Puss in Boots: The Last Wish- Worth the Wait?

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is a movie that was released in 2022 on December 21st. It’s the long awaited sequel to Puss in Boots released in 2011. Originally announced in 2012 the movie was set to release in 2018, although in 2015 due to a change within Dreamworks the movie was removed from the release list; later the voice of Puss stated that the script of the movie was undergoing “reconstruction.” In the following years the directors finally signed on for the sequel in 2020 finally giving us the name we know now. 2021 led to the announcement of new directors taking over, and a release date of September 23, 2022. In April 2022 the release date was pushed further to December 21st, finally actually releasing on that date. Although this background information may seem trivial I find it rather important to the movie, this is a sequel that has been in the works for almost a decade now and it’s an important question to ask if waiting that long was really worth it. 

So do I think it was worth the wait? To get that question out of the way immediately I would say yes. I’d even say this movie is better than the first one. 

The Last Wish feels more like a fantasy movie. The Shrek movies have always been ones filled with references to well known fairy tales, and the movies themselves have used this to their advantage, making a world full of magic and intrigue. The first Puss in Boots does not take advantage of this, although having a lot of fairytale influences the movie’s two main villains could easily have been replaced with a non-fairytale character. The Last Wish also improves visually, although there is the fact that it’s not completely fair to compare a movie from 2011 to 2022 there are many things that go into animation. 

Junior Samaira Sandil said, “I thought the fight scenes were animated in such a cool way. The music and the voices of the actors were perfect. I thought the story line of Puss’ was very fitting and I enjoyed seeing the other characters such as Goldilocks as well.” 

First the coloring of the movie- each place we travel in The Last Wish feels very different. It feels vibrant like it has its own story it could tell, while Puss in Boots is set in the desert where almost all the scenery looks the same; a bleak and boring desert, even with The Last Wish’s darker tones it seems to be able to be very visually stunning and very colorful. The movie’s story also fits these visuals, as it’s a race to get a shooting star labeled “The Last Wish,” the star itself being said to be able to grant anyone any wish they may desire. 

“I was glad that we did end up watching it because I really enjoyed it. There was a huge emotional aspect to it which I really loved seeing that I did not expect,” said Sandil. 

The tone of the movie itself is very interesting for a kids’ movie. Out of all things this movie deals with the concept of death, coming to terms with never being able to escape it and learning to not take your own life for granted. It also deals with the tropes of found family, both Puss himself finding a family in the hopeful dog Perrito and the master thief Kitty Softpaws along with another character Goldi realizing that the bears who raised her are her real family. In both situations the characters do hit all the common beats but the characters themselves are interesting enough to not make these tropes feel dull and boring. 

Joseph Walden said, “I really liked the villain in this movie, he was very fun to watch.” Speaking of characters, the villain, Big Jack, is a wonderfully funny one. As a collector of magic things he wants the last wish himself, to be able to have all the power in the world. This motivation in any other villain would be boring, but Big Jack is such a comically bad guy it’s almost impossible to not be invested in him, you want to root against him he deserves to lose but you can’t keep your eyes off him and don’t want him to leave the screen. John Mulaney acts as a perfect voice to him, his performance is amazing although using his natural voice it’s very easy to just forget who is voicing him and get sucked into his performance as Big Jack.

Jillian Walden said, “I didn’t expect to like the movie as much as I did but it was very pretty and fun.” Overall the movie was incredibly enjoyable- visual and story wise. For a movie with a very varied cast it’s very impressive that it’s able to balance all the characters out so you get the feeling that by the end they are fully realized characters, if you haven’t seen the movie yourself I would highly suggest doing so.