible. This is already a challenging thing to pull off, but more so with the time limit of a general audiences' film. People really overlook the first PiB movie and are sleeping on this character.
I never thought I would identify so much with Puss in Boots and cry multiple times with a Shrek spin-off but here we are. Excellent video 👌
Thank you!
As an adult, I liked feeling a sense of intimidation at the presence of the wolf, and I realised it was the first time in a long time that I felt similar while watching a family film. Sure, a great deal has to be that I'm not a kid anymore and I don't scared as easily, but I also think that kid's movies nowadays shy away from causing fear or discomfort, and thus they rarely make me take the conflict of the film seriously.
exactly! it's the difference between a KIDS film and a FAMILY film
@@TheWritersBlockOfficial I agree! To be clear, there's nothing wrong with light-hearted kid's films, but I think younger audiences need to be exposed to somewhat scary content too. Family films provide a safe environment were children can experience strong emotions and learn vicariously how to cope with them. Adults often underestimate kids. Kids like spooky stories, Halloween and such.
@@fcv4616 some do, like my sister
Then there’s me who cried during a Halloween party at my elementary school then was too scared to trick or treat with the neighbors cause he had a ghostface mask
And I had never seen anything Scream around that time since I couldn’t do horror at all
@@kitkitsune6570 To be fair, I could get scared kinda easily too as a kid. To this day, I don't love horror films. But overall I think they taught me to handle fear, and they influenced some of my own creative work. Variety is good for all audiences. Kids that dig that kind of content can watch more scary stuff, and those who don't can watch other things.
@@fcv4616 yeah
Now I don’t really get scared by much since I don’t express much emotion these days when I’m alone or with people I don’t know
You never tackled the tragic, heartbreaking backstory of Jack Horner and how he grew as a better person.
he's been a real boy the whole time
It's actually so sad, all he had were loving parents, stability, a mansion, and a thriving baked goods enterprise for him to inherit. Useless crap like that
It’s just as important as sadness and empathy. We need these emotions to help us grow into better human beings
Basically, dont condescend kids. They pretty smart
This is one reason why I show my little cousins studio Ghibli movies. When I was little I found most of them super scary especially Howls Moving Castle because of the war and the witch turning Sophie old and Spirited Away because I got so scared when the parents turned into pigs and also the situation that Chihiro had to go through. I love these movies even though they scared me as a kid and think they changed the way I saw movies. The same goes for a lot of Dream Works and Laika movies.
I still need to watch howls moving castle! But ghibil at least from an art perspective is easily one of my favorite studios
You won't believe it, but Spirited Away was the only movie that ever scared my own son. He found No Face extremely eerie, he was almost hysterical afterwards. With obviously scary movies, he only laughs and says that he is never afraid of them.
My parents introduced me to Castle in the Sky at size very small (No older then five, probably younger), and the scene with the robot both terrified and fascinated me.
And the villain. Full stop.
(If I have kids, I am _so_ introducing them to this film early.)
Do your little cousins like it? Just because you liked it doesn't mean they will and will handle the scary scenes like you did.
As a kid I watched Spirited Away and when I get to the part when her parents turned to pigs, I turned off the TV. Didnt finished the movie even to this day, Im now 20 years old xd. But on the contrary I also watched mononoke whitch was more terrifiing for me, but seen it aproximately year ago. But still, I cant handle any visual horror.
Fear has always been an important and integral part in stories like in fairy tales. Almost all fairy tales has something to scare children to teach them a lesson which works very well.
Also, "scary" scenes teach good lessons
Don't be overconfident, someone will best you (AND IT MIGHT COST YOU LIFE)
Don't trust strangers, don't follow them, don't take anything from them
Ask for help if you need it, don't be stubborn
Don't go into a frickin door to another dimension-
But the owl house 😭
Oh wait that’s a coralline reference isn’t it?
@@kitkitsune6570I think it’s both of those.
Fear is an important evolutionary tool. Fear is what keeps us alive and safe. If a child grows up never experiencing fear, they will make the very grave mistake of assuming that their world is safe, which makes the impact of eventual traumas that much more difficult for them to deal with.
