“Say hola to his little friends.”
Directed by Joel Crawford (The Croods: A New Age)
Starring Antonio Banderas (Uncharted), Salma Hayek Pinault (Eternals), Harvey Guillén (Truth or Dare), Florence Pugh (Black Widow), Olivia Colman (Murder on the Orient Express), Ray Winstone (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), Samson Kayo (The Bubble), John Mulaney (Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers), Wagner Moura (The Gray Man), Da’Vine Joy Randolph (Trolls World Tour) and Anthony Mendez (feature debut)
Shrek
The year was 2001. The success of the Disney Renaissance looked to be secured by the work of Pixar, and pretender to the Mouse Throne, Dreamworks Animation, was struggling to establish itself. The fledgling studio flip-flopped between adult-oriented comedies (Antz and The Road to El Dorado) and worthy Biblical subjects (Prince of Egypt and the direct-to-video Joseph: King of Dreams) with mixed results, and had only achieved real success with their Aardman Animation stop-motion collaboration, Chicken Run. But 2000 had been a sobering year for Disney, with neither Dinosaur nor The Emperor’s New Groove achieving commercial success, and 2001 saw their attempt to pivot into more grown up fare with Atlantis: The Lost Empire miss its audience. Pixar would score another hit with Monsters, Inc later in the year, but by then Dreamworks had already struck gold with the rude, crude family fairy tale Shrek.
Openly taking shots both at Disney’s bread and butter subjects and at the corporation itself, and peppered with contemporary songs in place of purpose-written musical numbers, Shrek – starring Mike Myers (Wayne’s World) as the titular ogre, Eddie Murphy (Mulan) as his sidekick, Donkey, and Cameron Diaz (My Best Friend’s Wedding) as Fiona, a princess cursed to become an ogre by night – signalled a sea change in animation. Layering innuendo over fart gags over deep emotional nuance and heartwarming character moments, it embraced a whole-family audience by breaking every unwritten rule of what might be considered ‘suitable.’ As a result, it became the 4th highest grossing film of the year, and while Monsters, Inc was 3rd – the top two, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and The Fellowship of the Ring, similarly breaking accepted cinematic practice and ushering in the era of the purpose-built franchise – Atlantis didn’t get a sniff of the top 10. Whole new vistas opened out for animation, and the top of the field was now a two horse race.
The Franchise
Shrek saw its misanthropic lead become a reluctant hero and win the heart of Fiona, who became locked in her true form – that of the ogre – by true love’s kiss. Three years later, the sequel – Shrek 2 – brought the happy couple to visit Fiona’s parents (John Cleese, A Fish Called Wanda, and Julie Andrews, Mary Poppins) in the Kingdom of Far, Far Away. There, the Fairy Godmother (Jennifer Saunders, Muppet Treasure Island) schemes to marry Fiona to her son, Prince Charming (Rupert Everett, The Importance of Being Earnest). As part of this plot, Shrek is targeted by professional ogre-killer Puss-in-Boots (Banderas), a swashbuckling ginger tom who manages to become part of team Shrek in time for the big finale, which is unquestionably one of the greatest four minutes of cinema.
Puss remained a fixture in two more sequels – Shrek the Third and Shrek Forever After – and while for a time the franchise was Dreamworks’ most reliable hitter, by the time of Forever After, they had launched the Madagascar and How to Train Your Dragon franchises, and were only a year short of Kung Fu Panda. Dreamworks has long been a studio of franchises, and is probably in part responsible for Disney trying to push Frozen 3.
The First Spin-Off
While Shrek was largely tapped out, it was decided that Puss-in-Boots had more to offer, and in 2011 – six months after Kung Fu Panda – he got his own spin off, a prequel to the Shrek films in which Puss teamed up with his childhood friend Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis, Operation: Endgame) and fellow feline thief Kitty Softpaws (Hayek Pinault). It shifted its setting to a kind of Spanish Western millieu, and Puss’s swashbuckling, musketeer aspect more towards an homage of Zorro, a role Banderas played a year after Shrek 2. It retains the fairytale backdrop of Shrek, with Puss and his crew seeking for magic beans in order to steal a golden goose, they just do a lot of it in the desert or surrounded by characters who share Puss’s accent.
The TV Series
In the absence of a cinematic follow-up to Puss-in-Boots, Dreamworks Animation Television launched a TV spin-off in 2015 as part of a deal with Netflix. The Adventures of Puss-in-Boots was a prequel to the prequel, in which Puss stumbles on the hidden town of San Lorenzo and manages to un-hide it, thus becoming the town’s somewhat reluctant protector. Voice-over actor Eric Bauza (Space Jam: A New Legacy) does servicable work as Puss, with Jayma Mays (Bill & Ted Face the Music) as local do-gooder and slow-burn love interest Dulcinea. The cantina where Puss gets his belove leche is run by a Highland cow, which raises a lot of questions, and the series does rather leave one wondering where Dulcinea got to by the start of Puss-in-Boots.
