Three parties, numerous adventures, one goal

★★★ out of ★★★★

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

Runtime: 102 minutes

MPAA: Rated PG for action/violence, rude humor/language, and some scary moments.

Edit: Sorry for assigning the wrong MPAA Rating for the film. It's actually PG, not PG-13, and no, there are no drugs here if you don't count that very briefly observable cup of coffee in the opening sequence in which kids under 6 probably won't even know about caffeine.

DreamWorks.

The moment I hear the name, and I'm sure it applies to almost all of you, I recall it as that second-behind-Pixar studio that was in heavy competition in the 2000s, producing classics like Shrek, How to Train Your Dragon, or Kung Fu Panda. By the 2010s though, Disney came back with 3D animation, and the sneaky Illumination slowly crept up the charts with their Despicable Me franchise. With all these major competitors, we can't really blame DreamWorks for exhausting their efforts and producing subsequent mid-tier animations like Trolls, The Boss Baby and so on.

Recently, I've heard that they've had newfound success with their TV animations, and have now come back with two major successes - The Bad Guys, and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. I'm not the most excited whenever a sequel is released, and especially since DreamWorks produced the terrible Trolls: World Tour. However, "The Last Wish" is surprisingly not overwhelming in presentation and satisfying enough that they've partially regained my trust in the studio.

The plot: After a breath-taking opening sequence that involves Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) defeating a giant and ending in his death, he's down to his final life. As he whines in a bar about his doctor's advice to quit adventure, a bounty hunter known as the Wolf (Wagner Moura) almost kills Puss, even causing him to bleed. Puss accepts defeat and retreats to a foster cat refuge owned by Mama Luna (Da'Vine Joy Randolph).

Two subplots spawn: Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and the three bears: Mama (Olivia Colman), Papa (Ray Winstone) and Baby (Samson Kayo) wants to hire Puss to lead them to the Dark Forest containing the "Last Wish". Puss overhears their conversation behind a tree and sneakily follows them. A while later, a pie factory owner Jack Horner (John Mulaney) receives a map that leads to the "Last Wish", in which three parties: Goldilocks and her bears, Puss, and a returning character Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek) attempt to loot. Once one of the parties successfully obtain the map, all the parties embark on your standard race to obtain the precious reward.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish opens with a wildly entertaining beginning, with fluid and visually splendid animation style, similar to the excellent animation executed in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Moreover, as if they've perfectly made their calculations, a mid-section that involves numerous changes of setting, background, colour and mood isn't overwhelming nor dizzying.

In addition, if the subplots almost drag the film down, the Goldilocks subplot improves considerably where the characters finally find their arcs and learn about the value of family. However, we don't get much insight into Jack Horner, as he is only presented as a purely evil person with questionable and/or unclear motives.

The voice acting is also amusing, the two standouts being Antonio Banderas, who conveys the wide range of emotion from fear to excitement, and Wagner Moura, who provides the chilling tone whenever the Wolf speaks. Puss himself also changes throughout the journey, from a self-presumed immortal who "laughs at the face of death", to a humble hero who finally discovers and appreciates the true value of life. Accompanied with kinetic and thrilling action sequences, its message about life is more impactful than, say, the entire "Saw" series.

DreamWorks has also never failed to provide us fantastic villains, like Megamind, Tai Lung, or Lord Farquaad. With the Wolf, "The Last Wish' suddenly taps into nutty and dark territory about death, and his design is so menacing that younger audiences may feel uncomfortable and and afraid whenever he appears, so don't say that I haven't given a warning.

I'm torn between assigning "The Last Wish" three or three-and-a-half stars. On the three-star side, "The Last Wish" runs at breakneck pacing in the first half, introducing too many antagonists while not fully fleshing out on each of them. There's also the clichéd breach of trust and "I can explain" sequence, though that lasts for only several minutes. On the three-and-a-half star side, "The Last Wish" remains consistently entertaining and dazzling, with brilliant intense and dark underlying tones when the main villain appears, and the message is conveyed clearly and not forcefully. In terms of objectivity, I have assigned "The Last Wish" three stars at the top of my review, but consider this as a "three-and-a-quarter-star" review, if that rating even exists.

In the meantime, I would appreciate it if anyone can remind me of the plot in Puss in Boots (2011).