movie review puss in boots the last wish

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” is as spry and light on its feet as its titular feline.

The inherently alluring paradox of the swashbuckling kitty from the “ Shrek ” universe remains firmly in place 11 years after his first solo feature. He’s a dashing adventurer, a charmer with the ladies, feared and renowned throughout the land—but he’s also unbearably adorable as he laps up milk from a shot glass with his pinky, sandpapery tongue. As always, the charismatic and sensitive Antonio Banderas finds just the right tone in exploring this furry animated figure’s suave and silly sides.

“The Last Wish” expands the roster of ridiculously talented supporting players from the Oscar-nominated 2011 original “Puss in Boots.” Joining Banderas and his longtime friend and co-star Salma Hayek Pinault are Florence Pugh , Olivia Colman , Ray Winstone , Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and John Mulaney , among many others. They bring a surprising amount of substance to what might have been a purely playful endeavor.

But of course, the fast-paced humor and elaborate visuals are the main draws of director Joel Crawford and co-director Januel Mercado ’s film. The film’s aesthetics may rely too heavily on anime influences, especially during the action sequences, but the vibrant colors and rich textures are a delight. From the moss growing on a fearsome forest giant to the shiny silkiness of Puss’ whiskers blowing in the wind, “The Last Wish” offers a variety of eye-popping details. And it frequently features dramatic shadows and subtle dissolves to transition from past to present or one scene to the next.

The story begins with a debauched bacchanal (featuring kegs filled with leche) that’s more convincing than the opening orgy in “ Babylon .” Puss in Boots is naturally front and center, singing his heart out, partying it up—but eventually, he must go on the run when he realizes that bounty hunter The Big Bad Wolf ( Wagner Moura ) is after him, and he’s down to the last of his nine lives. (The zippy montage revealing the many ways he’s died is packed with witty, little asides.) FYI for parents and caretakers of little kids: The Big Bad Wolf is essentially The Grim Reaper. He’s relentless, and he’s terrifying.

Faking his death, Puss seeks shelter at a cramped cat refuge run by Randolph’s sweetly doting Mama Luna. Watching the arrogant, preening feline struggle to assimilate into a mundane world of dry food and shared litter boxes is hilarious, and the angles through which we experience his reluctant transformation put us inside his head. But it’s here that Puss meets an unlikely ally: a scruffy, crazy-eyed Chihuahua pretending to be a cat because he has nowhere else to go. We come to know him as Perrito, and he’s played with scene-stealing sweetness by Harvey Guillen (“ What We Do in the Shadows ”). In a stacked voice cast, Guillen’s performance emerges as the unexpected highlight. Perrito’s unflappable innocence and enthusiasm in the face of danger are infectious, but he also provides the film with some of its most deeply emotional moments. Again, the darker parts of “The Last Wish” may disturb young viewers.

When Puss’ former rival and flame Kitty Softpaws shows up (voiced once again with sarcastic, flirtatious charm by Hayek Pinault), the three go on a mission to find the mythical Wishing Star to restore Puss’ nine lives. The magical map that takes them there suggests a wildly divergent and amusing variety of paths, depending on who’s holding it. But they’re not the only ones seeking the map and the power of the Wishing Star. Also on their tail are Goldilocks and the Three Bears (Pugh, Winstone, Colman, and Samson Kayo ), who are now a bickering, Cockney-voiced crime syndicate straight out of a Guy Ritchie movie. (The idea of Winstone and Colman playing Pugh’s parents in any format is irresistible, and we need more of this.) And in the least developed supporting part, Mulaney plays the gluttonous gang boss “Big” Jack Horner, a towering figure who collects rare, fairy-tale objects like Cinderella’s glass slipper and baby unicorn horns.

After a roaring start, “The Last Wish” sags a bit in the midsection as it becomes clear that we’re in for a pretty standard quest from this script by Paul Fisher (“ The Croods: A New Age ”) and Tommy Swerdlow (2018’s “ The Grinch ”). Of course, everyone’s after everyone else, and they’re all after the same thing, with some funny and frightening obstacles along the way. But the film also manages to convey messages of selflessness and teamwork in a way that doesn’t feel heavy-handed or cloying. And the stellar voice performances and dazzling visuals keep things so engaging you won’t need a laser pointer or a catnip-stuffed mouse toy to entertain you.

Now playing in theaters.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series “Ebert Presents At the Movies” opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

Antonio Banderas as Puss in Boots (voice)
Salma Hayek as Kitty Softpaws (voice)
Florence Pugh as Goldilocks (voice)
Olivia Colman as Mama Bear (voice)
Ray Winstone as Papa Bear (voice)
Wagner Moura as The Big Bad Wolf / "Death" (voice)
John Mulaney as 'Big' Jack Horner (voice)
Harvey Guillén as Perro (voice)
Samson Kayo as Baby Bear (voice)
Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Mama Luna (voice)
Anthony Mendez as Doctor (voice)
Kevin McCann as Ethical Bug (voice)
Conrad Vernon as Gingy (voice)
Heitor Pereira

Director (co-director)

Januel Mercado
Joel Crawford
Paul Fisher
Tommy Swerdlow

Writer (story by)

Tom Wheeler

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Puss in Boots: The Last Wish might be the year’s most unexpected triumph

Hello to the best DreamWorks Animation movie in years

by Matt Patches

Puss rides a rocket as other rockets explode in the background in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Moviegoers shouldn’t have to rely on a sequel to a Shrek spinoff from 11 years ago to discover dazzling spectacle, but here we are. Just days after Avatar: The Way of Water finessed and stretched the photoreal CG language of James Cameron’s original to greater heights (depths?), a frickin’ Puss in Boots movie swings the action pendulum in the complete opposite stylistic direction, while remaining on Cameron’s audacious wavelength. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish , the latest DreamWorks Animation film, steals mercilessly from the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse playbook, and you know what, thank god for it — the result is a fairy tale adventure that complements genuine laughs with splashy, impressionistic art.

I have absolutely no memory of what happened in 2011’s Puss in Boots , nor the Netflix show The Adventures of Puss in Boots, but am happy to report a lack of Puss knowledge did not negatively impact my time watching an Antonio Banderas-voiced cat scurry around with his sword. When we pick up with Puss, he’s a milk-drunk legend realizing he’s wasted eight of his nine lives. Wolf, a physical manifestation of death who wields two scythes and is voiced by Narcos ’ Wagner Moura, could not be happier — all he wants is to cut down the arrogant feline as he begs for mercy. But when Puss catches wind of a fallen star capable of granting a wish, he sets off with Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek) and a tiny dog named Perrito ( What We Do in the Shadows ’ Harvey Guillén) to seize the opportunity. On his fluffy tail are Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and her Three Bears Crime Family, and the Shrek-verse’s version of the Collector, “Big” Jack Horner (John Mulaney), who also want the star.

Talks of a Puss in Boots 2 began just after the first movie’s success. Executive producer Guillermo del Toro teased in 2012 that a script was already in the works, and by 2014, Banderas was making promises about the character’s return — possibly alongside Shrek. None of this came to pass, and DreamWorks saw creative-team shakeups. Eventually Joel Crawford ( The Croods: A New Age ) stepped in to helm the movie, with Januel Mercado as co-director, with the MO of completely rethinking what a CG-animated movie had to look like at DreamWorks.

Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek), Perro (Harvey Guillén) and Puss stand in a garden of watercolor-like flowers and trees

“When the Shrek movies came out, CG animation was in an interesting space,” Last Wish production designer Nate Wragg recently told Animation Magazine . “Part of the spectacle of it was, ‘Wow it looks so real, even though it’s not. Look what the computer can do.’ We’ve now been able to swing the pendulum back into a space where animation originated, which was an artistic expression. Bambi ’s backgrounds were watercolored. It was beautiful but it didn’t have to be photoreal.”

As an animation fan, this has been a long time coming. Spider-verse ’s arrival in 2018 felt like a bullet-speed pebble lodging itself in the windshield of mainstream Western animation . The cracks were immediate, and between DreamWorks’ The Bad Guys , Netflix’s Arcane , and Pixar’s upcoming Elemental , the rules might be fully shattered. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish giving the crude Shrek franchise a facelift in every imaginable way is a reason to hope.