Yep. And movies are great tool to show them that certain actions can and WILL have very unpleasant consequences, without putting the child itself in harms way. I mean, that´s what original fairy tails were for - teaching kids what not to do and what to avoid (Red Riding Hood? Don´t talk to strangers. Seven little lambs? Don´t open your door to strangers. Three little pigs? Do things properly. Etc. It´s only in modern times that we abandoned the teaching part and stuck only to entertainment.).
"Sometimes, fear is the appropriate response."
-1
Thanks for the discussion on the topic of fear of abandonment/rejection. That is something that I struggle with.
A fascinating (though albeit obvious perhaps) way to look at it: every character in the film is in one way or another, just a fairytale, even if they’re a background character. And fairytales are almost always portrayed with a happy ending. But Lobo-DEATH- is no fairytale. We can’t hide from death like a child hiding under the blanket from the monster in the closet or under the bed. Death isn’t just some bad dream you can brush off. It’s reality. For as supernatural as he appears, Lobo is ironically the only truly real entity (if one wishes to call it) of the story, as Death’s personification. And just as he haunts Puss, sometimes only appearing in flashes and in his peripheral vision, Death haunts us too, sometimes as silent as a wispy breeze, and other times as loud and noticeable as the biggest crash of thunder. And we have no choice but to bestow death our highest respects, for simple carelessness, such as laughing in the face of death, only brings it that much closer until it eventually claims you. And that subconscious fear and understanding is truly terrifying just to accept, and makes Puss’s story that much more relatable
Death is more real than all of us. He or it rather is an abstract being, a self-aware living idea and fact of life that exists everywhere at everytime.
The scariest movies I watched as a kid were The Brave Little Toaster and The Rats of NIMH. Come to think of it, The Brave Little Toaster dealt with the issues of rejection and loneliness, but the only thing I learned from it as a kid was that it gave me nightmares. To this day, I can't bring myself to rewatch either of them.
I wasn’t so terrified, really. Maybe growing up on scary movies and horror cartoons desensitized me to this kind of stuff, but I love what they did with Death Wolf.
Yeah but this video is not about terrifying us adults really, it's about terrifying the movie's targeted audience
Kittys fear is definitely explained by how her owners (which in the story lore could double as her PARENTS) chopped off parts of her paws and disabled her, only to abandon her.
DUUUDE. One of my favorite childhood movie was THE INCREDIBLES, and while it isn't scary, it is a mature film. Watching it now as an adult alongside the sequel I can identify several tropes (like the Super's genocide, and Helen's suspicions of an affair) that didn't hit me as a kid, BUT I WAS ABLE TO UNDERSTAND. The sequel really did toned down on those kind of tropes opting for a more childish interpretation of parenthood and various social issues, which obviously upset me. I'm totally on board with treating kid's intelligence with the respect it deserves, and while making kids movies more scary or adult can be quite difficult, we can all agree that the best kids movies ever are made to be stuck with kids all the way into adulthood. THAT makes a classic.
EXACTLY! A bad movie is just the surface. A Pretentious movie is only the depth with nowhere appealing to dive in. A good movie has it all, and is appealing to many ages and many rewatches
"They will kill you, if they get the chance. Do not give them that chance." I'll never forget her saying that to her kids, highlighting that these were not Saturday morning cartoon villains, they were real and they needed to protect each other and run when they can.
Not to mention in The Incredibles 2, the ScreenSlaver was beyond dark.
Its amazing what framing does. Like the movie doesnt focus too much on the darker aspects, but if you actually think about the implications, man its creepy
There’s also a cartoon called “Grossology”, which felt like a mix of The Incredibles and Kim Possible. The show involves two teenage siblings, Ty and Abby Archer, who solve cases that are too gross for many and try to face off against gross villains like Insectiva, Lance Boil, Sloppy Joe, etc. There was a VERY terrifying backstory about a villain named Fartor. His backstory involved his brother pranking him with his farts making him smell them, thus making him breathe farts after his spirit was broken. Heck even he made Ty turn evil in a two-part episode by forcing him to smell his farts for a long time enough to make him into “Far-Ty”, getting that same weird ailment that Fartor had. But then of course at the second part of the extended episode, he returns to normal breathing the sweet fresh air once again, out of Fartor’s grasp. Loved Grossology, but man that backstory was scary. Fartor’s story hits as hard as a death whistle.
I always appreciate PG rated films that aren't scared to frighten their audience, especially children lol
This movie is brilliant and holds back few punches when it comes to the subject matter. To make a movie about DEATH that's open to the viewing of kids (I refuse to call this a kids film btw) is one of the gutsiest things a movie company can do.
