The legendary hero loses confidence when he finds himself down to his last life in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. After his latest adventure, Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) finds himself on the wrong side of a falling bell. Informed that he is now down to his last life, Puss decides it is time to retire, especially after a failed encounter with the Big Bad Wolf (Wagner Moura). While staying at a cat sanctuary, Puss meets the orphan dog Perro (Harvey Guillén), who wants to be Puss' new friend. Puss regains his spark when he learns that Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and the Three Bears (Ray Winstone, Olivia Colman, and Samson Kayo) plan to steal a map to the Wishing Star from Big Jack Horner (John Mulaney). Along the way, Puss and Perro reunite with the former's jilted love Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek Pinault).
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Synopsis
Puss in Boots: The Wash Wish is the sequel to the original 2011 Shrek spin-off, directed by Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado. Antonio Banderas returns to voice the titular Puss in Boots for the fifth time, while Salma Hayek Pinault reprises her role as Kitty Softpaws from the 2011 film. The film is visually different from the previous Puss in Boots and the four Shrek films that preceded it by utilizing a more styled animation style that almost looks like moving paintings. This new quest sees Puss in Boots travelling to the Dark Forest to locate the Wishing Star, which he hopes to use to wish back his lost nine lives. Goldilocks & the Three Bears and the enormous pie-making manchild Big Jack Horner are standing in “Team Friendship's” way on this journey.
My Thoughts on Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish seems to be part of the attempt to revive classic Dreamworks Animation properties, with co-director Joel Crawford also having made 2020's The Croods: A New Age, another sequel made after a very long gap. More specifically, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is a pretty blatant attempt to revive the Shrek universe, which was undoubtedly the most successful franchise from Dreamworks.
While Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is a fine enough film for its target audience of children, particularly the moments involving the new dog character of Perro, the film reeks of being little more than a cash-in. 11 years is way too long to wait between sequels and I don't even really remember what happened in the previous Puss in Boots film, other than the fact that it featured Zach Galifianakis voicing Humpty Dumpty.
Speaking of the use of fairytale characters as antagonists, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is scraping the bottom of the barrel. While Goldilocks and the Three Bears are pretty reasonable, including Jack Horner is a more obscure choice than Rumpelstiltskin in Shrek Forever After. That said, John Mulaney seems to be enjoying voicing a villainous character, who at one point is even advised by a Jiminy Cricket counterpart that sounds like James Stewart for some reason.
I am not the target demographic of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, and it is still a perfectly fine film. However, there was once a time when movies in the Shrek universe could be accessible to people of all ages. That seems to be no longer the case, and I'm dreading the possibility of a fifth Shrek film, which this film ends up hinting towards.