The Last Wish is the closest I’ve ever seen a movie get to emulating hand-painted concept art. On their way to the wishing star, Puss and company traverse prismatic backdrops — from bright pinks and green forests to the rustic interiors of a cat-lady prison — that feel dabbed on by the artistic team. Their encounters with beasties use color, linework, and kinetic camera moves to bring viewers deeper into the battles, and like The Way of Water , regularly shift frame rates to jolt the senses. Puss, looking more oil-painted than ever, may be monologuing about his legendary skills one second, animated “on the ones,” then find himself in a cacophonous skirmish with a towering troll the next, which the team animates “on the twos.” The sensation builds on the work of Spider-verse and drags the Shrek franchise, of all things, into the territory of high art. It’s stunning.

Wolf talks to Puss at the bar while Puss drinks milk

The movie’s also really funny? Having recently revisited Shrek 1 and Shrek 2 , I can’t say I walked into The Last Wish with an open heart/funny bone — pop culture hijinks and fairy-tale riffs were dusty then and petrified now. The Last Wish team, including credited screenwriters Paul Fisher and Tommy Swerdlow, reinvent the humor just like the animation. While the movie offers a few nostalgic nods to Shrek, with brief appearances by Gingerbread Man and Pinocchio, and Jack Horner’s endless supply of fantasy literature collectibles gives Mulaney plenty of joke fuel, the movie’s comedy stylings more closely resemble Groundhog Day . Banderas, it turns out, can do the Bill Murray mumbles-to-self one-liner thing. A recurring bit finds Puss reliving his past deaths, and the versions of himself (Showman Puss, Swole Puss, Drunk Puss) that led to each demise. In this sequel, a somewhat obligatory poop joke is actually a litter box joke about Puss faking his own death and “burying” his body. Good!

The Last Wish might just be the best thing DreamWorks Animation, a studio that isn’t as known for pushing the limits of the medium, has produced in the last decade. 2010 gave us the emotional thrillride of How to Train Your Dragon and 2011 had Kung Fu Panda 2 , a martial arts odyssey bursting with imagination that asserted director Jennifer Yuh Nelson as a top-tier action director (even if Hollywood never made good on it). Maybe How to Train Your Dragon 2 tops the original with bigger action — I’ll leave that to the hardcore fans. The Bad Guys was definitely a step in the right technological direction earlier this year. I will not be engaging with Boss Baby discourse.

Whatever the case, the achievement glimmers with hope. DreamWorks Animation, a studio that has bounced from various homes, never found its footing against Pixar, and struggled in the shadow of the Minions, may have found a new mode. If this level of artistry and cleverness is what the studio brings to future films, hell, I will get in line for Shrek 5 . There is so much animation can do, and Hollywood finally seems ready to grant its artists permission to do it.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is now in theaters

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‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’ Review: Swashbuckling Again

This animated sequel is a tidy charmer.

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In a scene from the film, a cat wearing a had lunges toward the camera, sword drawn.

By Glenn Kenny

It might be hard to believe it today, but there was a time when “Shrek” seemed like a breath of fresh air in the world of big-screen animation. Its salty humor and insistent pop culture knowingness was fun for a minute, before the sequels got nudging and formulaic. And then there was the whole shoving-Smash Mouth-down-our-throat issue. DreamWorks, the studio that concocted “Shrek,” soon enough became the anti-Pixar — in a bad way.

So it’s a pleasant surprise that “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” the second feature film highlighting a beloved children’s lit character who became one of the favorite additions to the “Shrek” universe, is for the most part winning. It contains amusing jokes and has an old-fashioned impulse to tug at heart strings. This in spite of the video-game-suggestive plot construction, in which Puss and cohorts, aided by an animated map, race to a dark forest to find a wishing star, with other children’s lore characters in hot, malevolent pursuit.

Puss is voiced by Antonio Banderas, whose purr can warm the cockles of any and all, as is also the case with Salma Hayek Pinault, who plays his love-and-hate interest Kitty Softpaws. Directed by Joel Crawford, the movie’s overall tone harks back not so much to prior DreamWorks pictures as it does to the “Fractured Fairy Tales” of the old TV cartoon “Rocky and Bullwinkle.” To this end, Goldilocks and the Three Bears are now a band of criminals (including voice work by the powerhouses Olivia Colman, Ray Winstone and Florence Pugh). This often charming movie will play particularly well if you’re a cat person. But who’s not?

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Rated PG. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. In theaters.

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Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Reviews

The sequel we didn't know we needed, with eye-candy animation, a protagonist who begins to question the decisions he's made in his life, and a memorable supporting cast. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Aug 6, 2024

Add it all up, and we get DreamWorks’ best film in a long time!

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 16, 2024

There’s an almost officious tone to its pleasant and precocious quips, but must it all feel so insubstantial?

Full Review | Jul 1, 2024

The film’s biggest issues come down to the choice of animation techniques for fight sequences, which makes the events feel a little choppy and overly stylized

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 5, 2023

Puss N Boots 2 is a shockingly phenomenal movie tackling much deeper themes than one would expect from a kids movie.

Full Review | Aug 16, 2023

It is designed that both young and old should find the tale equally as enjoyable.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Aug 9, 2023

Overflowing with ideas that all land, DreamWorks’s latest offering is surprisingly nuanced, wholly cathartic, and one of the best films of the year.

Full Review | Aug 6, 2023

FANTASTIC. Exhilarating Action, Phenomenal Animation, Perfect Voice Acting, & an argument could be made for the best animated film of 2022!

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

Dreamworks is back baby.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is the last-minute surprise of the year. The film has all the charm the audience has come to expect from the Shrek standout, but with a blindsiding amount of heart and humor.

Full Review | Jul 24, 2023

The script is consistently funny, foregoing the snarky self-skewering that defined the Shrek franchise, swapping it for a more timeless sensibility consisting of whip-cracking one-liners and character-based comedy.

Full Review | Jul 14, 2023

It's darn good!

Full Review | Jun 28, 2023

The Last Wish is that rare thing: an animated sequel that actually delivers.

Full Review | Jun 2, 2023

What a time we live in where our cartoon characters can give us the space to explore mental health and the importance of leaning on our community.

Full Review | Apr 14, 2023

Riding the line between the silliness of the "Shrek" Universe from which it came and something far more Grimm, "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" explores the value of appreciating where you are and what you have ...

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 5, 2023

It does a fine job of balancing its knockabout humor with a surprisingly somber tale of how the specter of death can limit one’s ability to fully embrace and enjoy life.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 5, 2023

The Last Wish is a spellbinding, funny, and gorgeous piece of animated storytelling that restores this franchise to past glory. The real cat in the hat is back, and his boots are very much made for walking!

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 1, 2023

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish takes necessary risks without losing to the assumption that all sequels lose their luster.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.5/10 | Feb 22, 2023

Emotional and surprisingly excellent, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is one of Dreamworks' best and a real crowd-pleaser.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Feb 20, 2023

... the film is enjoyable in its way, partly thanks to a painted style that rejects the usual sheen of modern animation.

Full Review | Feb 14, 2023

AV Undercover

Puss In Boots: The Last Wish review: Antonio Banderas leads the best film yet in the Shrek franchise

Dreamworks delivers a surprisingly engaging and visually striking animated spectacle.

The Shrek franchise has always been one of diminishing returns, never again reaching the all-star heights of the original, which itself is of dubious overall quality. This was nowhere more apparent than in the spin-off film Puss In Boots , an exceedingly ugly and unfunny romp that is best left as a forgotten footnote of Dreamworks’ animated output. However, Dreamworks Animation is apparently having a really good year, first with the surprisingly fun heist antics of The Bad Guys , and now with the Puss In Boots sequel, The Last Wish (in theaters everywhere December 21), which is so visually striking and narratively engaging that it feels unfair that it took the Shrek franchise six films to get here.

