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Oscars 2023

 My favorite Oscar-nominated film, currently, is "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish." (It's not in the main competition, but it's up for Best Animated Film.)


Like Cinderella, Puss in Boots comes from the pen of Charles Perrault. Both characters are plucky, resourceful, resilient, and kind. Puss has nothing, at the start--but he acquires boots, then he talks his way into a job, and he finds ways to earn promotions for his master (again and again). He uses misleading clothing, harmless half-truths, and flattery to remake the world in a savvy way; he improves on God's work.

"Puss in Boots II" begins with film icon Antonio Banderas; he is the titular puss, and he struts across the stage, asking, "Who is your favorite fearless hero?" He uses his sword to "liberate" free drinks for the commoners; we see kegs spewing out their contents, and the kegs are labeled "Leche."

The film only improves from here: We watch as Puss does battle with Oscar winner Olivia Colman, who plays a fiendish "Mama Bear" (a spin on the Mama we know from "Goldilocks").

Everything about this film is worthy of praise; justifiably, the film has owned the box office for a long, long while.

I know where my heart will be, on Oscar night.

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