REVIEW: ‘Puss In Boots: The Last Wish’ Delivers A Spectacularly Animated Adventure

Despite efforts to diminish its value, the medium of animation has turned out some stellar films this year. And it only seems fitting that one of the best closes out this year with Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. As its title would suggest, The Last Wish finds Antonio Banderas‘ titular feline at the edge of his rope. Years of dangerous exploits have taken their toll on Puss, and he’s down to the last of his nine lives. After resigning himself to living out the rest of his days as a pampered feline, Puss soon learns about a fallen star that grants wishes. Determined to regain his lives as well as his legend, Puss chases after the star.

But he isn’t the only one seeking its powers. There are a number of figures who want the star’s power, from Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and her three bears to the malevolent Jack Horner (John Mulaney). Throw in Perro (Harvey Guillen), a lovable but dimwitted dog, and his former flame Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek), and Puss has his work cut out for him. His journey will take him through a magical forest and bring him face-to-face with his own mortality in the process.

DreamWorks has constantly turned out amazing animated adventures over the years, whether they involve dragons, ogres, or trollhunters. The Last Wish is no different. Its opening sequence features Puss throwing a party in a corrupt governor’s house that descends into a fight with a massive stone giant. That’s just a taste of things to come. In the same fashion as the Shrek franchise that it spun off from, The Last Wish features twisted takes on fairy tales. Horner isn’t as “little” as the nursery rhyme that describes him, having gathered immense girth over the years. Goldilocks and the Bears are mercenaries. And there are plenty of jabs at other fairy tales, including a brilliant running gag that has to be seen to be believed.

But in true DreamWorks fashion, there’s a deeper message. Puss has lived his life—or rather, lives—recklessly, pursuing adventure and fame above all else. After all, if you had nine lives, wouldn’t you live them to the fullest? However, once he learns that he’s literally living on borrowed time, there’s a marked change in his demeanor. He lets himself go, growing a “beard” full of whiskers and burying his boots and hat. And he constantly pushes away Perro’s attempts to befriend him. In short, we are dealing with an animated movie that shows an anthropomorphic cat having a midlife crisis. And I love it.

The Last Wish also boasts a stellar voice cast, especially where Banderas is concerned. Banderas has the chance to portray multiple versions of Puss: the swashbuckling hero, the man dealing with his own mortality, and the person struggling with an inability to form connections. It’s the most layered performance he’s delivered as the feline swordsman, and it’s the center around which the movie revolves. The rest of the cast also gets their moment in the spotlight. Pugh is a scene stealer as Goldilocks, and Guillen is extremely charming as Perro. Seriously, I dare you to walk away and not fall in love with that little dog.

And the animation definitely deserves to be talked about. Much like The Bad Guys, The Last Wish has a mix of 2D and 3D animation, which results in some of the most creative fight sequences ever put to the screen. Whenever Puss hits someone or uses his sword, impact lines spiral outwards. And a montage of his past lives weaves numbers into the background in some surprisingly creative fashion. There’s even a haunting sequence where a lupine hunter (Wagner Moura) pursues Puss through a crystalline cave. As the wolf closes in on Puss, the walls grow as red as his eyes, leading to a haunting effect. It’s just another example of how a certain film about a certain webslinger continues to influence animation, and I hope it never stops.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish delivers a swashbuckling adventure that boasts some amazing animation, as well as a solid message about embracing life in all its forms. It’s the perfect cap to the year, and it continues to prove that animation is a medium that can thrive when people give it a chance. Let’s hope this isn’t the last chapter of Puss in Boots’ adventures.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is playing now in movie theaters.