Reveling in his legendary status as an invincible hero, Puss (Antonio Banderas) comes to the traumatic realization that he has burned through eight of his nine lives, exposing him to the possibility that he may need to confront a permanent death. After an encounter with a threatening and ominous bounty-hunting wolf (Wagner Moura) leaves Puss shaken, he retreats into bearded, depressive reclusion, where he attracts the unwanted friendship of a nameless therapy support dog (Harvey Guillén). However, this seclusion does not prevent the Three Bears crime family (Ray Winstone, Olivia Colman, and Samson Kayo), led by Goldilocks (Florence Pugh), from tracking Puss down, with the hopes of recruiting him for a job to hunt down the map to a lost wishing star.

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Puss, of course, sees this as an opportunity to wish his lost lives back into existence, so the race is on to get to the star before Goldilocks and the bears. Along the way, he reunites with his love interest from the previous film, Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek, whose perpetual chemistry with Banderas was the only good thing about the previous film), and runs afoul of the magically gluttonous Jack Horner (John Mulaney), both of whom have their own agendas in finding the star. This makes for an admittedly busy narrative in terms of characters and motivations, but The Last Wish is able to keep up with all its players with exceptional pacing, both in terms of story and action.

The most obvious upgrade from the previous film is in the animation, which takes inspiration from a number of sources but is most obviously reminiscent of the innovations pioneered in Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse . The combination of 2D and 3D animation meshes well with the painterly storybook aesthetic that The Last Wish is aiming for, allowing one to soak in beautiful vistas in the quiet moments and seamlessly ramping up into frenetic action that draws influence from shonen anime, of all places. Especially for being the product of a franchise known for its reflexive cynicism, The Last Wish is an especially vibrant and kinetic spectacle that’s having unironic fun with its grab bag of fairy tale pastiches, without limiting itself to a retread of familiar characters and themes.

Antonio Banderas' existentialism in Puss In Boots: The Last Wish was fueled by his heart attack and COVID-19
New Puss In Boots movie to feature what is, frankly, too many famous people

This is in no small part because The Last Wish has a lot on its mind with regard to its characters, especially Puss himself. This is ultimately a story about accepting one’s mortality, perhaps an appropriate mid-life crisis narrative for those who saw the original Shrek as teenagers, but no less effective as an internal struggle that the whole family can understand and enjoy. As Puss comes to realize his legendary status is not a substitute for interpersonal connection, his interactions with Kitty and the therapy dog start to take on a surprising amount of weight, while Goldilocks serves as a well-realized foil who has more in common with Puss that is at first apparent. None of these character beats slow the film down or distract from the spectacle, but rather enhance the film into a true example of all-ages entertainment that doesn’t condescend to its audience.

Unfortunately, Puss In Boots: The Last Wish is not without its stumbles. As fun as Jack Horner and his Baker’s Dozen mercenaries can be in the action sequences—a cadre of Mad Max: Fury Road War Boys by way of Kitchen Nightmares —Jack himself is a relatively shallow villain who doesn’t add much to the overall themes or plot. Goldilocks and the three bears are more compelling, but their dialogue continually looping back around to the phrase “just right” is a motif that gets old fast and could have been used more sparingly. And while it’s seemingly obligatory in this age of perpetual franchising, the occasional callbacks to Shrek characters are distracting in a film that otherwise stands very well on its own.

Overall, though, Puss In Boots: The Last Wish is one of cinema’s biggest surprises of the year. Dreamworks Animation really seems to be pulling out the stops these days with distinctive visuals and well-written stories, making The Last Wish easily the best film in the Shrek franchise. This is hopefully a good sign for the future of the studio’s output, but for now, it’s hard to wish for anything more.

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‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’ Review: A Nuanced, Winning Fairy Tale for Audiences of All Ages

Emma stefansky.

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“Shrek” was the film that put DreamWorks Animation on the map and, for better or worse, convinced an entire industry to switch their attention from the old world charm of hand-drawn children’s films to the modern frontier of CGI animation. The sequel, “Shrek 2,” introduced something even more important: The Antonio Banderas-voiced, Zorro-inspired Puss in Boots, a swashbuckling ginger cat with a tiny sword, a smart pair of boots, and an adorable pair of enormous kitten eyes. He got his own movie in 2011 after the main Shrek quadrilogy was finished, and its long-awaited follow-up, “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” finally debuts this year.

Puss in Boots (Banderas) has spent a lifetime performing daring deeds and laughing in the face of death. Eight lifetimes, in fact: after a particularly heroic battle, Puss finds out that he’s used up almost all of his nine lives, and only has one left. He’s not truly concerned, though, until he comes nose-to-nose with the Big Bad Wolf (Wagner Moura), a cloaked bounty hunter wielding two scythe blades who has never allowed a wanted criminal to escape. During Puss’s search for safety, he comes across Guy Ritchie-esque crime family Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and the Three Bears (Ray Winstone, Olivia Colman, and Samson Kayo) who are hunting down the map to a legendary wishing star that fell to Earth long ago.

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With the help of the sweet yet buffoonish Perrito (Harvey Guillen) and Puss’s old flame Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek), Puss embarks on a quest to find the star and wish for all his lives back, hounded at every turn by the bears, the Wolf, and magic-obsessed mafioso Big Jack Horner (John Mulaney) of the plum pie nursery rhyme.

“The Last Wish” continues the Shrek franchise’s tongue-in-cheek penchant for throwing popular fairy tale characters into the same world and seeing what comes out. Pugh voices Goldilocks with a gruff “oi oi” London drawl and Mulaney is a treat as violent manchild Jack, darkly intoning the nursery rhyme’s catchphrase “What a good boy am I” at a pivotal moment in the film. The Wolf is particularly frightening as an almost literal personification of Puss’s deep-seated fear of death, appearing out of dark corners with glowing red eyes and a sinister whistle that makes the cat’s fur stand on end.

DreamWorks’ animation department (for which “The Last Wish” debuts a brand-new logo honoring the studio’s most popular characters) has long been one of the more underrated in terms of trying out new styles and aesthetics from film to film (the “Boss Baby” franchise notwithstanding), and “The Last Wish” has a particularly fun blend of standard computer imagery combined with the sketchy look of hand-drawn animation and the fast-paced flip-book style fight choreography popularized by “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”

Perhaps what makes “The Last Wish” a cut above the rest is the deftness with which it eases the audience into the Lesson of the Day format of most animated children’s movies. Ultimately, Puss’s desire to be free from death keeps him from enjoying his life — a somewhat darker concept than one usually finds in children’s media, especially geared towards an audience as young as this film’s. It never, however, plasters whatever it has to say all over the screen, allowing story beats to unfold naturally and in surprising ways. Goldilocks’ secret reason for pursuing the wishing star is particularly unexpected, yet it fits, and it’s handled with grace. “The Last Wish” has no qualms about testing the expectations of its young audience while delivering a freewheeling tale about appreciating the nine lives we already have.

Dreamworks will release “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” in theaters on Wednesday, December 21.

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‘puss in boots: the last wish’ review: antonio banderas in fine feline form.

The actor again voices the intrepid cat, who's now down to his last life, in a sequel also featuring voice work by Florence Pugh, Olivia Colman and Salma Hayek.

By Frank Scheck

Frank Scheck

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Hey kids, want to see a movie revolving around an aging male character dealing with a mid-life crisis who’s desperately afraid of his impending mortality? Just in time for Christmas?

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Related stories, john crowley explains how florence pugh prioritized 'we live in time' over marvel, 'celebrity substitute' puts a-listers like andrew garfield, florence pugh on the spot at nyc public schools.

Puss ( Antonio Banderas ) has a more immediate solution to his problem. With the help of his former girlfriend and occasional foil Kitty Softpaws ( Salma Hayek Pinault, also reprising her role), he heads into the Black Forest in search of the mythical Wishing Star that he hopes will restore his squandered lives.

If you’re wondering how he lost so many, screenwriters Paul FIsher and Tommy Swerdlow vividly illustrate the causes of his many demises in a hilarious montage that illustrates the frequent wit on display in DreamWorks Animation offerings. Not all of those deaths are heroic, as demonstrated by his gluttonous losing battle with a shellfish allergy.

