Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) Review
I was finally able to watch Puss in Boots: The Last Wish after it received a Best Animated Feature nomination at the Oscars. I wanted to check it out, so I did. And how is it? Is it worthy of the love it’s been getting? Or is it over-hyped? Let’s get started!
The Good:
And for me what I appreciated most about this movie was the story and character arc for Puss in Boots. Sure, it’s a story template we’ve done before but I think here it’s done great. It’s a story about Puss, an aging hero who has used 8 of his 9 lives. So it’s about the aging hero going on one last adventure, before he retires or whatever. And I thought that was an interesting arc to give a swashbuckling character like Puss in Boots. I liked how focused it was, we knew from the beginning of the movie what the story, conflict, and character arc are to go on this adventure.
Another thing here is I thought the villains of the movie were all great, and served a different purpose for the story. At face value, a movie introducing three new villains into a movie isn’t a good idea. It can make the movie overcrowded and everything is underdeveloped, but not with this movie. Death really is the main villain of the movie, and I thought he was great. He’s kind of creepy and menacing, and he’s a villain that sticks with you. He does this whistling sound that puts danger in every scene he is in. You know when he’s on screen and when he’s off screening. You also get John Mulaney as Jack Horner, a fun villain that can let a great comedic actor like Mulaney have a lot of fun. Finally Goldilocks and the three bears join in on the fun. But like I said, the movie never feels over-stuffed but rather like every character serves a purpose for the story as a whole.
And with this movie, it has a truly gorgeous and great looking animation style to it. It takes inspiration from what Sony did with Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, and it looks great. It’s something so different from what the previous Shrek and Puss in Boots movie have done. And I feel that the hyper energy and the fun style this movie has, fits the story as a whole rather well. It makes the movie look really colorful and gorgeous to look at. Between this and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, 2022 had some of the best looking animated movies in a while. I sure hope that more studios start making their animated movies look more like this, it’s great and it works really well to provide a cool visual experience.
Another thing with this movie, the voice cast here is having a lot of fun. They got a lot of top tier A-list talent for this movie. Of course you get the return of Antonio Banderas as Puss in Boots, that’s great casting, he knows how to have a lot of fun with this character. Banderas is partnered up greatly with Salma Hayek in both of these movies as they have this romance between them that is fun. The actor they got for Death, Wagner Moura, I haven't seen in anything prior to this. I thought he was great as the villain. His voice that he used for this movie was great and memorable. But you even do get some fun actors as side characters in the movie like John Mulany and Florence Pugh. They aren’t as memorable as maybe they should be, but they do deliver some solid performances.
Finally, I thought this movie did a great job of setting up and teasing directions to go with future installments. I’m not the biggest fan of this franchise, I haven’t seen every movie. But with where this movie ends, it sets up a fun direction to go with this franchise.
The Bad:
First thing here is that there’s a new side character named Perro, a pug. And I didn’t hate his character, but I didn’t find his character as good as he should have been either. He’s used largely as comedic relief, and I didn’t find him to be as funny as maybe he should have been. He does get some solid moments here and there, but it wasn’t consistent through-out the movie for me. Once again, he wasn’t bad or annoying. But I thought he could have been a better character.
Another thing here, this isn’t really something that the movie does wrong. It’s more or less a personal taste in my mind. I’ve never been a big Shrek fan, I’ve seen the original movie several times. And then I’ve seen Shrek Forever After once and then both Puss in Boots movies one time. So I feel like some of the moments here don’t hit as well since I’m not as big of a fan of this franchise. Even though the ending was cool and fun, I didn’t get that big sense of happiness with what was teased.
Final Thoughts: Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is a solid animated movie with gorgeous animation, a great character arc, and some great villains. This movie got a lot of praise from both critics and audiences when it came out. I don’t think it’s a masterpiece or anything special but it’s a solid adventure in this franchise. That I can see why other people might love this movie.
The Score: 8.6/10 (B)
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