I agree more PG rated movies should be "scary" and willing to strike effect into the viewers who watch it, because that's part of what made this movie so incredible!
Mama Bear is simply too pure.
The best
Puss panting in fear against the tree was one of the best scenes of tension and release every made. You could feel the tension in your seat and understand exactly what Puss was feeling before, during and after the dog came to calm him.
This statement and overall essay are most definitely true. Especially when some of the best films I've seen in that era of those said films, like Labyrinth and The Neverending Story, include films from one of my all-time favorite animators, Don Bluth, with his films like The Secret of NIMH and his 2 works with Steven Spielberg, my personal favorites, An American Tail and The Land Before Time. Where Bluth, himself, puts it best, "You could show a kid anything, just as long as it has a happy ending." Which that same statement can apply to both his animation, the other aforementioned 80's movies, and especially this film.
I recently submitted a paper to my professor that a expresses a theory of mine. Because we are programmed for self preservation, I believe that we have this instinctual need to test our selves physically, mentally, and emotionally, so that we can be prepared for some hypothetical danger. I believe that the entertainment we consume is meant to fulfill this instinct, whether they be sports and games or scary movies.
We function off of peace, but strive off of conflict. Entertainment provides us controlled conflict to conquer.
@azazel grigori great comment 🙏🤘
7:34 my dad said that Kitty was changing her side of the narrative to give Puss an out.
Might be. It all comes down to interpretation.
When I was a kid I watched the hunchback of Notre Dame (in RE no less) and just thought it was a cool movie. I didn't think about how dark it is or anything like that, I simply enjoyed the way the pictures moved and came to life.
There's a reason books like Goosebumps were/are so popular among children
I remember how terrified I was of A Christmas Carol starring Jim Carrey. Why did that movie take such a dark and scary tone
That whole story is basically: "Let's terrify Scrooge into becoming a nice person." Like, it's effective, but why does the viewer also have to be terrified :)
Honestly, a lot of iterations of that film are pretty darn dark. The old one from the 1951 version is still in my opinion the darkest one I've seen. Especially with the detail about the children of want and ignorance. Two children that are under the robe of one of the spirits. In which Scrooge asks "Have they no refuge?" And the jolly pleasant character of Christmas present to which the children cling to says a creepy line in which he repeats Scrooges words back at him to really make him aware of his callousness up till that point "Are there no prisons, are there no work houses?" And it echoes as the spirit's time is up and he's gotten older and older and then disappears.
This line is also in the original writing by Charles Dicken's.
I think the one with Jim Carrey was trying to stick more into just how uncomfortable and sorrowful the tale actually is. Him being confronted with death at the end, but not just death, the realization that no one is there for him, no one cared or even liked him, that he'd die being unimportant or loved i what really gets him to change and along the way, he also actively caused suffering to others regardless of his intent to just be selfish and a curmudgeon, but otherwise "harmless".
As a young adult writer, I strongly agree. I wrote my books not just for younger kids, but for everyone at all ages.
When Puss trapped himself on the bathroom of the pub and the camera focused on the toilet, me and my sister just went "yep, that's it" like, it was such a scary scene that if I was in his place I would have gone down the toilet too in a blink of an eye because it clearly was the nicest option.
"Kitty is also afraid of attachment because it gives people the chance to hurt her." The first family she was close with had her declawed, leaving her with possible chronic pain and trouble with EVERYTHING since then. I can't say I blame her for taking a while after that to warm up to PiB again
As someone who has a found-family, rather than living with and being close to my biological family, goldy's acceptance of her found family made me feel so validated. So often as a child, I would see a perfect family on tv, a mother, a father, and their child/children. My whole life my thought process was "That is a real family" or "That should be me" but it wasn't and dealing with my parents' abandonment was made harder by the fact I saw such happy 'perfect' families on tv. But seeing goldy and the three bears as a family. It made me cry, not because it upset me, But because I finally saw that a family isn't just your blood, but the ones who love you.
Exactly! I'm fortunate to have a really positive relationship with my biological family, so I always felt weird about being so drawn both as a writer and audience member to found family narratives. But as I've gotten older, what I've realized is my biological RELATIVES made the CHOICE to be a FAMILY. As such, I've really made it a point to either welcome others into that family, or create found families of our own in addition to my biological relatives.
