When I recently heard that Dreamworks might be reviving the Shrek franchise with a new film, I was sceptical. After all, do we really need another movie (which would be the FIFTH one) about that annoyingly flatulent green ogre and his donkey sidekick?
Then I watched Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, and decided that, well, if it means we get more of Antonio Banderas’ fine feline hero, then I’ll gladly endure more of Shrek and Donkey’s annoying schtick.
The Last Wish is actually only Puss In Boots’ second solo movie (the first was released in 2011, would you believe it), and sees our hero down to the last of his nine lives. Though he initially brushes it off, an encounter with a formidable foe in the form of a big bad Wolf (chillingly voiced by Wagner Moura) puts the fear of death in him and he decides to retire from his adventuring life once and for all.
Faster than you can say “pspspspsps”, our feline hero checks himself into a nursing home for cats, where he meets Perrito (Harvey Guillén), a tiny therapy dog who doesn’t seem to have had a negative thought ever in his life.
But Puss is being hunted as well, not just by the wolf, but also by crime gang Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and her three bears (Olivia Colman, Ray Winstone, Samson Kayo), who want Puss to help them steal a map from the evil Big Jack Horner (John Mulaney). The map is the key to finding the Last Wish of a fallen star, which will grant just one wish to anyone who finds it.
Realising that the Last Wish is his chance to get his additional lives back, Puss decides to steal the map for himself. During the heist, Puss is reunited once more with cat burglar Kitty Softpaws (Salam Hayek), and together with Perrito, they go after the wish, all the while being chased by Goldilock’s gang and Big Jack Horner as well.
How is it that Shrek has had four movies already, and Puss In Boots has only had two? Puss is easily the standout character of the entire Shrek franchise.
While admittedly I don’t really remember much about the first movie (it was released 11 years ago after all), it is testament to the character’s appeal that you don’t really need a refresher to enjoy this sequel.
It’s a fun-filled ride from start to finish, with Banderas’ completely stealing the show as the fearless feline with a seemingly bottomless pit of one-line quips, while the swashbuckling, supremely confident personality of the character itself fuels the relentlessly funny action sequences.
The show excels even when the action slows down – the exploration of Puss’ fear of death and commitment gives an extra dimension to the character’s development, while Goldilocks and the three bears also lend a surprisingly touching emotional arc to the story.
And don’t get us started on Perrito, who starts off a little annoying but leaves you wanting to rub his belly by the end of it all.
In terms of animation, Dreamworks seems to have hit on a way to make their animated features somehow feel more visceral and kinetic by combining CGI with 2D hand-drawn animation, a style that worked well in its previous movie The Bad Guys, and is used to great effect here as well.
That said, The Last Wish might not be as suitable for young children as you think, as it does skew darker in tone to many similar animated features. The central theme of ‘Death comes for us all’ and Wolf’s chilling demeanour might be a bit scary, while Big Jack Horner is straight out of the ‘mindlessly violent bad guy who kills in supposedly funny ways’ playbook. Fans of the sometimes crude and irreverent humour of the Shrek franchise won’t be fazed by these elements, but younger kids might.
Still, Puss In Boots: The Last Wish is still a welcome return into the Shrek universe, though if I could have that one Last Wish, I’d wish for more Puss In Boots movies rather than Shrek ones.
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Summary:
A welcome and fun return for the fearless feline.
