PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH (2022)

PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH (2022)

Tagline: Pray for mercy from... Puss in Boots!

(Animation, Comedy, The Big Bad Wolf) [PG]

Every cat in the SHREK-verse has 9 lives. Puss In Boots is unexpectedly down to his last one. We end up finding out he wasn’t counting. Puss is encouraged to retire to the house of a cat lady named Mama Luna, but when it becomes apparent that he might be able to actually make it to the location of the legendary “last wish”. Puss wants to use his wish to restore his 9 lives. Puss isn’t the only one after the “last wish”, get ready for adventure. 

I am going to say right off the bat, this is by a LONG shot the single best-animated movie in years. Not just this year, in freakin “years”.  It’s actually probably my favorite animated film in the past 2 decades and I have seen and reviewed quite a few of them over that time frame. Right now everyone seems to be more worried about representation and being “woke” than they are about putting out good stories. There are several movies that have the message this movie does, but when I say several, that’s hardly any. When it comes to the full-blown hurricane of films coming out, this one is one of the few that knows exactly what it’s doing and gives us a thrilling, imaginative wonderful heartfelt story with all the emotional strings you could hope for. 

One visually cool thing they decided to do with this movie was kind of split the animation. During the slower parts, we get the usual Dreamworks animated awesomeness. The action sequences are all done in a style that more resembles some of the stuff we saw in SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE. This combination really works and makes the movie feel less “clunky”. I think when I saw the preview I thought they were only using the alternate style of animation for flashbacks, but that isn’t the case. 

When it comes to the voice actors we get Antonio Banderas back as Puss In Boots. I think it’s pretty awesome that Banderas has done the role of Puss for various Dreamworks animated projects since 2004. His biggest role recently was in UNCHARTED. Salma Hayek returns as Kitty Softpaws. Hayek is most popular recently for ETERNALS. Florence Pugh is awesome as Goldielocks. She is in a lot of stuff lately but is probably most famous for BLACK WIDOW. This was her first animated voice role ever. Wagner Moura is sufficiently creepy as The Big Bad Wolf. He was most recently in the action thriller THE GRAY MAN. Harvey Guillén who does a lot of voice work does the voice for Perro. He’s also freakin hysterical in this. 

I saw this movie on Christmas Day and wanted to go right back into the theater and watch it again. I loved this thing. I can’t wait to see it again and will go to the theaters to do so. Unlike a lot of movies, this one starts out at a blistering speed and only gets more interesting as the movie goes along. Just a quick heads up. Puss doesn’t stay at Mama Luna’s for long. This cat has some crap to do and having Kitty Softpaws back in action only makes this one all that much better. They also have a lot of cool backstories that add to how rich this one is. This isn’t your typical animated movie. If you have emotions at all, it’s very likely to grab you in all the best ways possible. 

Overall PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH is a triumph. This one gets a 7 out of 7 from me. I absolutely loved it and I think it will appeal to just about everyone.
 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF DREAMWORKS ANIMATION AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.