Darker in tone but still extremely funny, the film, like so many of its animated brethren, falters when resorting to the frenetic action sequences seemingly designed for tykes’ short attention spans. Those exhausting episodes pale in comparison to such uproarious scenes as a saucer-eyed feline face-off in which Puss attempts to prove he’s the most adorable.

Also highly amusing are the scenes involving the tiny, Jiminy Cricket-inspired Ethical Bug, who fruitlessly attempts to serve as Jack Horner’s conscience. (He’s voiced by DreamWorks Animation story supervisor Kevin McCann, doing a fun riff on Jimmy Stewart).

Making frequent if occasionally overdone allusions to Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns, the film — directed by Joel Crawford ( The Croods: A New Age ) — boasts a painterly animation style that feels richer than the usual computer graphics.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish looks great, but what really makes it work is Banderas’ silky-voiced turn, conveying all of the character’s over-the-top feline suavity while making it clear that he’s very much in on the joke. Too often, animated films feature supremely overpaid and overqualified voice casts whom children, and most adults, couldn’t care less about. Banderas, on the other hand, is worth every penny.

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Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Wagner Moura, Ray Winstone, Olivia Colman, Harvey Guillén, Samson Kayo, and Florence Pugh in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

When Puss in Boots discovers that his passion for adventure has taken its toll and he has burned through eight of his nine lives, he launches an epic journey to restore them by finding the m... Read all When Puss in Boots discovers that his passion for adventure has taken its toll and he has burned through eight of his nine lives, he launches an epic journey to restore them by finding the mythical Last Wish. When Puss in Boots discovers that his passion for adventure has taken its toll and he has burned through eight of his nine lives, he launches an epic journey to restore them by finding the mythical Last Wish.

Joel Crawford
Januel Mercado
Paul Fisher
Tommy Swerdlow
Tom Wheeler
Antonio Banderas
Salma Hayek
Harvey Guillén
726 User reviews
172 Critic reviews
73 Metascore
8 wins & 57 nominations total

Top cast 28

Puss in Boots

Kitty Softpaws
(as Salma Hayek Pinault)

Jack Horner

Ethical Bug

Jan Serpent

Little Goldi
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Trivia During the montage where Big Jack Horner assembles his Baker's Dozen, the horses pulling their carriage were actually unicorns whose horns were cut off
Goofs At around 48min where Jack chases the three bears and Goldi, he takes his sword and swings it from right to left (from his point of view) but the bears and Goldi fly down the right side, not left, as it should've been.

The Big Bad Wolf : I was there to witness all of them. Each frivolous end. But you didn't even notice me, because Puss in Boots laughs in the face of death, right? But you're not laughing now.

Puss in Boots : You are no bounty hunter. You are...

The Big Bad Wolf : Death. And I don't mean it metaphorically or rhetorically or poetically or theoretically or any other fancy way. I'M DEATH. STRAIGHT UP! And I've come for you, Puss in Boots.

Puss in Boots : But... I'm still alive...

The Big Bad Wolf : [chuckles] You know, I'm not really a cat person. I find the very idea of NINE lives absurd.

The Big Bad Wolf : And you didn't value ANY of them. So why don't I do us both a favor, and take this last one now?

Crazy credits After the credits, Puss in Boots says, "You're still here?"
Connections Featured in AniMat's Crazy Cartoon Cast: Disney Cannot Catch A Break (2022)
Soundtracks Fearless Hero Written by Heitor Pereira , Dan Navarro , and Paul Fisher Produced by Heitor Pereira

User reviews 726

bbevis-47954
Dec 22, 2022
How long is Puss in Boots: The Last Wish? Powered by Alexa
December 21, 2022 (United States)
United States
DreamWorks Animation
Official Facebook
Gato con botas: El último deseo
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$90,000,000 (estimated)
$186,090,535
$12,429,515
Dec 25, 2022
$481,757,663

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 42 minutes
Dolby Digital
Dolby Atmos

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Puss In Boots: The Last Wish Review

Puss In Boots: The Last Wish

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the Shrek franchise was on its last life by now. While the 2001 original and its even-funnier 2004 sequel shook up the status quo with their sharp Disney-fairy-tale satire, diminishing returns saw the anarchic ogre’s impact dwindle over time. It’s fair to say, then, that Puss In Boots: The Last Wish — a sequel to a spin-off that graced cinema screens over a decade ago — doesn’t arrive with much momentum behind it. That it frequently explodes into sequences of vital, visually dazzling, capital-c Cinema is a truly unexpected delight.

In its opening 15 minutes, it’s clear that The Last Wish is fighting tooth and claw to exceed expectations — kicking off with a kinetic kitty versus kaiju set-piece that re-establishes the legendary status of Puss In Boots for an audience who have likely long moved on. Antonio Banderas (who originated the role way back in Shrek 2 ) returns to voice the Zorro-styled, leche-lapping swashbuckler, whose diminutive stature belies feats of highwire heroism. Taking on a moss-covered mountain beast with only his rapier, it’s an eye-boggling, pulse-pounding sequence, gorgeously animated in striking digital-paint brushstrokes, and intentionally stuttering Spider-Verse -esque frame-rate effects.

With stakes this high, notions this existential, and a superhero this hairy, it often plays like a kid-friendly Logan .

The effect is dazzling — once again, it’s apparent that Spider-Verse has upped the game of every animation studio in town. The Last Wish capitalises on that with visual flourishes that bring real dynamism to its action scenes, breaking away from the homogenous stylings of late-’00s 3D animation to deliver ultra-expressive, impressionistic imagery.

That boundary-pushing extends to the themes explored here, too — if younger viewers won’t necessarily be familiar with Puss In Boots himself, they also likely won’t be expecting a treatise on mortality and PTSD. But that’s The Last Wish ’s central preoccupation, as Puss realises his nine lives have dwindled down to one (capped off in a hilarious moggy-murder-montage), and that death itself is rapidly approaching. With stakes this high, notions this existential, and a superhero this hairy, it often plays like a kid-friendly Logan .

Everything exceptional about The Last Wish makes the more generic elements stand out, such as the supporting characters, some of which don’t quite sing. A gangster-family Goldilocks ( Florence Pugh ) and the Three Bears ( Ray Winstone , Olivia Colman and Samson Kayo) wring few laughs, while villain Jack Horner (John Mulaney) also feels like a distraction. But in most regards, The Last Wish is a minor miracle — visually daring, frequently funny, and surprisingly emotional. Against all the odds, it could bring the Shrek series back to all-star status.

Movies | 19 02 2023

Movies | 15 11 2022

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Parents' guide to, puss in boots: the last wish.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish: Movie Poster

Common Sense Says
Parents Say 94 Reviews
Kids Say 131 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Danger, peril ratchet up a notch for charismatic cat.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 8+?

Characters face frequent threats, including death in the form of a scary assassi

"Hell," "crap," "wuss," "butt," "pooping," "idiot," "freaking," "stupid," "weird

In one of his death scenes, Puss is staggeringly drunk (revisited via flashback

Puss and Softpaws flirt and recall how they fell in love.

Part of the Puss in Boots and Shrek franchises, which come with a lot of off-scr

Any Positive Content?

Family is where you find it, who you make it. If we only have one life to live,

Puss ultimately realizes how much he cares for others in his life and makes sacr

Voice cast is led by Spanish and Latino actors (Banderas, Hayek, Guillén, etc.)

