Puss In Boots: The Last Wish Review

Plot: When Puss in Boots discovers that his passion for adventure has taken its toll and he has burned through eight of his nine lives, he launches an epic journey to restore them by finding the mythical Last Wish.

Film: Puss In Boots: The Last Wish

Directors: Joel Crawford, Januel Mercado

Writer: Paul Fisher, Tommy Swerdlow, Tom Wheeler

Starring: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Harvey Guillén

The film, while suitable for a young audience, is quite dark and serious at times, which is probably the source of its success. Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) has discovered after all his daring adventures, that he is down to his last life and for the first time in those nine lives, he fears death. Death (Wagner Moura) being a large white wolf in a black cape, carrying a scythe, who whistles ominously whenever he is near. It’s chilling. To beat death, Puss must find the last wish and use it to wish his lives back, but he’s not the only one hoping to make a wish. I was pleasantly surprised by a Puss in Boots sequel that I didn’t know I wanted or needed.

I call it a sequel, and technically it is, but everything except the characters in this film are completely different to the 2011 instalment. Starting with the obvious, is how the film looks. It’s stunning. The animation is that comic book style of 2D animation that we’ve seen in ‘Into The Spiderverse’ and ‘The Mitchells vs. the machines”, it just works so well, and, in my opinion, 3D animation has nothing on the charm of this format. One scene at the start of the film, shows a troll charging at Puss, and the animation style creates a very unnerving feeling of danger that you don’t expect in such a colourful animation. For any anime fans, it was reminiscent of the Armoured Titan charging at the wall in the second episode of Attack on Titan (linked here), and in fact the rest of the fight scene could be straight out of the show too. 

There’s a whole cast of characters that have their own stories and motivations, must utilised is Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and her entourage of three bears (Olivia Colman, Ray Winstone, Samson Kayo). Then you have Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek) making a return from the first film, and Puss’ new dog companion, Perrito (Harvey Guillen). Perrito is the comic relief but there is a surprisingly touching scene where Puss is having a panic attack following a run-in with Death, and like all good dogs, Perrito is there to guide him through it. I will say that in a film where the villain is death, we didn’t need both Goldilocks and Jack Horner (John Mulaney), whose character basically serves to squeeze in several fairy-tale references in quick succession, as he is a collector of magical artifacts. 

Overall, a really enjoyable watch and I found myself going through the emotions of the film in a way I don’t think I would have at a young age.