The film allows Puss in Boots time to shine. It shouldn’t be necessary for moviegoers to rely on a follow-up to a Shrek spinoff from 11 years ago to get breathtaking spectacle, yet here we are. A freakin’ Puss in Boots movie swings the action pendulum in the total other aesthetic way, while keeping on James Cameron’s ambitious wavelength, only days after Avatar: The Way of Water finessed and expanded the photoreal CG language of his original to higher heights.
The newest DreamWorks Animation feature, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, rips ruthlessly from the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse playbook, and thank goodness for it because the end result is a fairy tale adventure that pairs sincere chuckles with splashy, impressionistic imagery.
Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) is in a dilemma. Puss in Boots is on his final one of his nine lives after taking part in so many thrilling adventures and heroic fights. In a departure from the traditional story the Big Bad Wolf (Wagner Moura) generally appears in, he is also being pursued by him. Puss in Boots, who is terrified of dying, teams up with his ex Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek) and his dog Perro (Harvey Guillén) to search for The Last Wish in order to restore his nine lives.
The only problem is that he needs to get there before Goldilocks (Florence Pugh), the Three Bears (Ray Winston as Papa Bear, Samson Kayo as Baby Bear, and Olivia Colman as Mama Bear), and the evil Jack Horner (John Mulaney).
There are moments of comedy in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, and when they do, the movie can be quite entertaining. One of the greatest animation styles of the year, the animation is also outstanding. It was a wise choice for The Last Wish to depart from the original Puss in Boots’ animation style. To bring its visual palette to life, the sequel’s animation is obviously influenced by Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and anime. In order to do this, the animation style is enhanced by combining 2D and 3D animation rather than adhering to a single style. It gives the animation and the environment it generates more depth.
Puss in Boots struggles with his mortality and decides what to do with the one life he has left, which is one of the film’s fantastic themes. Puss in Boots learns that he doesn’t have to face everything alone and that he doesn’t have to be alone when there are people who care about him, despite the fact that the movie retcons several parts of his character. It’s a good lesson that Puss learns as he let Kitty Softpaws and Perro in despite his initial reluctance to do so since he can be extremely selfish here and is motivated by fear and the urge to flee.
The supporting characters are not fully developed since the attention is too much on the adventure’s thrills, which makes the film’s climactic scenes feel very flat. The Last Wish’s Lack of heart is where it falls short.
Additionally, there are too many characters competing for the reader’s attention, trying to detract from the main character and his quest. The outcome is bloated and confusing, with far too many pointless subplots — like that of Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ personal journey — that ultimately don’t offer anything and are unimpressive. The animation combines a variety of fairy tale storylines into one. Additionally, the adversary in The Last Wish is annoying and unnecessary in a movie where Puss’ mortality and a persistent, terrifying bounty hunter already accomplish this.
The Last Wish, created by DreamWorks Animation, which isn’t well renowned for pushing the boundaries of the medium, could simply be the finest thing the company has created in the past ten years. How to Train Your Dragon provided an emotional rollercoaster in 2010, while Kung Fu Panda 2 established filmmaker Jennifer Yuh Nelson as a top-tier action director with its imaginative martial arts odyssey (even if Hollywood never made good on it). I’ll leave it to the diehard fans to decide whether or not How to Train Your Dragon 2 surpasses the first film with more action.
Whatever the case, the accomplishment inspires optimism. DreamWorks Animation, a firm that has moved around a lot, never managed to compete with Pixar, and struggled in the shadow of the Minions, could have discovered a new approach. Animation is capable of so much, and Hollywood now looks willing to give its creators the green light.
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