OSCARS 2023: Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

It seems like “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” is going to go down as one of the most influential films in animation history. Or at least in the current era of the art form. Just in the few years since its release, we've already seen multiple other films adopt its style of animation. Among the most unexpected projects to get the “Spider-Verse” makeover was “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.” The previous “Puss in Boots” movie came out ten years ago, where it made little impact. That spin-off was seemingly the last desperate attempt to wring a few more dollars from the exhausted “Shrek” franchise. In other words, nobody had any expectations for a sequel. This is probably why “The Last Wish” has received shockingly enthusiastic reviews. The long in-the-works sequel has been so positively received that an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature wasn't a surprise but totally expected. 

While defending a village from a giant, fairy tale hero Puss in Boots is killed. He immediately revives but is horrified to learn that was his eighth life that just ended. He's on his last life. Now being stalked by a mysterious wolf, Puss feels fear for the first time ever. The feline swashbuckler decides to retire, ending up at a crazy cat lady's house. Yet his reputation proceeds him. A quartet of petty crooks – Goldilocks and the Three Bears – track him down, hoping he'll help them find a magical wishing star that can grant any wish. Upon hearing of the last star, Puss realizes this might be his chance to regain his lost lives. Teaming up with new and old friends, Puss soon enters into the magical forest around the star, pursued by Goldilocks and local crime boss “Big” Jack Horner. 

Dreamworks must've been determined to emulate the look of “Into the Spider-Verse” because they hired one of its directors – Joel Crawford – to lead “The Last Wish.” It's interesting to see how this influence manifests throughout the film. In some ways, “Puss in Boots 2” looks about what you'd expect from a far-flung sequel to the “Shrek” movies. The character designs match up with the older franchise, with Jack Horner being an especially unappealing visual. Yet it's clear that more effort was taken here. “The Last Wish” adopts a lush, painterly style, a soft but detailed quality added to many of the characters and environments. The action scenes are really were the difference is noticed. Dynamic camera angles, anime-like speed lines, and stylized movements add much more of a sense of impact and style. A scene of Puss running across rooftops, while avoiding the bell the giant is swinging, or any of the sequences involving the Wolf, are especially well done. 

If Crawford and his team sneaked some “Spider-Verse” flair into “Puss in Boot's” animation, you could also say they found a way to smuggle some deeper themes into the story as well. From the moment this mysterious wolf appears, it's not to hard to figure out his true identity. This is a spectre of death, finally coming to claim the kitty that has avoided him for so long. Puss suddenly developing a fear of death introduces far more stakes than we've come to expect from this universe. A sequence where Puss flees from a vision of this new enemy, having a panic attack afterwards, and is comforted by one of the friends he's made is surprisingly touching. “The Last Wish” doesn't get at anything particularly deep. Most of the themes it touches on – the power of friendship, found family, a cad redeeming himself – are about what you'd expect from a kids' movie. Yet the depiction of the cartoon cat suddenly tangoing with his own mortality is surprisingly well done.

While “The last Wish” makes some unexpected leaps and takes some surprising risks, it's still an entry in the “Shrek” franchise. The film is full of easy gags, built around contrasting these fairy tale characters with snarkier behavior. Thus, Goldilocks has become a bad-ass bounty hunter, the Three Bears acting as her partners-in-crimes. Jack Horner brings with him a bottomless bag – implied to be Mary Poppins' bag – full of objects from other fairy tales and fantasy stories. This allows for the kind of easily understood references and callbacks we've come to expect. Yet even some of these are mildly amusing, such as a reoccurring part for a character that's obviously Jiminy Cricket. I even found myself warming up to the slightly annoying little dog sidekick Puss acquires along the way. There's also some surprisingly dark gags about Horner's callousness concerning his henchmen.

As is also in-keeping with the Dreamworks' house style, “The Last Wish” is packed full of celebrity voices. Antonio Banderas is back as Puss, Salma Hayek returns from the previous “Puss in Boots” film, with John Mulaney, Florence Pugh, Olivia Coleman, and Ray Winstone as various antagonists. I have no doubt that “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” benefited greatly from the surely low expectations everyone had for it. It's easy to impress people when nobody is expecting your movie to be good anyway. Yet the added visual flair and a script with a little more nuance than expected easily makes this one of the better entries in the “Shrek” franchise. Which, I imagine, Dreamworks is eager to revive in the wake of this one's success. I doubt the world needs a “Shrek 5” but we didn't need a “Puss in Boots 2” and it turned out pretty well, so who knows... [7/10]