Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
DreamWorks AnimationIn terms of recent sequels, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish has to be one of the bigger question marks, at least on paper. Following up the 2011 Puss in Boots feature which brought the Antonio Banderas voiced feline to his own story after playing sidekick in the last three Shrek films, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish looked to revive a clearly dead franchise over a decade after its last appearance on the big screen. Faith in the project being one of quality only further became doubtful as DreamWorks slate has been a consistent dud for multiple years, outside of The Bad Guys, and Joel Crawford stepped into the role of director following up his feature directorial debut of The Croods: A New Age. All signs pointed to Puss in Boots: The Last Wish being an utter disaster but in life, miracles sometimes do happen. Rather than feeling cheap or forced, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish sticks the landing with elegance turning out one of the best animated features of the year.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish follows suit on the previous Puss in Boots feature with a wildly compelling story that contains strong emotional arcs and genuine thrills. The backbone of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is an examination of the fear of death: Puss in Boots, once again voiced by Antonio Banderas, finds himself on the last of his nine lives. While Puss wants to take this heroically and not change a thing, he is faced with an unrelenting fear that makes him run and hide. This isn't helped by death himself, a wolf voiced by Wagner Moura, being after him. This is a mature and layered character study that is expertly compressed and focused to be digestible for younger audiences while never losing its edge or gravitas.
This story itself also embraces incredible creativity and fun. While the overall arc might be somewhat predictable, it isn't hard to imagine the emotional journey the scruffy, selfish, and scared protagonist is going to go on, the film does anything but go through the motions. The world of Puss in Boots gets expanded with new locations and characters that are well thought out and developed. Part of Puss in Boots' quest for a magical star that can grant wishes sees him use a map that quite literally transforms the path towards the star based on whoever last touches the map. This is such a clever way not only for dynamic world-building and exciting obstacles, but it also works as a means of character exploration and development.
Also looking for the map are Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek), Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and the three bears (Olivia Colman, Ray Winstone, and Samson Kayo), and "Big" Jack Horner (John Mulaney). Each of these characters is given captivating reasons why they would want the star and each story gives a meaningful addition to the overall emotional weight of the story. This is the creativity that made the first couple of Shrek films so imaginative and iconic and seeing this inspired take on what animated features can be is once again refreshing. Rounding out the strong cast is Harvey Guillén as a notably strong sidekick companion for Puss and Wagner Moura who possibly steals the show with his haunting outing as death.
This inspired effort continues into the animation, which clearly takes inspiration from the work of 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish creates a similar style that plays around with the visual medium of animation with strong uses of experimentation with things like frame rate and color. In a time where so many major studio animated releases are embracing a generic and clean visual style that simply tries to recreate the real world, it is incredibly refreshing to see something with style and personality that isn't afraid to take risks and make bold moves. Between this film and The Bad Guys, this is a lovely direction to see DreamWorks take that is sure to pay off in the long run as these films carry all the elements needed to be new modern animated classics.
These elements come together to create a standout feature that is not only fun to watch, but is genuinely moving and meaningful. This is incredibly promising as it is clear this world is one that will be back on the big screen before too long. With an almost Avengers-style ending that sees a clear tease for the next installment in the Shrek franchise, the meaning of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish's success becomes all the more massive. This film was a trial run to see where this universe could go and what identity it can craft for itself with the results being beyond promising. If the studio embraces what makes this film so special, a possible DreamWorks renaissance could genuinely be on the horizon.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is something of a miracle. The film is an inspired and worthy sequel that immediately outshines nearly every other animated feature to come out this year. The film carries an effortless charisma while also bringing to life a true darkness that never loses its place or purpose. This is a sign of tremendous craft behind the scenes that really delivers and creates a final picture that is beyond easy to recommend.
