Movie review:  Puss in Boots – The Last Wish

By Seth Loudon

    Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is a 2022 animated film by Dreamworks and is the sequel to the decade-old first film of the beloved Shrek character. The Last Wish was released on December 21, 2022, and was met with very positive reviews. The Last Wish sits at 95% on rotten tomatoes and a 7.9 on IMDB as of the time of this article.

   A lot of people were very surprised when the movie was first announced because it seemed very random to bring back Puss in Boots after 10 years since the last movie and 11 years since the last Shrek. Especially, because while no means bad no one really was still thinking about the first Puss in Boots. Because of those reasons, people went into The Last Wish with low exceptions, but they couldn’t have been more wrong. 

  Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is one of the best animated movies in recent years.

The movie follows Puss who, at the start of the film, is an arrogant hero who doesn’t value his own life, and feels no fear because he has nine lives. This lack of fear of danger has led Puss to die eight times and he is now down to his last life. Puss travels on a journey to find the last wish, to wish his lives back. But along the way, he learns to value his life, and then realizes he only needs one life.

  The movie is filled with passion and energy, which you can see in every scene with the animation. The animation is very unique and different from the usual 3d animation used nowadays. It blends both 3d and hand drawn styles as well as embracing the uniqueness of animation and not trying to stay as realistic as possible with how the characters move and look.

  The greatest strength of the movie is the characters and how they grow throughout the film. Not just Puss gets development but also some of the side characters. Goldilocks, a villain of the movie, learns that she already has a family with the three bears. And Kitty Softpaws Puss’s companion learns to open up and trust more.   

    The movie has a lot of villains which might be a cause for concern however the movie does a great job of balancing them all. Each villain contributes to the plot in meaningful ways and is all fun to watch. Goldilocks is an antagonist who you come to understand why she is doing this. And Jack Horner is evil just because but don’t worry because the movie knows and uses this to great comedic effect.

    But easily the best villain and most entertaining character of the movie is the personification of death. Death is eerie and intimidating, always being played completely straight in the movie and whenever he is on screen the tone is serious.  Because Puss has taken his lives for granted, Death is angry at him and is hunting Puss throughout the movie. At the beginning of the movie, Puss is shown to be fearless of anything but Death breaks him down and makes him run away.  

    The whole movie is about overcoming the fear of death and accepting it. Puss can’t beat the character of Death in combat and the only way Puss is able to survive is by overcoming his fear. Only then does Death leave Puss alone.

     So far, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish has made about 375 million at the Box Office according to Boxofficemojo.com, which is very good. The first movie made 550 million and the second one will probably end up with around 400 million. The reason the first one made more was likely due to the large time gap in between the films. 

   So all in all the movie is Great! And easily exceeds the standard animated film. I rate Puss in Boots: The Last Wish a 4.5 out of 5 stars.