Love can come from anybody, anywhere. But it takes time to learn how to receive and provide it in a healthy manner.
Thanks for sharing your story!
As someone who has had to cut certain parts of my blood family out of my life for good, this could not ring truer. Family is the one you approve of. The one who loves you and cares for you. Not who you were born to or whom you are forced to be around.
I'm so glad you felt that validation and are able to see that you are loved and wanted for you with the family you found.
I've watched so many analysis videos on this movie, and it's quality speaks volume by the shear number of individual theme it brings to the viewers.
Slightly related, although probably not at all... when I saw the first Shazam movie in the theater, a couple of kids started crying because of how scary the Seven Deadly Sins were, and I was like, "Hey, that's pretty rad." It's a bit messed up, it's a PG-13 movie afterall, but that really is the catch-all for families because it's not too tame for teens and older kids, but just edgy enough for younger kids to feel more grown up (I know I bragged plenty of times that I saw my first PG-13 movie when I was 5, it was the newly released VHS of Godzilla 1998 and I still love that movie to this day.), and I thought it was pretty cool that this movie about kids becoming superheroes could be scary. Doesn't hurt that the director also worked in horror, but like, it's the Seven Deadly Sins, they should be scary, and I'm glad they were. I'm not out to scar children, but hopefully it made a lasting impact because after all, the kids became superheroes and confronted their fears and in a way overcame temptations.
Anyway, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish was great, and there were moments where I was genuinely concerned for our heroes, my heart was racing a few times, which is definitely some great storytelling. I would not have been surprised if Puss had actually died, even if he had learned his lesson, but he just became content with the fact that his time had finally come, and I would have balled my eyes out.
Gotta say, that Mama Bear scene hit me pretty good.
As it should
it makes absolute sense to feel emotions like that in a story at home /cinema in a safe environment and work through them without being yourself in that situation (and eventually be overwhelmed and confused if it happens to them unannounced in real life unprepared)
As a parent of young children, I think about this often. My oldest is only 3, but I already let her see movies with more mature themes. (Lion king is her favorite) I think suspense, danger, fear and even death are all good things for her to see. However even as she grows up I will not be showing her evil things. True horror, graphic and over the top violence have no benefit for younger eyes I think.
Exactly! I think there's a balance of exposing your child to THEMES and EMOTIONS, without showing them EXPLICIT CONTENT. Like, I don't believe there's anything wrong with gratuitous violence or horror in movies, but that's why they're for adults. Another commenter put it well by saying there's a difference between exposing children to fear and traumatizing them, which is the line I think parents should always respect, and it sounds like you're doing just that, so great job!
This video calls me out in so many ways... especially with this "avoiding being vulnerable and letting people in your life, out of fear of being hurt and rejected"
My bad
10:04
I think this is a lesson about being blind to the things that are in front of us. We all have our problems, we all let our feelings and trauma effect us in ways we are never aware of. We all just want to be happy, and in that search for happiness, we become blind to the things that could potentially bring us that happiness we desire.
My favorite part about Goldi's story plot is that when she was reading the Fairy Tale book in their house illusion, the book, in reference to her one true wish, reads as follows from the first letter of every paragraph:
Y
O
U
A
L
R
E
A
D
Y
H
A
V
E
I
T
and much like audience who likely never would notice this, Goldi completely missed the message as well, even when the universe itself (or the Wishing Star) was trying to tell her she already has what she is looking for.
Oh snap thats such a cool detail! Thank you for sharing
Bro, I grew up on stuff like The Neverending Story, Dark Crystal, Nightmare on Elm street. I'm glad to see films like this one return to treating the audience, big and small, with respect.
Too much media today is watered down condescending garbage. My hope is that this film will send ripples through future productions and show them that it's okay to go this far.
Great job reviewing the deep messages of the film. I didn't think deeply enough that Puss cared about his legend so much that he secretly has a fear of abandonment and lonliness. He cares about his legend reputation so much that he is obsessed with being loved by everyone because thats how he grew up to be, because he rather to be loved or hated instead of trust and being trusted
"...being put in situation I was actively afraid of: Being Kidnapped, Fighting Monsters, Seeing David Bowie In Leather..."
Instant Classic.
