The spin-off chapter Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Antonio Banderas) was released 11 years after the last movie starring the character, and it was nominated for an Academy Award, just when you thought you’d heard the last of Antonio Banderas’ seductive cat voice.
While I wouldn’t recommend betting against Marcel the Shell in the race for Best Animated Feature, Puss has a good chance of taking home the Oscar thanks to its impressive critical reception and successful box office.
That it’s a sequel to Shrek, which in 2001 won the first Academy Award for animation and still holds up well today, is a testament to how well it’s held up over time. On the other side, the new Puss in Boots seems to be breaking ground, at least in terms of its striking Spider-Verse-inspired animation style
It’s not the only offshoot that’s challenging the parent franchise. Unlike sequels, spin-offs often feature a secondary character in the lead role or introduce new characters and plotlines set in the same universe as the original. Here are a dozen prequels/sequels that hold up well on their own (and in some cases are even preferable to the original series).
Logan
The X-Men franchise from 20th Century Fox was the most bizarrely individualistic superhero series in the United States, spanning two decades of films and television episodes with radically contrasting tones that ultimately exemplified the best and worst of the genre.
While being set in a vaguely post-apocalyptic world and following individuals who are essentially eternal, this, the tenth overall X-movie and the third to give Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine major billing, feels the most like a film about real people.
Jackman provides an excellent portrayal of a superhero way past his prime, while Patrick Stewart is sad as the formerly proud and pompous Charles Xavier, who is now in the late stages of dementia and barely able to use the restroom on his own. It’s dark and brutal without being mindless, though. It’s also got an optimistic message for the future generation, and its script was nominated for an Oscar because of how well it handled those themes.
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