Kids may pick up some words in Spanish if they don't already know them. From Per

Violence & Scariness

Characters face frequent threats, including death in the form of a scary assassin wolf. Puss is killed in an early scene but comes back to life because he's a cat. He then reviews the (comical) ways he was killed eight previous times (including being shot out of a cannon, being squashed by a heavy weight, falling from a significant height, etc.). Animated action sequences involve swords and knives, ominous journeys through menacing settings, fights, falls, explosions, fire, crashes, and so on. Jack Horner is cruel, intimidating, and quick to risk others' lives. One of his minions is eaten by a plant; his skeleton is shown. Puss has a panic attack.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

"Hell," "crap," "wuss," "butt," "pooping," "idiot," "freaking," "stupid," "weird," "bull," "jerks," "fat" (as an insult), and words (seems like mostly "s--t") that are bleeped out. "Dingleberries" are mentioned.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

In one of his death scenes, Puss is staggeringly drunk (revisited via flashback a couple of times). Puss also laps up milk in a bar.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Part of the Puss in Boots and Shrek franchises, which come with a lot of off-screen merchandising.

Positive Messages

Family is where you find it, who you make it. If we only have one life to live, we should make the most of it and surround ourselves with those we love. Fame can be lonely and its pursuit ultimately meaningless; true connections with others are more valuable.

Positive Role Models

Puss ultimately realizes how much he cares for others in his life and makes sacrifices for them. Kitty Softpaws sets resentment aside to rescue Puss and Perrito and work with them as a team. Perrito's positive outlook makes his life's path much easier; he's a good and loyal friend. Goldilocks and the bears seek out trouble but are a strong family unit. Jack Horner is a clear villain, but his backstory does attempt to give him some relatability.

Diverse Representations

Voice cast is led by Spanish and Latino actors (Banderas, Hayek, Guillén, etc.) who mix Spanish words and phrases into their dialogue and singing. Other lead characters are voiced by international actors, mostly from the United States, England, Brazil. A minor character (a woman who takes in stray cats) is Black. But "fat" is used as an insult, and Jack Horner's size/shape is suggested to be part of what makes him unappealing.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Educational Value

Kids may pick up some words in Spanish if they don't already know them. From Perrito's model, they can learn the value of positive thinking and of supporting your friends.

Parents need to know that Puss in Boots: The Last Wish -- which centers on popular Shrek 2 character Puss in Boots (voiced by Antonio Banderas ) -- ratchets up the franchise's peril a notch. Puss is down to the last of his nine lives, and he's pursued throughout the movie by a creepy, whistling manifestation of death in the form of a wolf who wields two sharp crescent-shaped swords. In his pursuit of the mystical Last Wish, which could restore his squandered lives, Puss encounters a series of other menacing characters, ominous situations, and violent fights (with swords, knives, and other weapons). But he also learns lessons about the value of positive thinking, working with others, and prioritizing loved ones over selfish pursuits. The voice cast, led by a Spanish and Latino cast, peppers the dialogue with Spanish. Language includes "hell," "crap," "wuss," "butt," "pooping," "idiot," "freaking," "stupid," "weird," and some bleeped words. Puss is shown staggeringly drunk in a couple of scenes that are played for humor. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Silhouette of Puss in Boots, Perrito and Kitty Softpaws

Parent and Kid Reviews

Parents say (94)
Kids say (131)

Based on 94 parent reviews

Final Destination in kid's clothes?

Intense, frightening characters, best for older kids, what's the story.

Fearless hero Puss in Boots (voiced by Antonio Banderas ) is enjoying the spoils of his fame when he's unexpectedly killed at the start of PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH. As he's brought back to life, he's warned that he has now run through eight of his nine lives. The reality of his mortality fills Puss with a newfound fear of death. This is amplified by the menacing wolf ( Wagner Moura ) who begins pursuing him, promising to take his last life. Puss goes into hiding at a cat rescue home, where he meets an innocent and lonely chihuahua, Perrito ( Harvey Guillén ), who clings to Puss as his new best friend. One day, the three bears ( Olivia Colman , Ray Winstone , and Samson Kayo ) and Goldilocks ( Florence Pugh ) show up at Puss' hideout, and the cat overhears their plans to make off with a magical map that will lead them to the mystical Last Wish -- which could perhaps be the secret of regaining his immortality. Puss takes off, Perrito on his tail, to find the map and make his wish. En route, he encounters more threats, especially Jack Horner ( John Mulaney ), and runs into old flame Kitty Softpaws ( Salma Hayek Pinault ).

Is It Any Good?

Shrek's charismatic cat buddy is back in fine form in this action-packed sequel. But Puss in Boots: The Last Wish might have done well to focus more on its characters, both familiar and new, and less on the nonstop action. The chase and fight scenes are visually impressive, but, narratively, they get old quickly. What doesn't get old is Puss' smug confidence in his feline fierceness and "fearless hero" status -- or adorable newcomer Perrito's innate goodness. It's almost a letdown when the fantabulous opening musical number gives way to a traditional chase and fight scene. The voice cast -- led by Banderas, love interest Hayek, and newcomer Guillén as the charming chihuahua -- is once again purr-fect. And the movie throws in quite a bit of Spanish in ways both natural (exclamations) and complementary (the soundtrack).

The music is one of the film's standout elements. Overseen by Brazilian composer Heitor Pereira, the soundtrack ranges from original pieces sung by Pereira and Banderas or Latin American stars like Gaby Moreno and Karol G to reworked classics, like a Spanish-infused version of The Doors' "The End" (Puss' own Apocalypse Now ?). The story's blend of fairy tale characters can be a tad confusing -- menacing villain Jack Horner, a selfish Goldilocks sometimes confused for Bo Peep, and a big, bad wolf. It's part of the Shrek franchise's personality, but unrecognized characters could have functioned just as well and maybe have been less muddied, allowing even more focus on the fanciful felines. The reality is that many viewers will come for the cat -- and this latest adventure does assure that they'll stay for the cat.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about what Puss learns over the course of his adventures in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. What do Perrito and Kitty Softpaws show him through their own actions? How do they all learn to work as a team ?

How did the scary/violent scenes in this movie compare to those in the other Shrek and Shrek-related movies? What's the impact of media violence on kids?

If you had one magical wish to make, what would it be and why?

In what ways did the magical map change for each of its users? What was the point of this?

Movie Details

In theaters : December 21, 2022
On DVD or streaming : January 6, 2023
Cast : Antonio Banderas , Salma Hayek , Harvey Guillén , John Mulaney , Florence Pugh
Director : Joel Crawford
Inclusion Information : Female actors, Latino actors, Middle Eastern/North African actors, Queer actors
Studio : Universal Pictures
Genre : Family and Kids
Topics : Magic and Fantasy , Adventures , Cats, Dogs, and Mice , Friendship
Character Strengths : Teamwork
Run time : 100 minutes
MPAA rating : PG
MPAA explanation : action/violence, rude humor/language, and some scary moments
Last updated : September 17, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Puss in Boots: The Last Wish review: Kids will love it but really, this Antonio Banderas-led Shrek sequel is one for the millennials

The pint-sized feline rogue became an instant hit when he was introduced in 2004’s ‘shrek 2’, article bookmarked.

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Kids will get a kick out of the sprightly and silly Puss in Boots: The Last Wish – but really, this one is for the millennials. Antonio Banderas ’s pint-sized feline rogue, with his thigh-high boots and eyes as big as saucers, became an instant hit when he was introduced in 2004’s Shrek 2 . But his follow-up appearances, in the later Shrek sequels and a 2011 spin-off, have played as either wrung out or purely cynical. The Last Wish offers something different and unexpected: Puss has grown up with his audience.

He is now, in exquisitely millennial fashion, suffering from feline burnout. Having already torn through eight of his nine lives (reminder to never go running with the bulls in Pamplona if you’re 15in tall), Puss must now face his mortality. And so, he slinks into his crisis era, complete with a sizable beard and an unshakeable malaise. His end-of-life stupor is interrupted, however, by Goldilocks ( Florence Pugh ) and her three bears (Ray Winstone, Olivia Colman, and Samson Kayo). The Cockney-accented bandits are searching for the fabled Wishing Star, which can grant one person their heart’s desire.