So, you could also say that more kids need to see “Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island” that one is terrifying
Or the Greek episode from be cool scooby doo that thing is scary when she's angry 😥
It’s not necessarily fear that needs to be in more movies(though it should be considered a viable tool) but simple surface ideas with complex overtures to make it easier to digest
It’s probably not a coincidence that the three bears are in the movie considering that it has puss going through two different extremes of life and only finding happiness when he finds balance between them
When he was “hot” he was living only for the moment with no value for his life but his encounter with the wolf only had him go to the other extreme “cold” where he stayed alive for some nebulous future, it was only after choosing the “just right” to live for a future that he found his enlightenment
I agree so much that it's necessary to let kids experience negative emotions like fear through media because it's safe and prepares them for it in real life. I remember even some of the older Winnie the Pooh shows had episodes that used to scare me as a kid. I enjoyed rewatching them until I wouldn't be scared anymore.
The movie poohs grand adventure does that too
@@TheWritersBlockOfficial Yeah, it also did that!! Thanks for telling me the name, I forgot it!
Fun fact: that was my favorite of the Winnie the Pooh movies as a kid.
Then whatever you do, steer clear from Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, a shameful remake!
@@disneyparksstarwarslover7638 lmao yeah, that's the exception 😭
Bad news is…steamboat willie is getting a horror film. 😢
This might be my favorite review of the film so far. The way you talk about each characters' stories with care and analysing the main core of each one of them.... It's incredible ❤️
Thank you so much! That really means a lot and I'm so glad you found the video meaningful!
Family is probably my favorite theme in all of storytelling. Found family, sticking by your family, learning to communicate with them better, learning to understand each other, never giving up on them, all good stuff.
Scar terrified me as a kid , I came to appreciate him more when I grew up !
Man, the Disney Rennaisance villains are some of the best in cinema. Certainly some of the most iconic. Granted, its a whole bag of worms when you get into the issues of queer-coding and the ethics of all that, but regardless - s tier through and through
I was terrified of Ursula Cruella Maleficent and the Horned king and Jafar I was such a scaredy cat
I remember Tai Lung, and the escape scene, as terrifying as it was, is the best prison escape I have ever seen in a movie until today. It says something about scary villains, right?
PLEASE make a video about The Brave Little Toaster! It's a genuinely terrifying movie that I watched over and over as a kid! It wasn't even made for kids to begin with. The original target demographic was for college students and it shows! This movie does NOT shy away from scray imagery and themes. The wilting flower, the nightmare Toaster has about the killer clown and drowning in the bathtub, Kirby having a panic attack after seeing the giant waterfall, Lampy getting struck by lightning, the appliances witnessing the death and dismemberment of the blender, the B-Movie song, the junkyard "Worthless" song, THAT DAMN MAGNET, Toaster being CRUSHED by the gears of the crusher!! Like DAMN! It's a LEGIT horror film!! And yet Disney decided "yeah this is fine for kids to watch" and distributed the film anyway! Also it's a historically important film that never gets talked about. A lot of the people who worked on TBLT went on to found PIXAR!!
9:20 That Mama Bear bit sucker punched me. As a mom, any kind of "letting your children go" scene always hits right where I live.
We need more good parents in stories, especially movies. So often they get killed off or are the antagonists, or just get forgotten about by the movie. Showing/modeling healthy and positive relationships between parents and their children is so important, and it adds the opportunity for SOOOO much compelling character dynamics and emotional development
Minor nitpick, Toy Story 4 DID scare its audience. With the whole puppet thing. Was it the best way to be done? Was Puss in Boots 2 scarier? Those are entirely different questions (I know for sure that the unicorn horns making people explode was a bit more unnerving for me than Woody getting chased by puppets). But they definitely didn't keep the movie all happy-go-lucky.
In fact, Toy Story as a series has always had horror elements integrated into the story. That cymbal monkey from Toy Story 3 kept me up for a couple nights.
Very good video analysis though!
The difference is that the creepiness of the puppets isn't compelling in any way.
Sid's room was creepy af
@@wildmikefilms and compelling 😏👉👉
The cymbal monkey scared me since I hate random loud noises
Puss in boots just had normal villains, though Goldie was my favorite
@@kitkitsune6570 Same, that was definitely part of it, but I think it's more than just the loud noise that made me scared of it. If I may do an analysis...
