'Puss in Boots: The Last Wish' Review: Puss Goes Pain and Glory With His Meowtality in Superb Sequel
'Puss in Boots: The Last Wish'
PG: For action/violence, rude humor/language, and some scary moments
Runtime: 1 Hour and 42 Minutes
Production Companies: Dreamworks Animation
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Director: Joel Crawford
Writers: Paul Fisher, Tommy Swerdlow
Cast: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek Pinault, Harvey Guillén, Florence Pugh, Olivia Colman, Ray Winstone, Samson Kayo, John Mulaney, Wagner Moura, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Anthony Mendez
Release Date: December 21, 2022
In Theaters Only
Daring outlaw Puss in Boots (voiced by Antonio Banderas) discovers that his passion for peril and disregard for safety have taken their toll. Puss has burned through eight of his nine lives, though he lost count along the way. Getting those lives back will send Puss in Boots on his grandest quest yet.
Audiences have prayed for mercy from Puss in Boots since his debut nearly 20 years ago in the cinematic masterpiece Shrek 2. The animated Antonio Banderas feline in high-heeled boots has been a staple of the Shrek franchise with his spin-off feature. A decade later, the ferocious hero is back with a new coat of fur and an adventure that is (surprisingly) the most poignant thing to come out of the Shrek franchise since… Shrek 2. Yeah, I went there.
That post-Spider-Verse effect has hit the animation industry hard, baby! Sony Animation truly changed the game when Into the Spider-Verse swung into theaters. It’s astonishing how they influenced other studios to switch up the look of their CGI features, particularly DreamWorks Animation. This year, DWA took that influence and let it be the root of the artistic liberties taken with their most recent projects. Their early 2022 release, The Bad Guys, blended 2D and 3D techniques with fast-paced energy. In the case of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, director Joel Crawford (The Croods: A New Age) and his animators implement a similar style and take it to the next level.
The previous Puss in Boots feature was emblematic of how every other CG-animated movie of the era looked. Every studio was pushing for technological advances in animation, boasting hyperrealism as an expensive gamble while limiting the longevity of its quality. The Last Wish rips up the rulebook and opens up a new one with a unique art style that applies 2D watercolor textures to a 3D world. It’s unlike anything the studio has done before. The film deviates from hyperrealism and aims for a cartoonish, expressive, and illustrative storybook appearance that bursts with a rich vibrancy we’ve never seen in the Shrek franchise.
Like the world around him, Puss’s look is luscious, popping with a smoother, more vibrant design. From the backgrounds to the character designs, each facet of the film applies a watercolor texture to its 3D world. For action sequences, 2D effects fill the scene to give the film a unique look. It’s practically the same style and techniques as the Netflix series Arcane with a few extra details to make it unlike anything DreamWorks has done to date. One of the most breathtaking elements of the visual splendor occurs at heightened action sequences where the frame rate drops from 24 to the teens and resembles an anime. As mentioned in my Bad Guys review, “I’d rather have a bunch of these stylized animated films that are trying to change the trajectory of the medium instead of pushing technology to boast realistic visuals.”
Outside of the stellar appearance of the film, the narrative is surprisingly compelling. After a run-in with a giant ends with him being crushed by a tolling bell, Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) respawns at a physician’s office (Anthony Mendez), who informs him that he’s down to his last of nine lives. Initially nonchalant about it—with all his other deaths caused by his ego and carelessness—Puss finds himself hunted by a deadly reaper in wolf’s clothing (Wagner Moura). Caught in an existential crisis, fearful of his mortality, Puss decides to hang up the coat—or bury the boots—and retire to a safe home for cats hosted by a cat lady (Da’Vine Joy Randolph). In this home, he meets a sweet, optimistic therapy dog dressed as a cat (Harvey Guillén).
Retirement doesn’t come easy when Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and the Three Bears Crime Family (Olivia Colman, Ray Winstone, Samson Kayo) blow the house down in search of Puss. They intend to hire him to get a map for a magical wishing star, which will grant whoever finds it the wish of their wildest dream. Puss decides to get it for himself and embarks on a quest, with the aid of Perrito, to get his nine lives back. Soon, several parties, including his ex-flame Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek Pinault), Goldilocks and her bear crew, crime lord Big Jack Horner (John Mulaney), and the Baker’s Dozen participate in a wild goose chase to find the star first.
The plot is humorously absurd, bearing the classic Shrek-brand offshoot of fairytale archetypes we know and love. But screenwriters Tommy Swerdlow and Paul Fisher apply a reflective existential approach to Puss’s story that’s genuinely chilling. During the western adventure to find the star, Puss is forced to grapple with his mortal coil and reflect on the egotistical nature of his careless past lives and the bridges he burned through them. It’s as if Swerdlow and Wheeler took inspiration from another great Banderas picture, Pedro Almodóvar's Pain and Glory, but applied it to Puss in Boots. The mature tone is a bold approach executed with powerful resonance. The last thing one would expect a Puss in Boots movie to do is to illustrate a cat in an intense panic attack, yet small moments like those are delivered with sincerity.
Antonio Banderas’ voice performance is full of energy and charisma. His iconic voice as Puss has not aged a day and provides a new range to the character, from fearlessness to vulnerability, and you believe it with each line delivery. He’s voiced this character for over 20 years, but his spirit is still burning strong. The same goes for veteran Salma Hayek Pinault as Softpaws. She’s worked with Banderas so often that calling the Desperado-turned-gato chemistry endearing makes me sound like a broken record.
I am astonished by how amazing the supporting voice cast is. Harvey Guillén’s upbeat, optimistic Perrito had all the makings of an annoying side character, but he’s endlessly charming and hilarious. Guillén’s soft voice carries this comic relief/voice of reason that balances the aggression from all the outlaw parties seeking the star. The film delivers a lovely subplot with Goldilocks and the Three Bears brought to life by the family’s camaraderie. The voice performances from Florence Pugh, Ray Winstone, Samson Kayo, and Olivia Colman are spectacular. There’s a moment between Pugh’s Goldilocks and Colman’s Mama Bear that made me tear up because of how sweet their performances were.
The humor could’ve reached its full potential. The jokes are acceptable, but the focus is on visual gags and slapstick over anything else. Some jokes touch upon dark areas that match the tone, but the humor is generic. Only a few moments garner some chuckles, mostly from Harvey Guillén’s line deliveries on some of the most cursed dialogue out of Perrito. Given the dark thematic material of death, I’m fine if the movie doesn’t exude the same amount of wit as other DreamWorks comedies, for the tone is perfectly balanced (all things considered). Overall, these minor details don’t discredit what is otherwise one of the best surprises of 2022.
Exhilarating, gorgeously animated, full of vibrant life in each frame, and paired with a poignantly mature story, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is the animated epic this year has desperately been awaiting. It’s undeniably one of the year’s best animated films (and one of 2022’s best in general).
