THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
It always surprises me when franchises breathe new life in unexpected ways. Dreamworks’ Shrek basically got that with the spin-off Puss in Boots. When it’s own sequel The Last Wish came out, not only did it repeat success during awards season, but exceeded expectations story wise.
PLOT
The 2022 follow up shows the infamous talking cat continue living the life of a fearless hero. However, he finally becomes struck with consequences when he is at the last of his nine lives. Although he prefers to continue living fearlessly, that changes when a black hooded wolf is able to wound him as an attempt to collect his bounty. Knowing how vulnerable he is, he chooses to retire at Mama Luna’s Cat Rescue, a sanctuary owned by the feline lover. There, he does befriend the chihuahua Perrito, but he quickly comes out of retirement when Goldilocks and the Three Bears seek to hire him to steal the map of the Wishing Star. He chooses to pursue it himself, knowing he can wish for more lives. With Perrito by his side, they go to a bakery owned by crime boss Big Jack Horner who has the map. They steal it, but get interrupted by Puss’ ex-fiancé Kitty Softpaws, as well as Goldilocks and the bears. Despite regaining Kitty as an ally, Puss’ fear resumes when spotting the wolf following him. With his newfound trio, they make their way to the Dark Forest, a pocket dimension that changes its own landscape based on who holds the Wishing Star’s map. Despite Perrito paving a safer path, Goldi and Jack catch up to fight for the map. In between the mayhem, Puss would run away when seeing the wolf again. This moment would give Goldi the chance to take the map. Perrito would calm Puss down from his anxiety attack, resulting in him to confess of his predicament. He even admits to ditching Kitty on their wedding day. Since Kitty overhears him, she admits to not attending either, believing he can’t love anyone more than himself. The protagonist trio take back the map from Goldi and the Bears, but Puss would inadvertently get trapped in a crystalline cave where he’d encounter his past lives. It is here where the wolf catches up again and reveals to be the living embodiment of Death. He plans to kill Puss prematurely, out of being disrespected of Puss not valuing his past lives. Horrified, he heads to the Star alone, ditching Kitty and Perrito. On the way to the Star, Goldilocks admits to the bears that she wants to wish for reuniting with her human family. Although feeling offended, Mama Bear still agrees to help her. Puss makes it to the star first and before he can make his wish, Kitty and Perrito catch up, as well as Jack and Goldi. Before anyone can make a wish, Death arrives and challenges Puss to fight for his life. The male feline is able to disarm his threat to prove he’s dropped his arrogance for good. Seeing how true he is of his vow to keep fighting, Death chooses to spare him but vows to meet him again. Still determined to take the wish for himself, Big Jack eats a snack that makes him grow in gigantic portion. He plans to wish for controlling all of the world’s magic for himself. However, Perrito is able to distract him long enough for Puss to destroy the map alongside Kitty and Goldi, the latter of which who accepts the Bears as her family. With the map destroyed, the Star collapses and consumes Horner. With Goldi back on the same page with the bears, they tend to take over Horner’s bakery together. The film would end with Puss rekindling his relationship with Kitty, sailing to the kingdom of Far Far Away alongside her and Perrito.
THOUGHTS
Due to already enjoying Puss in Boots back in 2011, I was open minded to see this sequel. Little did I expect to enjoy it almost as much as I enjoyed Shrek when that came out. So it goes without saying this is better than the world expected. It reminds me of Paddington where the first one was cool and the second is amazing. Director Joel Crawford fills in big shoes and delivers in taking audiences in the most exhilarating adventure since How to Train Your Dragon. The biggest highlight has to go to the visuals as a a whole as it feels so vibrant in comparison to the past. Every shot has so much meaning it's incredible every time you look at it. While you expect that from animated films, this one hits different because its message is bolder than the rest. Instead, it shares a interpretation on the message of how we try to escape our mortality and live like we're immortal. We only live one life and we want to make the best of it by making it memorable for everyone to notice, but we work so hard in doing that we forget that the journey is bound to end. As much as we would like the story to never end, we have to accept there is one for all of us and the more we choose to avoid it, the less we enjoy our lives the way we think. This message works thanks to a character we've gotten to know longer than we anticipated. 11 years later, Antonio Banderas does not skip a beat when voicing the feline protagonist. We admire Puss because he spent a long time living fearlessly. But that ultimately became a problem because he was living without consequence and took advantage of his privilege. The franchise is known to poke at fairy tale stories, but this has to be smartest use of it in a while. Puss briefly thinking about Shrek & Donkey after shedding first blood was the wake up call for him that he can no longer live without worry, or as Disney fans would say, no more Hakuna Matata. He couldn't help seeking to wish for more because he didn't feel ready to go. However, the journey he took put him in the path that it's never too late to appreciate what you have left. Apart from Shrek, it wasn't too late to gain new friends and start lives with new people. It was cold of him to ditch Kitty at the altar but you also can't blame him because he knew he wasn't ready to settle down. He felt that if he married her, the thrill of being a hero would end and he didn't want to stop completely. So once he saw how his decisions affected others, he knew had to put himself aside for once and he did that when he took part in destroying the star. With one live left, he now has a clear conscience to stop taking things for granted and he will maintain that mindset with future adventures. Since this is a sequel, you know there will be a mix of returning and new characters. Since Kitty Softpaws left a good impression last time, you know it would be wrong for her to miss out. Lucky for us, Salma Hayek is just as great as she was last time. She still stands out like before because she is just as persuasive and more calm within the environment she is in. Trust issues are ongoing for her because she