Puss In Boots: The Last Wish – The BRWC Review

8th February 2023

Puss In Boots: The Last Wish – The BRWC Review

After grossing over $344million worldwide already, ‘Puss In Boots: The Last Wish’ is finally in UK cinemas. While a lot of clips have already been shared on social media, this was an unexpected film to be excited for.

‘Puss In Boots: The Last Wish’ is the sequel to the 2011 Puss In Boots film, with Antonio Banderas (Zorro, Spy Kids) reprising the role of the fearless feline, as he goes on a quest to find a wishing star in the hopes of gaining back the lives that he lost.

As well as its financial success, it’s also become an Oscar nominee in the ‘Best Animated Feature’ category and it’s easy to see why. It may only be February, but this is my favourite film of 2023 so far.

While the previous Shrek films have used CGI animation, ‘The Last Wish’ utilizes a similar art style to recent Sony Animation films like ‘The Mitchells vs The Machines’ and ‘Spiderman: Into The Spiderverse’. And it looks gorgeous; right from the opening scene, the visuals look beautiful with a lot of the backgrounds featuring a watercolour painting style. And, when the film uses close ups, brush strokes can be seen on a character; it creates a beautiful and unique look for the feline’s adventure. But it also adopts the look of ‘Into The Spiderverse’ by changing the frame rate during the fight sequences that occur throughout the film, giving it a stop-motion-style feel. This ultimately creates a visually amazing film that truly looks like a work of art.

The fight sequences themselves are also visually gorgeous; as well as the art influences from Sony Animation, these sequences were probably influenced by anime too, specifically ‘Demon Slayer’, when it comes to the final battle, and ‘Attack on Titan’ with others. The film even starts with an ‘Attack on Titan’ style fight which does a fantastic job at showcasing the animation style. The anime influences also mean the fights themselves are very well animated and are creative. Each battle feels different, whether it’s the fighting style, the setting or the opponent; no fight sequence is the same.

But this is ultimately a road trip film (with a subplot), with the overall plot revolving around travelling to a star. This means that it’s not just Puss In Boots travelling there; he’s also joined by Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek – Puss In Boots, House of Gucci), a character from the previous film, as well as new characters Perrito the dog (Harvey Guillén – What We Do In The Shadows, Harley Quinn), Jack Horner (John Mulaney – Spiderman: Into The Spiderverse) and Goldi (Florence Pugh – Don’t Worry Darling, Hawkeye) and the Three Bears (Olivia Colman – The Mitchells vs The Machines/ Ray Winstone – Marvel’s Black Widow/ Samson Kayo – Our Flag Means Death). It’s an all-star cast and they are perfect for their roles. John Mulaney is brilliant as Jack Horner, an irredeemable villain, as well as Florence Pugh and Olivia Coleman as Goldi and Mama Bear, who help showcase the value of family. Each character carries a different personality, but also wants a different wish which helps carry their own story arc, as well as highlighting their issues. Goldi’s story arc is tragic while Jack Horner’s story arc is horrific but owes to some hilarious scenes mainly due to the way he deals with various situations. Each character has been very well written and care has been taken to fully explore each character.

But the film’s biggest message lies with Puss in Boots, Perrito and the Wolf, who is introduced in the first act. The reason why Puss wants the wishing star is because he’s wasted his previous eight lives and wants them back. And, for the first half of the duration, he’s scared of death and tries to run away from it. But, during the journey, he learns to accept the one life he has and to appreciate what he has, thanks mostly to Perrito, who is a constant optimistic figure in his and Kitty’s life. The film has a lot to say about not wasting one’s life, but it also perfectly looks at mental health and the fear of death. For a film perceived as a children’s film, it carries mature and adult themes, making this more of a family film.

And, if ‘Puss In Boots: The Last Wish’ wanted to put the fear of death into the feline, then they brilliantly did that through the Wolf. Voiced by Wagner Moura (Narcos, The Gray Man), the Wolf suddenly appears in the film and immediately becomes a feared opponent for Puss. Dreamworks don’t hold back on the horror that he brings too; he is terrifying! Aside from the superb voice acting, the Wolf is scary because none of his scenes are comical. Compared to previous Dreamworks films, where the villains have had comedic scenes in the third act, the Wolf doesn’t have any. The tone is suddenly serious no matter what the previous tone was before he arrived and it’s an aspect I greatly admire. Just like with Jack Horner never becoming a redeemable character, I’m glad that the Wolf’s scenes aren’t reduced to comedy by the end of the film.

The new year has just started but ‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’ is my favourite film of 2023 and fully deserves to be an Oscar nominee. The different art style makes the film looks gorgeous, and the voice cast is fantastic and are perfect for their roles. But the film also has an important message about appreciating one’s life and not to take it for granted. Plus, the way it tackles mental health is perfect, even perfectly portraying a panic attack when Puss gets one. The attention to detail, not just in visuals, but character development, storytelling and its messages is perfect, which was unexpected for a Puss In Boots sequel.

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