Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

Director: Joel Crawford
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Selma Hayek, Harvey Guillén

Synopsis:
When Puss finds himself on his last life and pursued by Death himself, he seeks out a wishing star to give him his nine lives back.

Impressions:
While I considered the first Puss in Boots to be a solid film, I didn't have any burning desire to see a sequel. However, some people whose media takes I put a fair bit of stock in were hyping it up, which gave me the push I needed, so my hat's off to them for that because if this isn't the best film DreamWorks has put out, it's well up there on the list. We've seen a lot of films in recent years play with deconstructing heroes and the results have been less than satisfying, mostly because it's been done for the purpose of supplanting them with other characters. However, the goal here isn't to destroy the character of Puss in Boots but rather to develop him. His character arc is excellent and the B plot with Goldilocks is also quite good. The writing alone is more than enough to sell the movie, but the animation is also first-rate. If you liked Into the Spider-Verse's technique of stylized low FPS action sequences, that gets used to good effect here. It's honestly one of the best films of the years and definitely warrants a place in your collection.

Rating:
Own It