The Late Sequel
All of which brings us to The Last Wish. Released twelve years after Puss-in-Boots and more than two decades after Shrek, Puss-in-Boots: The Last Wish is the first Dreamworks’ product to bear the Puss-in-Boots named and be set not only after the previous release, but after any other work in the Shrek franchise.
An older and more cynical Puss is enjoying the life of a living legend, but when a run in with the Sleeping Giant of Del Mar results in his death – his eighth death, leaving him but one life left to live – the town doctor (Mendez) recommends retirement. Initially dismissive, a run in with a terrifying wolf (Moura) leaves Puss shattered, afraid for the first time in his life, and he buries the legend and goes into hiding at the home of cat fancier Mama Luna (Randolph).
As Puss slides into dissipation, he meets a stray dog he dubs Perrito (Guillén), before his retirement is interrupted by the appearance of the crime family of Goldilocks (Pugh) and the Three Bears (Winstone, Coleman and Kayo). They want him to steal a map to the fabled wishing star, the power of which could restore his lives. Puss and Perrito – and Kitty, with whom Puss reunites mid-heist – steal the map from ‘Big’ Jack Horner (Mulaney) and head for the Dark Forest, pursued by Goldi and the Bears, and Jack and his Baker’s Dozen.
As they traverse the chimerical mindscape of the Forest, fears and ambitions are revealled. While Puss wants his legend back – as well as to escape the wolf, revealled to be the literal incarnation of Death who is pissed off with Puss’s arrogance as well as the general principle of a cat’s nine lives – Kitty is looking for someone she can trust, Goldi wants a ‘proper family’ and Jack wants complete control over all magic in the world. Naturally, the quest reveals that each of the seekers already possesses that which they wish for and they end up happier for it; apart from Jack, who is an irredeemable monster.
What’s wrong with it?
Big Jack Horner leans into some unfortunate stereotypes of fat villains, although being fat is neither truly causal nor diagnostic of his villainy, which is rooted in a desire for absolute control of the magic he was not born with.
Given its subversive pedigree, the arc of The Last Wish is actually quite conventional. The real treasure was literally the friends they made along the way, which has been done… quite often.
What’s right with it?
And yet… rarely with as much panache. The Last Wish crackles with energy throughout.
Banderas and Hayek Pinault are amazing leads, and the film makes a pair of swashbuckling cats work, physically, in comparison to normal-sized people far better than they ought to.
While they are supporting roles, Goldi and the Bears are played with such charm and love that you find yourself rooting for them to come good in the end, even when they’re hunting Puss and the rest of ‘Team Friendship’ (Perrito’s name.)
Death is chilling. We took our daughter for her tenth birthday, and she thouroughly enjoyed the film, but she cannot listen to the wolf’s haunting whistle out of context.
This year sees the release of John Wick 4, and it’s going to have to go some to match The Last Wish‘s action scenes. Puss’s opening fight, to the tune of his theme song, ‘Fearless Hero,’ is an absolute treat, and a fine showcase for the film’s mix of traditional CGI and ‘painted’ animation.
The film contains one of the most chillingly convincing depictions of a panic attack that I’ve ever seen, in a family animated movie.
How bad is it really?
Given that this is the sequel to the prequel of the prequel to the sequel of the sequel of the sequel to a groundbreaking animated feature film, it has no business being any good at all, never mind as good as it is. If Shrek was the wakeup call to Disney that they needed to up their game to compete with Dreamworks, this is a reminder that the studio is not going anywhere. The Last Wish is one of Dreamworks’ best, and that’s a high bar to clear.
Best bit (if such there is)?
So often I can’t come up with anything for this section, but here…
Pretty much the entire ‘Fearless Hero’ action scene.
Puss and Kitty’s big eyes duel.
Puss’s panic attack.
Puss confronting his past lives.
Goldi watching in disbelief as Puss and Kitty somehow dance into the air by kicking off each other’s feet.
Anything with the Wolf being a terrifying force of doom.
Off-brand Jimminy Cricket the ‘Ethical Bug’ incinerating the last of the map to spite Jack after watching him allow his own people to die and failing to find even a shred of goodness in him.
What’s up with…?
- The Three Bears? In Shrek, mother bear is killed and turned into a rug. Is this daddy bear the original baby bear?
Ratings
Production values – With a similar aesthetic to The Bad Guys, The Last Wish still manages to be its own beast. The style is both beautiful and distinctive, and brings the characters vividly to life. The music is excellent. 2
Dialogue and performances – A superb cast deliver a top-notch script, full of humour and warmth and wit. 3
Plot and execution – The central plot is fairly conventional, but it is delivered with genuine style. 6
Randomness – While sometimes subject to fairy tale logic, the film holds to that logic. 3
Waste of potential – By all rights, this should have been a hot mess at the absolute best. 1
The Bad Movie Marathon 
4 thoughts on “Rebourne – Puss-in-Boots: The Last Wish (2022)”