knows that Puss is indeed still the hardest one to trust. She couldn't help ditching the altar as well because she arguably had the same mindset where she wasn't ready to let go of the thrill. Once she saw Puss always cared, she understood how we have to be patient with the ones we choose to love because love is bound to be complicated. And lucky for us, she will continue riding with Puss until the end. Going into the new characters, there was no way you would forget about Perrito. Harvey Guillen had us fall in love with him the way we fell in love with Donkey, where it was their big heart that mattered the most. He was indeed talkative, which made him the funniest character of the whole film, but his innocence was extremely visible due to not always noticing the stakes at play. What mattered to him the most was for people to remember the unconditional love he gave no matter what. He did that when he comforted Puss during his anxiety attack. That moment was so pure because it proved how your friends can come from unexpected places. He also stood out for being born selfless because despite being left for dead at first, he didn't let the past define him. And it's easy to consider him an unsung hero when he distracted Jack from granting his wish. Seeing him use his cute eyes the way the cats do and curse out Goldi & the bears was too damn hilarious for me to not mention. Since he made it to the end, it makes me glad he'll continue adventuring with his new friends. While I found myself confused seeing Mama Bear back from the dead, it was cool for this reincarnation of her and family to have a core involvement in this story. It was even a bonus for Goldilocks to be involved as well. Florence Pugh surprised me in portraying this character to be more fierce than anticipated, but that comes being raised by bears. You relate to her because she feels like an outcast. She loves the bears for adopting her, but her being different made her feel like she never belonged, hence wanting to wish for a normal family. Predictably, even she would come around and accept that family comes in all shapes and sizes and it's okay to be different. As for the bears, Olivia Colman had us enjoy Mama Bear for being the sweetest and acted the most selfless since she was willing to help Goldi originally. Ray Winstone had us like Papa Bear for being the most laid back, whereas Samson Kayo portrays Baby Bear as one with the angst prove himself as the toughest and isn't afraid to speak his mind. You respect him for being self aware and had he not been such, Goldilocks would have not gone back on her plan. Lucky for them, they continue to appreciate each other as a family. Now villains are known to make an impact and I was surprised to see how big of it was made by Jack Horner. John Mulaney stood out for making him the cruelest of villains since Lord Farquaad. This is a guy that is jealous of not being born with power. So he grew up taking it and desiring to be the only one with it. He was past wanting to be loved and preferred being feared. Of course this bit him back in magnificent fashion when he died with the star, learning the hard way to understand how consequences happen to everyone no matter how smart or how powerful you are. And the Ethical Bug, hilariously voiced by Kevin McCann, being in shock of his actions non stop proves that not everyone can be redeemed. Some would say Death doesn't have a face, that is until you see it firsthand and when we saw it embody a wolf, it couldn't be anymore frightening. Wagner Moura makes Death Dreamworks' greatest animated villain for portraying him as one who is predictably sadistic for enjoying his line of work. His whistle is the most intimidating sound to ever hear as it straight up implies he's coming for you. And every time you heard it, you knew he was coming for Puss. He had the most pleasure in pursuing him because he knew he wasn't appreciating his privilege and wanted to put him out of misery. If you re watch and look carefully, you'll notice him in the crowd watching Puss' eighth death, proving how much he anticipates taking his life. Surprisingly, he proved to not just be a grim reaper but also a being who has its own sense of honor and nobility. When Puss finally stood his ground, he accepted the newfound appreciation that's been gained. While he is disappointed about it, he can't help admitting he was a worthy challenge, thus willing to wait for him in the true end. I'm not gonna take away how awesome this movie was to watch, but even one with such quality has its own questionable moments. For instance, am I the only one wondering why the peasants didn't tell Puss about the sleeping giant? If that's common knowledge to them, that should've not been hard to forget. Like if fireworks woke it up, I wonder how it would react to a thunderstorm. I then wonder if it had been a bad idea for Puss to retire in the Kingdom of Far Far Away? Sure Shrek resides in his swamp, but I'm sure Fiona or King Arthur would've hooked him up with some kind of retirement suite. Also, why would Mama Luna deny having cats when the bears see them? That was a pointless lie to set up tension. There’s a lot of jokes that make me laugh, but what the hell does Puss mean when he mentions one of his nicknames to be the Leche Whisperer? Bringing up that name and not explaining the meaning is pretty pointless to me. And why is he the only cat to grow out a beard? If he’s turning down being groomed, I don’t mind clarification for that either. I then wonder why would Goldi prefer Kitty over Puss to get the map? I got nothing against Kitty but if Puss is the best option, they should've went to him first. I like some clever callbacks when seeing the likes of Pinocchio, but for his song singing to be a real boy, his nose should’ve been growing when claiming to be a real boy. You already know he’s singing those lyrics I’m with heart. And I know animation bends reality significantly, but how does Perrito drive? Carriages and ships may be different from cars, but that still requires training, so he is lucky to pull it off the way he did. And lastly, how did Jack pull off achieving Captain Hook's hook and Fairy Godmother's wand? I mean that seemed like a big challenge Hook had to have a had his pirate army to defend himself and Prince Charming should have kept the one thing left of his mother somewhere safe. In conclusion, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is one of the elite animated films from Dreamworks for being more thought provoking and being smarter than audiences would expect. If you still love fairy tales, then there is no need to wait any longer checking this out.
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