First off, the design. Takes what we know about the toy and makes it more uncanny. The eyes, the part most people will be focusing on as they move in and out (in quite an unnerving fashion, mind you), are more bloodshot than the average cymbal monkey toy, which makes it seem more hostile.
Then the setup for the interaction.
"You wanna get outta here? GET RID OF THAT MONKEY."
Cymbal monkey was set up as a risky but unavoidable foe, as it has a walkie that will alert the entire security team of the attempted escape and can see every escape route through the cameras. The only way to get rid of it is through direct interaction.
Then the scene sets the ideal scenario for the jump. Woody is hanging onto Slinky, swinging back and forth to get to the monkey without it noticing ahead of time. The ambience is quiet and so are the characters, making the scene more tense and also increasing the contrast in noise when the actual jump occurs. We also get Woody's POV, showing him dangling back and forth, closer and closer to the monkey, which gives us a perspective of the risk he is taking (and ultimately the POV the first jump takes place in). The monkey itself makes no visible movements except for the second before the jump, where its eyes, the thing people will be unnerved about, turn slightly in Woody's direction as if it heard something.
The actual jump is just a long-set payoff to a string of increasing tension and I think that's why it got me so bad when I was younger.
Sorry, I know this was long! But I'm a complete sucker for good horror and I think Toy Story has always had some nice horror elements (although Toy Story 4 was the weakest to me, even comparing it to Toy Story 2 which focused more on the fear of loss and varying anxieties rather than straight-up scares).
i still believe that kitty was lying when she said she didnt go to the church because she was mad at puss the whole movie about santa coloma. She must’ve waited at the alter for a while to come to the conclusion that puss wont come hence why she is mad. if she never went, then she wouldve never known he didnt go either, never being mad at him
"See David Bowie in leather" The way I CACKLED
scary and then when get older will go back and enjoy it.
Secret of Nimh and the Last Unicorn horrified me as a child, but guess what movies I would watch when I was incredibly bored? They were my go-to's, and I definitely rewatched them more than any other soft and fluffy story we had. The stories I always come back to are the one's that freak me out and make me jump or stare at the ceiling to think about life.
Scariest thing I watch as a kid was that one episode of SpongeBob with the butterfly
Spongebob would always get weirdly twisted and dark at the most random moments. It was like a cartoon version of Russian roulette.
Don't get me started 🥶
Don’t even get me started on the splinter!
I learned the concept of death when I was as young as five years old. It has always been a terrifying concept. If this movie came out while I was still that young, I'd probably be scared of it too but..
That moment where puss overcomes his fear, deciding to face it because he realized his one life was worth living and fighting for.. I have no doubt that gave my inner child comfort and courage.
literally one of the best reviews of the movie! I am totally in love with the movie and watched a bunch of reviews lmao, but this one highlights all the good things very nicely :) thnak you!
My Pleasure!
When I was a kid my favourite movie was The Land Before Time. It was scary as hell AND really sad. I cried every time the mother died, and my real life mother couldn't understand why I always wanted to watch it again anyway. To this day, I still like sad and scary stories. Heck, I write them myself. This movie is bloody brilliant, not that I'm saying anything new. My favourite line has to be when Death snarls at Puss that he's had eight lives so far "And you didn't value ANY OF THEM."
as a kid, the film "The Land Before Time" scared me.
As a man right now land before time scares me
@@TheWritersBlockOfficial that makes it doubly scary for me as well. especially the thought of losing your life and your kid is left alone.
My younger cousins were so sheltered that they couldn’t make it through a quarter of the movie we’re not even allowed to talk about it in front of her
My best friend's 3 year old absolutely LOVES the wolf. She demanded I replay his scenes afterward.. especially the introduction one. She's since then played that movie on repeat as kids do.