Puss’s love interest Kitty Softpaws ( Salma Hayek Pinault) makes her return to the franchise while John Mulaney plays Little Jack Horner, with his thumb in all the pies, as a washed-up child star. But the heart of the film, thanks to a standout performance from What We Do in the Shadows ’s Harvey Guillén, is a squeaky-voiced, pot-bellied mutt without a home or a name (Puss comes to call him Perrito, aka “little dog”). Children will fall in love with Perrito. He is, after all, an adorable tiny puppy. But it’s the adults who will blub as Perrito teaches his world-weary companions not to let the cruelty of life bog them down.

Dreamworks has increasingly explored these more mature themes – which isn’t to say The Last Wish has abandoned the kind of irreverent parody that first made Shrek the ideal antidote for Disney's saccharine princess tales. There is, for example, a particularly ingenious take on Pinocchio ’s Jiminy Cricket, who now sounds like James Stewart owing to the voicework of story supervisor Kevin McCann.

Knock at the Cabin review: M Night Shyamalan unspools a horrific moral conundrum with Hitchcockian flair

Using the same blend of 2D and 3D animation popularised by Sony’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), Dreamworks continues to push the boundaries of mainstream animation. The Last Wish is visually gorgeous with an attention to detail you might not expect given it’s a sequel to a spin-off of a two-decade-old film. Goldilocks’s skirt is astonishing, a quilt-like ruckus of fabrics. The animation even faithfully captures the individual nuances of its A-list cast – especially Banderas and Hayek Pinault, who easily slip into the flirtatious dynamic of their characters in Robert Rodriguez’s Nineties El Mariachi trilogy. Sure, the kids won’t get that reference but it's just one of many delights that The Last Wish has to offer its more millennial-aged audience.

Dir: Joel Crawford. Starring: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek Pinault, Harvey Guillén, Florence Pugh, Olivia Colman, Ray Winstone, Samson Kayo. PG 102 minutes.

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It would be fair to say that DreamWorks Animation is not the juggernaut that it used to be. From the early 2000s up until the early 2010s, the animation studio has given audiences true classics in the medium including the first two Shrek films, the Kung Fu Panda and How To Train Your Dragon trilogies, the Madagascar franchise, and Rise of the Guardians . While at the time it may not have had the same batting average as its main competitor Pixar, they were still a name that families could trust in providing entertainment suited for people of all ages. Unfortunately in recent years, they've been slipping. While there are still a few gems in the rough, they also gave us The Boss Baby films. It's been 11 years since the first Puss in Boots was released in theaters and since then, the Shrek franchise has had a bit of a resurgence to say the least, not through film, but through countless internet memes, to the point where it's puzzling that DreamWorks has yet to revisit the fairy tale land of Far, Far, Away. That is until now, with the long-awaited sequel Puss in Boots: The Last Wish featuring the return of the sword-wielding Spanish cat voiced by Antonio Banderas .

The film starts off several years after the events of the previous film, where we find Puss in Boots in the middle of an existential crisis upon learning that he's down to the last of his nine lives. Stalked by the seemingly supernatural Big Bad Wolf ( Wagner Moura ), for the first time in his life, Puss in Boots isn't the one who is feared but now is in fear of death itself. Defeated, Puss moves in with Mama Luna ( Da'Vine Joy Randolph ), an old woman who houses dozens of stray cats. Forced to live like an actual cat, Puss meets Perro ( Harvey Guillén ), a scrappy little dog clad in a sock sweater who has been living unwanted with the rats underneath Mama Luna's home. When a bounty is placed on Puss, several sinister forces chase after him, including Goldilocks ( Florence Pugh ) and the Three Bears ( Olivia Colman , Ray Winstone , and Samson Kayo ), and "Big" Jack Horner ( John Mulaney ). To make matters even more complicated, Puss reunites with his former flame Kitty Softpaws ( Salma Hayek Pinault ), whom he's become estranged since the events of the last film. After learning of a shooting star that has the ability to grant him additional lives, Puss, Kitty, and Perro embark on a wild adventure to get to the star before their adversaries get to it first.

For a sequel that's taken over a decade to finally hit the screen, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish may have been the hero that DreamWorks Animation has needed all along. Much like the studio's previous film The Bad Guys , the animation style has its own unique style and a personality of its own. Much like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse , The Last Wish combines 2D hand-drawn stylings with CG animation to great success. The action is exciting and allows filmmakers Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado as well as the animation team to get creative; at times it plays out like a comic book, there's a scene that feels like a rainbow-coated homage to Mad Max , and plenty of visual gags that'll have the older audiences cracking up right alongside the younger viewers. The landscapes are gorgeous and there's never a dull frame in the film's 100-minute runtime.

RELATED: Why 'Puss in Boots' Is an Animated Spinoff That Worked

Banderas is better than ever voicing Puss, as he brings new layers to the character as he faces a more existentialist dilemma than he has before. The new additions, including Goldilocks, Jack Horner, and the Big Bad Wolf, are all wonderful as well, with Pugh, Mulaney, and Moura bringing their own signature personalities to the roles. It's Guillén's voice work as Perro that is the real stand-out of the cast, a character that gives the film an extra spoonful of heart and is destined to become you and your kids' new favorite character. Perro fits right in with the rest of the characters and Guillén's voice work is responsible for some of the film's funniest moments. He's one of the best sidekicks DreamWorks has given us who fits right alongside Donkey and the Madagascar penguins.

The film is surprisingly much more ambitious and mature than one might expect, it goes beyond the messages you might expect from your average family movie and decides to dig deep into themes of mortality and confronting death. The stakes are actually felt and there are moments in the film's climax that are effectively tense, while the general story may be a predictable one, the places it goes to while telling it almost seem like its targeting the adults or those who grew up with the Shrek films rather than the younger fans who weren't even born when the previous film hit the big screen. The jokes are plentiful, and it's one of the funniest movies of the year, but it is the strong emotional core that holds the movie together. In a time when many sequels fail to live up to their potential by just attempting to recreate what their predecessors did so well, The Last Wish aims to do something different and one that shows a hopeful future for DreamWorks. There's even more than meets the eye with several of the film's antagonists, including Goldilocks' relationship with her makeshift family and the Big Bad Wolf's connection to Puss. While Jack Horner may be the more conventional villain, the others aren't necessarily portrayed as truly "bad" people, but the film portrays them in a way where we understand their motivations and even, in some cases, care for them just as much as we do for the central trio.

There are times when The Last Wish may feel a little bit too crowded, the cast of characters is as impressive as it is vast, but Paul Fisher 's script does an effective job of preventing the movie from ever feeling too overwhelming or convoluted.

Nothing in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish feels lazy, it more than justifies the long wait. It is not only one of the best animated films of the year, but it's one of DreamWorks' best, and one that will strike a chord with moviegoers of all ages. It's equal parts exciting and hilarious as well as earnest, it never feels like it is talking down to anyone. With The Bad Guys and now Puss in Boots: The Last Wish it is more than safe to say that DreamWorks is back and (maybe) better than ever.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish comes to theaters on December 21.

Movie Reviews
Puss in Boots
Antonio Banderas

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Christian Movie Review)

Verdict: A swashbuckling adventure pushed to its last life by a sharp and cynical tone.

About The Movie

Cinema’s most famous swashbuckling feline is pouncing back into theaters after a surprisingly long nap. It’s been 11 years since the original Puss in Boots and 12 years since the last Shrek film. The Shrek universe (SCU?) has always been an endlessly fun sandbox for storytelling, blending classic fairy tales with contemporary and meta humor. Puss and Boots: The Last Wish manages to capture some of that charm in its paws, but it also bares its teeth with a sharpness of tone and humor that parents may find unwelcome.

The story begins with the legend of Puss and Boots having grown, along with the outlaw cat’s ego. When a battle against a giant goes awry, Puss dies for the 8 th time, leaving him with only his ninth and final life. His nine-lives safety net is gone, and so is his confidence and swagger. Only by locating a mythical wishing star can he regain his lost lives and become the legendary Puss and Boots once more. But he’s not the only fairytale character on the hunt for that final wish.

