Puss in Boots: The Last Wish: A near purrrrfect adventure.

Riot’s Movie Reviews: Puss In Boots: The Last Wish

Being a lifelong cat-lover, I’ve experienced a modicum of shame coming in late to this viewing/review. Once I started seeing multiple snippets of the film floating around social media along with raving reviews, I decided to forego other (admittedly more mature) titles and dive back into what was shaping up to be another Dreamworks classic. Having seen the other iterations of the Puss in Boots character, I was expecting another round of heavy-handed (but still abundantly clever) cat jokes with touches of story sprinkled in. To my surprise and delight, directors Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado (teamed with a fantastic script by Paul Fisher, Tommy Swerdlow, and Tom Wheeler) took the audience down a unique and substantive story about a narcissistic cat, so obsessed with his own legend that he cannot cope with what happens when the tale comes to its inevitable end.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish opens up on the feline protagonist throwing a self-adulating party, intentionally at the expense of a small town’s Governor (without his knowledge of course). After being discovered by said Governor and in the midst of his escape attempt, Puss unwittingly awakens a sleeping giant and is forced to subsequently defeat the monster. Reveling in his victory, Puss is accidentally crushed to death by a large bell (probably a respectful nod to Pixar’s Coco). After awakening in the local doctor’s office, the pair, by way of hilarious montage, discover that Puss has used up eight of his nine lives and is currently beginning his ninth and final life. Initially undeterred, Puss tries to brush off the worry for his current situation, still convinced he is far more indestructible than he really is. This is until he runs into a menacing, red-eyed, and bloodthirsty Wolf that seems hell-bent on claiming his last, precious gift of life. Now, after experiencing sheer panic for the first time, Puss is catapulted into a journey to find a wishing star, in one desperate attempt to regain his lives and continue spreading the legend of the great, Puss in Boots.

I would like to point out how much I enjoyed the idea that these writers would stick with a well-known trope belonging to cats and expand on it in such a unique, creative way. It seems to be an enormous benefit to imaginatively play around in the Shrek universe and puts a massive catalog of potential callbacks at the writer’s fingertips. The film was very linear in its approach, something I am generally a sucker for. I’ve found that children’s films these days are often spastic, frequently deviating chaotically from the main storyline to the point of confusion. The majority of characters in the film are given room to actually develop without taking away from the events of the story and besides one or two plot points (which I will address later), there wasn’t any exceptionally glaring gaps that stood out to me. Overall the voice acting performances were amazing, particularly by Antonio Banderas (Puss), Salma Hayek (Kitty Softpaws), and Wagner Moura (Wolf). Honorable mentions to the actors behind Goldi and The Three Bears, they were hilarious. Finally, the Dreamworks animators deserve the highest of praises for what they did with this film. I particularly enjoyed their move toward the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse style of animation. I was equally blown away by what they can do with this style, particularly in their action sequences. It’s so visually dynamic that it makes you wish they wouldn’t end, yet it still allows for enough fine detail to make the interludes and intimate moments of the film palpable. As a final note, the animators came up with one of the most genuine depictions of a panic attack I’ve ever seen. It’s not every day you see an animated cat exemplify an emotional/psychological condition in such a realistic way.

As much as I enjoyed the film, it wasn’t without its negatives. In the storytelling aspect, the relationship dynamic (and the plotline they sort of shoe-horned in) between Puss and Kitty Softpaws doesn’t really make sense and its impact on where the story ended was so minimal, you’re left wondering why it was put in. Also, the conflict between the Wolf and Puss is so incredibly interesting through the majority of the film but is hastily and disappointingly explained away at the end. If you establish a motivation for a character, keep to it. On the script front, I am bereft of reasons behind why these animation studios keep forcing curse words into their films (much like my complaints against D.C. Superpets). The writers for children’s films of the past were far more clever with injecting humor for the adults in the audience. Adding a bunch of bleeps into the dialogue of the story is cheap and lazy. As far as vocal performances go: John Mulaney, you really let me down, man. Finally, with the animation, as amazing as it is, pick a lane and stick to it. Are the movements of the characters going to be jittery/spastic throughout, or smooth and hyper-detailed? If they want to be Into the Spider-Verse, they’ll need to commit.

Riot’s Rating: 8.2/10: I really enjoyed this movie. Frankly, it might be a little too tailored to the adults in the audience. I’ve read online that the Wolf character was a little too menacing for the younger kids, so definitely keep that in mind before you go. Otherwise, I think it’s fun for the whole family.