It’s pretty easy to grow bored of all franchises. Many get set in their ways, and feed audiences the same story, over and over again, forgetting the emotion for the sake of the machine. Shrek and Far, Far, Away haven’t been relevant in over a decade, so needless to say, I wasn’t exactly excited for Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. So what a lovely end of the year surprise it was to see a franchise film that remembers to connect with people first. And it wasn’t just the adorable cat eyes!
Whence we last left our swash buckling star, Puss (Antonio Banderas, suave as ever) has been galivanting and mythologizing himself in the Shrek universe. The movie opens with his latest battle: an incredible fight with a woodland giant…that ends with his humorous but untimely death. No biggie though for Puss: cats have 9 lives right? Well the doctor reminds him that this was his 8th, setting Puss on edge. He decides it’s time to retire, and goes to Mama Luna’s (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) house of cats to retire, where he meets a nameless perrito (puppy) disguised as a cat (Harvey Guillen) who decides they are now best friends.
Paul Fisher and Tommy Swerdlow, the writers of The Last Wish, elect not to put Shrek in Puss in Boots, like a lazier film might have. Instead they just steal Shrek’s world: fairy tale characters hanging out together. Goldi (Florence Pugh) and her Mama (Olivia Colman), Papa (Ray Winstone) and Baby (Samson Kayo) bear family are key figures in Puss in Boots adventure, as well as a certain Talking Cricket (Kevin McCann), and a truly Burtonesque turn for now “Big” Jack Horner (John Mulaney). Transforming famous nursery rhymes or fairy tales into an alt version of a fairy tale is a perfect animated recipe, because it’s going to work on the parent level and the kid level that the great animated films do. One of the joys of the movie is figuring out how each magical easter egg or character is going to be used in Puss in Boots fantasy, many times in unexpected ways.
But the real magic of The Last Wish is how sweetly emotional it is. Despite my general franchise misgivings, I did like the hook: Puss on his last of his 9 lives. The writers and director Joel Crawford anthropomorphize Puss’s fears via a truly terrifying wolf assassin (Wagner Moura) with giant red eyes and and giant fish hooks for weapons. Our “fearless hero” feline has never felt fear before, so when he does, it really breaks Puss’s haughty facade. Banderas really sells Puss’s transformation: he’s a broken cat by the time the perrito and an old partner Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek) enter the picture. The adventure that he, Goldi, and Jack Horner are on is to find a star to grant their deepest darkest wish. To get there though, all of them have to overcome something really personal and difficult. At this point in Puss’s life, he can’t complete the journey alone. When he starts to panic, that’s when he learns how helpful friends like perrito and Kitty can be…especially when if wolf assassin shows up again. While the movie isn’t earth shatteringly revelatory, it slowly works its way into your heart, leaning on those famous themes from nursery rhymes and fairy tales everyone will recognize and understand, child and adult alike.
My Last Wish of 2022 wasn’t a great Puss in Boots movie. It probably was something like peace and happiness. But, just because it wasn’t what I wanted, it was something I enjoyed and welcomed with open arms. So bring on more adventures from Puss, Kitty, and perrito. And keep the fairytales coming! I want relationship workshops between Hansel, Gretel, and the witch. I want Pinocchio helping Puss infiltrate the Italian Circus. And if we have to have Shrek, let’s just multiverse him out with a new, blank slate of the character and have Puss teach him via a Karate Kid like story.