The Last Wish

 2023 is almost over and, so, I've decided to wrap up this year of blogging by sharing my opinions on a movie I saw fairly recently. 

Puss in Boots 2: The Last Wish, is an animated feature from DreamWorks that came out last year. While I'm not a huge fan of DreamWorks (though they have made some movies that I do like), the positive buzz surrounding this move, piqued my interest. Having seen it, I was not disappointed.

I should point out that I have not seen the original Puss in Boots movie, that came out way back in 2011. Prior to The Last Wish, I only knew DreamWorks' (and Antonio Banderas') take on the character from his debut appearance in Shrek 2. That said, as a sequel, Puss in Boots 2 stands perfectly well on its own, so watching its predecessor is not really necessary.

Visually, the movie definitely owes a debt to 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. However, while I enjoyed Spider-Verse, between it and The Last Wish, I consider the latter to be the better film. A major reason for this being that I found Puss' existential crisis, his struggle with coming to terms with his mortality, to be more interesting than Miles' rather standard superhero origin story. Other reasons include a more engaging cast of characters and the fact that adventure stories of this type simply appeal to me more than superhero shenanigans. 

Speaking of the characters, I liked our trio of protagonists, including Perrito (there's something you don't see every day; a comic-relief character who is actually funny. Imagine that). Character-wise, the best thing about this movie though, are its villains. 

Yes, I said villains, as in plural. Unlike most animated films, Puss in Boots 2 feature not just one main villain and a group of henchmen, but a minor gallery of rogues. There are three different villain factions in this movie, each one representing a different type of antagonist for Puss & Co to contend with in their quest for the wishing star.

First up is are Goldilocks and the three bears, here portrayed as a family of cockney-accented criminals. Goldie and the bears are the movie's sympathetic villains. Actually, an argument could be made that they aren't villains, so much as antagonistic anti-heroes. Aside from stuffing an old lady in a piano and kidnapping a dog (the aforementioned Perrito), they don't do anything outright bad. Sure, they are criminals, but so are Puss and Kitty. In fact, the movie could (and in some ways it is),  just as well have been about these guys, as it is about Team Friendship.

Next, we have 'Big' Jack Horner, who is the complete opposite. A villain of the old school, Jack is fully aware that he's an irredeemable monster and revels in it, even mocking the one character who tried to reach out to and find any semblance of goodness in this pie-making crime lord. What Jack lacks in nuance, he more than makes up for in sheer entertainment value.

But the greatest threat that Puss has to face is neither of these two, but Death itself, in the shape of a wolf. Relentlessly stalking our feline protagonist, his appearances heralded by a sinister whistling tune, Death is easily the most menacing villain I've seen in an animated film since Rango's Rattlesnake Jake and rounds out the movie's rogues-gallery, perfectly.

Entertaining and genuinely poignant, Puss in Boots 2: The Last Wish definitely ranks among the best DreamWorks films that I've seen and comes highly recommended.

That's it for me. Have a Happy New Year, Dear Reader and I'll see you in 2024.