I feel like Puss didn't stop being afraid of Death; rather, he learned to accept that fear. His answer has always been to run away when he feels fear because he doesn't know how to address it. So when facing death for the last time in the movie, he instead faces the embodiment of his mortality. He gives Death his weapon back because he knows he will never be able to defeat Death, but he will never stop fighting for the life he has. So when Death says, "But I don't see him anymore" you can see the physical release in tension on puss and the breath of relief. He was afraid the whole time but instead of running to the wishing star, he faced his fears.
uh no, when puss is afraid his fur is raising up, and that wasn't the case during the final battle so he is fearless in the end
and he actually beat wolf in combat
I always have thought that death isn't the true bad guy in this movie, sure he's an antagonist, but he is only antagonistic towards puss, for very understandable reasons, once the conflict driving the two to clash is resolved thenhe shows that he's almost a regular warrior guy, showing that though he is death he isn't evil, heck he almost seems to congratulate puss on learning his lesson, because in the end I think thats what death was doing, teaching the lesson that life is precious and death comes for us all, he abandoned puss for several months when he lived iin fear of his life being taken away, showing he does view his life as precious, but the moment that puss wanted to get his lives back, trying to turn back the clock, he chased after him because he was missing the lesson, the moment that puss shows he's afraid of leaving his life but accepting that deeath will come for him, death basically backs off entirely, "live this life well puss in boots" and so puss does, the real villain all along was jack horner, he was just a personal antagonist towards puss
he is the bad guy, and his reasons are kind of petty
also there were no lessons or else this furry jigsaw would not explode in anger after the final confrontation lol
making sure kids are acquainted with fear before they get in a situation that could make them freeze up, is what im getting from this video. very nice
This movie made me cry. Weirdly enough, I saw so much of myself in Puss's character and it really helped me realize so many things about myself. It helped me understand my thoughts. It punched me in the gut and then gave me hope, it's become one of my favorite movies of all time. Not favorite kid's movies, not favorite animations, but favorite movies in general. To hell with anyone who says that kid's movies are stupid! They have no clue what they're talking about.
I agree entirely. Not having scary movies doesn’t mean kids won’t be scared anyway or everyday things, scary movies just show how to deal with it and that it’s ok to be scared.
This movie will definitely join the pile of movies we saw and enjoyed as kids and learned to appreciate as adults.
"Why Scaring Kids is Important?"
Grimm Brothers: And we took that personally...
Studio Exec: Hey Cinderella's ending feels a little bit open ended. Got any ideas???
Grimm Brothers: Stepsisters + Birds = Stepsisters - Eyes
that long arm guy from spirited away scared the shit out of me. i could handle the blood, but the long arm guy was too much.
I watched the Indiana Jones movies a lot as a kid, and those had some of freakiest scenes I was ever exposed to. I’d actually run out of the room at times 😂😂
I went catatonic the first time I sat down to watch raiders. Same thing on the ride.
Doesn't help that like indy... "I hate snakes"
coraline scared me so badly when i was a child but it was still a good movie
Same
Same here, it was the best, but the bug room scene scared me, when the other mother began forming into her spider-like body and went Karen mode on Coraline.
This is a great video with some really good in depth analysis. But man that central thesis in the beginning without any context is hilariously direct
That was the idea haha
I love watching adults reacts to scary kids movies like this, and I basically always leave a comment that’s a nutshell of your video! I grew up with the never ending story and Jim Henson movies too, but my favorite was always The Secret of NIMH. Fucking creepy movie for a kid. But that’s why I remembered it more. It showed every scale of emotion, including genuine terror.
I watched Coraline when I was 5. It’s the first movie I ever remember watching.
Now, 10 years later, I adore the art of film, and have a high appreciation for the horror genre. Perhaps there’s a correlation?
Same. I first watched the film at 5 as well. But I was scared of the other mother though when she revealed her true colors.
Same. The Beldam was one of the most terrifying villains of all time.
Also notorious PIB is a great joke 😂
This movie was a modern day never ending story and it was glorious I can't stop talking about
Fear and monsters are necessary in fiction so children can be taught about great heroes who will overcome them.
This film was done brilliantly and I’m no atheist but it’s important to get “real” with kids but this film can teach adults valuable lessons too about valuing your life more.
I keep saying this ALL THE TIME. Kids need to be challenged, it's important for their minds to grow. The world, especially kids media, coddles them way too much. Adults need to respect kid's intelligence more than they do, ESPECIALLY parents!
your introduction is straight to the point and I love it
During a long flight to Japan recently, I watched Puss in Boots and The Man from Toronto back to back. Even though The Man from Toronto is a fairly violent movie about hired killers, the violence in Puss in Boots genuinely felt more graphic and unsettling. The main villain in Puss in Boots remorselessly killing his own henchmen by accident was way more unnerving than any torture scene The Man from Toronto could conjure up.