- Starring
- Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Harvey Guillén
- Director
- Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado
- Rating
- PG
- Genre
- Action, Adventure, Children, Comedy, Family
- Release date
- December 21, 2022
- Where to watch
- Vudu (rent or buy), Amazon Prime (rent or buy)
Overall Score
Rating Overview
Rating Summary
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish takes audiences on a wild ride through a land of magic and mystery as the titular character goes on a journey to reclaim his nine lives. Voiced by Antonio Banderas (The Mask of Zorro), the film is a visual masterpiece with a stunningly beautiful and unique design that perfects the storybook-in-three-dimensions style that began with 2001’s Shrek. It is a work of art that should be watched if for no other reason than to lose yourself in its ambiance.
Puss In Boots: The Last Wish
Boasting fun and engaging vocal performances that are artfully brought to life by Dreamworks animators, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish will keep audiences of all ages involved and entertained. That being said, it is not a perfect film, nor a perfect film for children. The filmmakers made a number of inappropriate choices for a children’s show that will jolt some viewers out of the moment (see below). Furthermore, the far more interesting storyline of an aging swashbuckling hero who has never given his own mortality a second thought, now finding himself literally running from and confronting the physical manifestation of death, is relegated to a secondary position. Instead, what has become fairly standard fair in the last few years, the much-overplayed hero must acknowledge his selfishness and learn that friendship is worth more than laurels storyline is the film’s focus.
Puss in Boots The Last Wish is a slick and masterful piece of animation with good vocal performances, terrific pacing, and breathtaking animation that all help to overshadow its rather mundane plot and recycled jokes.
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James Carrick
James Carrick is a passionate film enthusiast with a degree in theater and philosophy. James approaches dramatic criticism from a philosophic foundation grounded in aesthetics and ethics, offering insight and analysis that reveals layers of cinematic narrative with a touch of irreverence and a dash of snark.
Well, it is disappointing to hear that this film isn’t as good as I’d hoped. I thought my kids would be too young to see this, but now I’m not sure we ever will. Thanks for the review! Also, would you consider an alphabetical list of the films reviewed, with links to their reviews? Might be easier to browse to instead to just going “older….older….hmmm, what else is there…older….”
Hi Tia,
Thanks for the feedback. Don’t get me wrong; it isn’t a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination. It’s just not as deep as it could have been, but it gets close. I don’t know how old your kids are, but if they are old enough to handle the stuff that I wrote in the “Inappropriate” section, then it’s not a bad way to spend 1h 42m.
My biggest issue with the movie is that they couldn’t let Kitty soft paws be jilted at the altar, because her both being excited about the prospect of marrying puss because she loves him and not somehow knowing that puss was going to be a no show would make her appear weak. I nearly walked out of the movie.
I stayed for the wolf.
“The film’s moral is being dumb, oblivious, and without ambition is good, and those with goals are selfish.”
No, the film’s message is that your ego can lead you down a sad path in life if left unchecked. Puss essentially lives a rock star lifestyle taken to an extreme. He is so addicted to the adulation he receives for his daredevil antics that he is unable to form meaningful connections with people for fear of disrupting his current lifestyle. Initially he’s convinced that he won’t be happy or himself unless he lives free of the fear of death. Of course that is unhealthy, because even a cat with nine extra chances is eventually going to die.
BTW, is it actually brave to risk your life when you know you’ll wake up from death and feel just fine? I’d argue that Puss never displayed any actual bravery until that moment that he faced Death for the first time without flinching.
But to sum it up, I think the message of this movie is that you should keep in mind why you are pursuing your goals and evaluate whether they will help you be the kind of person that you want to be.
I wish you’d give me details about language in your reviews. Hard to know from the paragraph specifically how much or what kind of bad language to make a determination for my children.
This was one of our early reviews. We now specify.
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