There’s a moment early in the movie when Puss pauses mid-combat to slurp a cup of coffee. His eyes bulge and he launches a chaotic, caffeine-fueled attack. The moment works as a metaphor for the film’s pacing. There’s a frantic quality to The Last Wish . There are some calmer moments scattered throughout, during which the story delves into some surprisingly mature (perhaps too mature) themes, such as mortality and abandonment. But a hyper-paced action scene is rarely far away, ready to explode with stimuli-overload. The movie balances right on the line between high-energy fun and exhausting, and personal tastes (and age) will likely determine which side of the wall it lands on.

The Shrek franchise has always been amusingly irreverent and edgy with its humor, but The Last Wish sometimes pushes the limits with its sharp and almost cynical tone. The most noticeable way the barbed tone manifests itself is through the dialogue. The characters speak horrendously to each other (see “Content to Consider” below). Whereas the Shrek movies were often laced with clever dialogue, The Last Wish relies on insults. A character will look at another character and declare, “you idiot,” and that’s it. It’s meant to be funny, but it just comes across as mean. In small doses, this tactic wouldn’t be a problem. But almost every single conversation between any of the characters has the same prickly tone, filled with rude jibes and insults.

Overall, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is fine. I didn’t hate the film. It has some fun moments. A Jiminy Cricket-inspired character is hilarious, and a wolf bounty hunter stalking Puss is a genuinely intimidating antagonist (to the point that it may be too much for younger viewers). And, of course, Puss himself has a fun personality with lots of potential. There is a delightful movie in there somewhere, but unfortunately, it’s pushed to its last life by a joyless and cynical tone. I suppose the sharp and bitter edge is fitting for a story about a cat hero, but this movie reminds me why I’m a dog person.

For Consideration

Profanity: I’m not 100% certain I caught it correctly, but I believe Puss says, “What the hell are you talking about?” when his dog companion asks him to rub his belly for the first time (which, if so, is a completely unnecessary phrase to include in an animated film). There are several other moments in which swears are interrupted or censored. A character says, “All I smell is bulls…” before being interrupted with “shhhhhhh!” Another character has a swear bleeped out and later goes on a seemingly profane tirade filled with lots of bleeps and censored words. There are also plenty of rude words (“heck,” “idiot,” “crap,” “stupid,” etc.). Lastly, at one point a character breaks into a rant in Spanish. I don’t speak Spanish, but many people in my theater reacted out loud to the scene, so there may be something there as well.

Violence: Puss is shown dying in eight different ways (effectively played for humor). There is plenty of talk about “murdering” and “killing.” One of the villains has thirteen minions who all die in various ways (exploding into confetti after being hit by a unicorn horn, plummeting off a cliff, etc.). The most gruesome death is when a deadly plant eats a henchman and leaves a skeleton behind. During a swordfight, Puss is cut on the forehead, drawing blood.

Sexuality: As a cat closely watches Puss in the litterbox, his eyes briefly dart downward. The moment is seemingly played to emphasize Puss’s discomfort about using a public bathroom rather than implying something sexual, but it could be taken the other way as well.

Other: Throughout the movie, milk is treated as a stand-in for alcohol, both visually and by characters acting drunk on it. There are also several scenes depicting characters playing cards and gambling.

Engage The Film

Embracing life rather than wishing it away.

A “wish” is forward-thinking, built on the hope for a different (presumably better) future. In most fairytales, a wish is depicted as a wholly positive power. But in this film, the wishing star has an almost sinister quality. The wishing star itself is presented as neutral, but what it compels characters to do is clearly wrong. Fittingly, the star is in the middle of a dark forest that shifts the pathway according to which traveler is leading with the map, presenting uniquely personal challenges and obstacles.

Each of the groups in pursuit of the wishing star—Puss, Kitty Softpaws, Goldielocks and the Three Bears, and Jack Horner—already possesses the thing they want to wish for. Yet, by focusing on the future, they are blinded to the blessings that already surround them. In Scripture, James wrote, “You do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” ( James 4:14 ). Jesus also said, “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” ( Matthew 6:34 ). The movie is a reminder to be present and appreciate life rather than wasting it away by constantly wishing for more.

When I asked my children what the message of the movie was, they said, “That it is okay to be afraid.” Puss’s persona is built on fearlessness. His theme song, which he performs several times throughout the film, has the repeated chorus refrain, “Who is your favorite, fearless hero.” Yet, most of his actions are driven by fear. He is afraid of settling down with Kitty Softpaws and of being on his “last” life. His character growth is mostly to overcome these fears. But in another sense, it is accepting that it is okay to feel fear. The Bible acknowledges that fear is a natural result to scary situations, but that Christians need not fear, for we don’t face challenges alone: “ Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” ( Psalm 23:4 ).

Daniel holds a PhD in "Christianity and the Arts" from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author/co-author of multiple books and he speaks in churches and schools across the country on the topics of Christian worldview, apologetics, creative writing, and the Arts.

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Movie Review: ‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’

NEW YORK – Frenetic action sequences are interspersed with a series of gentle moral lessons in the entertaining animated adventure “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” (Universal). While the former element makes the film too frightening for tots, all others will likely find it an enjoyable diversion.

Written accounts of the cunning cat of the title date back at least to the 16th century. In his current persona as a Zorro-like bandit, however, he began life as a character in the Shrek franchise before being given his own eponymous feature – this movie’s 2011 precursor.

Previously renowned as much for his fearlessness as for his craft, the popular hero (voice of Antonio Banderas) now faces a crisis of courage. No sooner has he realized that he is down to the last of his nine lives than he’s paralyzed with terror when confronted by an unnamed wolf bounty hunter (voice of Wagner Moura) who preys on his newly developed dread of death.

So, hoping to extend his longevity, he sets off in search of a fallen star said to have the power to grant any wish.

He’s accompanied on his journey by two companions he would initially like to ditch.

Kitty Softpaws (voice of Salma Hayek Pinault) is a feline thief whose skills equal Puss’ own and with whom he shares a tangled romantic past. Perrito (voice of Harvey Guillén) is a scruffy but irrepressibly affectionate canine who has appointed himself Puss’ sidekick and best bud.

As they compete with characters from fairy tales and nursery rhymes, all out to beat them to the goal of their quest, the trio gradually bonds. Their opponents include the crime family headed by Goldi, FKA Goldilocks (voice of Florence Pugh), and rounded out by her three bears (voices of Olivia Colman, Ray Winstone and Samson Kayo) as well as Jack Horner (voice of John Mulaney), grown into a nasty adult.

Scripted by Paul Fisher and Tommy Swerdlow, helmer Joel Crawford’s addition to the series, co-directed by Januel P. Mercado, subtly conveys insights into the importance of friendship, goodness of heart, humility, trust and teamwork. Crawford and his collaborators make skillful use of both comedy and pathos.

Warm and lively, the picture will please parents and keep youngsters attentive. Timed as a holiday treat, it’s “just right” – as Goldi might put it – for all but the tiniest.

Look for: A range of positive values touchingly communicated.

Look out for: Intense cartoon mayhem, characters in peril, a couple of crass terms and some scatological details.

The Catholic Moviegoer’s guidance is OK – suitable for older kids. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG – parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

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This 93% Certified Fresh Pro-Wrestling Biopic Just Became a Major Netflix Streaming Hit

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Before Florence Pugh breaks hearts in the upcoming A24 drama We Live in Time (co-starring Andrew Garfield), watch her break faces in the criminally underrated wrestling drama, Fighting With My Family . Written and directed by Stephen Merchant, and produced by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Fighting With My Family is a dramatized version of WWE superstar Paige's journey to starring in the prestigious organization. Pugh plays a young Paige, then known as Saraya, as she gets a shot at WWE's tryouts while contending with her overbearing family and jealous brother.

Fighting With My Family is ready to jump from the top rope of Netflix's streaming library. Despite impressive reviews and a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Fighting With My Family struggled at the box office. Even with big names like Pugh, Nick Frost, Lena Headey, Vince Vaughn, Dwayne Johnson, Jack Lowden, and a roster of pro-wrestlers, the film only grossed $41.5 million during its theatrical run. Fighting With My Family has since been embraced by the fan base, and is considered a cult-classic in the sports genre .

