When I had heard about a new Puss in Boots movie in the works, it was frankly met with an eye roll from me because of how I felt about the first installment. The trailer then got me to a place of hesitant optimism due to its animation. After seeing it, I’m now enthusiastically telling everyone to go see Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, directed by Joel Crawford.
We start with Puss finding out he’s on the last of his nine lives. He then overhears from people that are attempting to recruit him about the map to a fallen star that can grant anybody one wish. He decides to steal the map so he can wish for more lives. The film draws a heavy influence in animation style from Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse, a film I regard highly. With that being said, it all still looks stellar. Yes, you immediately think of it when you see it, but you can’t help but marvel at how well the team responsible did from the very first scene to the end.
The opening scene consists of the legendary puss in boots throwing a party in the governor’s mansion while he’s away, singing about how great he is. The governor comes back, and chaos ensues, including awakening a dormant giant right outside of the town. The giant goes to the mansion and rips the roof off to attack our hero, an incredibly animated fight follows, and puss ends up defeating the monster in front of the entire town. As he starts to sing or make a speech about his greatness again, a church bell falls on him and he loses his eighth and second to last life. He’s never had to worry about death before, in fact he’s always said that death fears him, but he’s also had an extra life in store if anything happened.
Shortly after waking up, we get a compilation on how he’s lost all of his other lives. Each one portrays how brazen he is in different ways. This movie isn’t very subtle with its messaging or Puss’ character arc, but that’s not to say it’s poorly done. I tend to enjoy when ego is the obstacle a character has to overcome, so maybe I’m a tad biased, but the way puss grows throughout the journey is an exemplary way to show how ego has left not only him, but those trying to be close to him, lonely.
Now that he’s in his final life, he encounters Death. Death is truly one of the best villains in the Dreamworks arsenal. That is really saying something considering Dreamworks generally does villains better than any other major animation studio. He’s intimidating in every facet of the word. Yes, in a visual sense but he also has this signature whistle anytime he appears that strikes fear into our hero instantaneously, and he’s wildly strong to boot.
This movie takes on a considerable amount with not only how many side characters it introduces, but how much screen time most of them get. I was very impressed with how well they succeeded in making all of them interesting to watch with compelling arcs. The one exception is John Mulaney’s Jack Horner. He’s just evil to be evil. That’s not necessarily a bad thing because he really is hilarious, but don’t expect much from him. He’s a bad guy that has an insatiable appetite to steal magical items and creatures. The best of these is an unnamed bug, credited as “Ethical Bug”, but will always be affectionately known to me as Jiminy Stewart, a name I came up with while watching. For some reason unknown to me, the voice actor for the bug is very clearly doing their best Jimmy Stewart impression, and it is the funniest character in the entire movie. Goldilocks and the three bears are probably the side characters with the best arc, one that is genuinely touching and tear-jerking.
Final Thoughts
Thank God for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Not simply for the animation (although that is very similar in this movie), but for having the influence on major studios to up their game for their future animated releases and give us high quality products like Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. This movie does do a little too much at points to cater to the younger audience with some of the humor, but those moments are few and far between. Every other aspect of the film ranges from slightly above average to some of the best we’ve seen in an animated movie of the past 5 or so years. The story itself is nothing special, but it took a plot line that some could consider trite, and made it one of the most refreshing, stunning, and creative animated films of the past decade. I can’t recommend this movie enough, for animation skeptics and enthusiasts alike.