Fighting With My Family was reportedly inspired by the 2012 documentary, The Wrestlers: Fighting With My Family . After Dwayne Johnson saw the doc, it made him want to pursue the movie as a feature-length comedy/drama. Of course, the film comes with some Hollywood dramatizations. But, Fighting With My Family closely resembles Paige's early life and career . Her parents really do own their own wrestling promotion, the World Association of Wrestling. Additionally, Paige's father's criminal past, and his dedication to his kids' wresting careers, were also true.

Florence Pugh Currently Stars in We Live in Time

Florence Pugh might have one of the most interesting careers of any young actor working today. Pugh got her breakout role in 2016's Lady Macbeth , directed by William Oldroyd. Since then, the actress has bounced between various genres, starring in Midsommar , Little Women , Black Widow , Hawkeye , Puss in Boots: The Last Wish , A Good Person , The Boy and the Heron , and Dune: Part Two .

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Emily Bett Rickards & Ash Avildsen discuss their ode to wrestling and Mildred Burke with the great new film Queen of the Ring.

Florence Pugh is currently causing entire audiences to break down in tears with the new drama We Live in Time . Co-starring Andrew Garfield, the film recounts the non-linear love-story between two young adults living in England. Over the span of two decades, the pair struggle with the realities of love, having children, and a shocking cancer diagnosis . The official synopsis reads:

"An up-and-coming chef and a recent divorcée find their lives forever changed when a chance encounter brings them together, in a decade-spanning, deeply moving romance."

Following We Live in Time , Florence Pugh will be returning to the superhero genre, reprising the role of Yelena Belova in Thunderbolts* — the anti-hero equivalent of The Avengers. As well as featuring fan favorites like Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) and Red Guardian (David Harbour), Thunderbolts* will finally introduce Sentry to the MCU. Played by Lewis Pullman, Sentry is Marvel's equivalent of Superman, although his lifelong schizophrenia and anxiety disorder often cause him to become unpredictable and unstable with his powers.

Fighting With My Family

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COMMENTS

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Rated: 4/5 Feb 14, 2023 Full Review Clarisse Loughrey Independent (UK) The Last Wish offers something different and unexpected: Puss has grown up with his audience.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Review
The first solo Puss in Boots movie felt like a breath of fresh air, a proper adventure rather than just a pastiche, and now, over a decade later, Puss in Boots returns once again to breathe new ...
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish movie review (2022)
"The Last Wish" expands the roster of ridiculously talented supporting players from the Oscar-nominated 2011 original "Puss in Boots." Joining Banderas and his longtime friend and co-star Salma Hayek Pinault are Florence Pugh, Olivia Colman, Ray Winstone, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, and John Mulaney, among many others.They bring a surprising amount of substance to what might have been a ...
Puss in Boots: Last Wish movie review: 2022's most ...
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, the latest DreamWorks Animation film, steals mercilessly from the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse playbook, and you know what, thank god for it — the result is a ...
'Puss in Boots: The Last Wish' Review: Swashbuckling Again
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Directed by Joel Crawford, Januel Mercado Animation, Adventure, Comedy, Family, Fantasy, Mystery, Romance PG 1h 40m
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is the last-minute surprise of the year. The film has all the charm the audience has come to expect from the Shrek standout, but with a blindsiding amount of heart and ...
Puss In Boots: The Last Wish review: Antonio Banderas leads the best
Overall, though, Puss In Boots: The Last Wish is one of cinema's biggest surprises of the year. Dreamworks Animation really seems to be pulling out the stops these days with distinctive visuals ...
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Reviews
Puss in Boots embarks on an epic journey into the Black Forest to find the mythical Wishing Star and restore his lost lives. But with only one life left, Puss will have to humble himself and ask for help from his former partner and nemesis: the captivating Kitty Soft Paws. In their quest, Puss and Kitty will be aided—against their better judgment—by a ratty, chatty, relentlessly cheerful ...
'Puss in Boots: The Last Wish' Review: 'Shrek' Spinoff Is a Winner
He got his own movie in 2011 after the main Shrek quadrilogy was finished, and its long-awaited follow-up, "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish," finally debuts this year.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish' Review: Antonio Banderas in Fine Form
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish looks great, but what really makes it work is Banderas' silky-voiced turn, conveying all of the character's over-the-top feline suavity while making it clear that ...
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish: Directed by Joel Crawford, Januel Mercado. With Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Harvey Guillén, Florence Pugh. When Puss in Boots discovers that his passion for adventure has taken its toll and he has burned through eight of his nine lives, he launches an epic journey to restore them by finding the mythical Last Wish.
Puss In Boots: The Last Wish Review
It's fair to say, then, that Puss In Boots: The Last Wish — a sequel to a spin-off that graced cinema screens over a decade ago — doesn't arrive with much momentum behind it. That it ...
'Puss in Boots: The Last Wish' review: A long-delayed ...
Coming 11 years after his first movie and 18 after his introduction in the "Shrek" franchise, "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" brings a playful quality to the animated feline as well as a ...
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Movie Review
Parents need to know that Puss in Boots: The Last Wish-- which centers on popular Shrek 2 character Puss in Boots (voiced by Antonio Banderas) -- ratchets up the franchise's peril a notch. Puss is down to the last of his nine lives, and he's pursued throughout the movie by a creepy, whistling manifestation of death in the form of a wolf who ...
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish review: Kids will love it but really, this
Kids will get a kick out of the sprightly and silly Puss in Boots: The Last Wish - but really, this one is for the millennials.Antonio Banderas's pint-sized feline rogue, with his thigh-high ...
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Review: A Purr-fect Comeback
Nothing in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish feels lazy, it more than justifies the long wait. It is not only one of the best animated films of the year, but it's one of DreamWorks' best, and one that ...
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is a 2022 American animated fantasy-adventure comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures.The sequel to the spin-off film Puss in Boots (2011) and the sixth installment of the Shrek film series, the film was directed by Joel Crawford, co-directed by Januel Mercado (in his feature directorial debut), and written by Paul Fisher ...
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Chris Stuckmann reviews Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, starring Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Olivia Colman, Harvey Guillén, Samson Kayo, Wagner Moura, Antho...
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Christian Movie Review)
About The Movie. Cinema's most famous swashbuckling feline is pouncing back into theaters after a surprisingly long nap. It's been 11 years since the original Puss in Boots and 12 years since the last Shrek film.The Shrek universe (SCU?) has always been an endlessly fun sandbox for storytelling, blending classic fairy tales with contemporary and meta humor.
Movie Review: 'Puss in Boots: The Last Wish'
NEW YORK - Frenetic action sequences are interspersed with a series of gentle moral lessons in the entertaining animated adventure "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" (Universal). While the former element makes the film too frightening for tots, all others will likely find it an enjoyable diversion.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (also known as Puss in Boots 2: The Last Wish) is a 2022 American computer-animated adventure comedy movie by DreamWorks Animation and Universal Pictures.It is a spin-off of the Shrek franchise.. The movie is a sequel to Puss in Boots (2011). It is directed by Joel Crawford.. It stars Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Olivia Colman, Harvey Guillén, Samson Kayo ...
Watch Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. OSCAR® nominee. ... Find Movie Box Office Data : Goodreads Book reviews & recommendations: IMDb Movies, TV & Celebrities: IMDbPro Get Info Entertainment Professionals Need: Kindle Direct Publishing Indie Digital & Print Publishing Made Easy Amazon Photos
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish adalah film petualangan komedi animasi komputer Amerika yang akan datang yang diproduksi oleh DreamWorks Animation dan didistribusikan oleh Gambar Universal.Sebuah spin-off dari seri Shrek, film ini adalah sekuel dari Puss in Boots (2011) . Film ini disutradarai oleh Joel Crawford dengan penyutradaraan bersama oleh Januel Mercado, ditulis oleh Paul Fisher, dan ...
Fighting With My Family Wrestling Film Starring Florence ...
Despite impressive reviews and a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, ... Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, A Good Person, The Boy and the Heron, and Dune: Part Two. ... Movie News. fighting with my family ...

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

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