Don’t buy into the hype — see the film, but with moderate expectations.
Puss in Boots is the greatest, a hero of such overwhelming fame and prowess that he is capable of single handedly taking down a stone giant. Everyone adores him so much, than… he dies.
Seconds later Puss in Boots wakes up and it is revealed that he just lost his eighth life — for those who are not familiar with “cat logic,” that means he has lost eight of his nine lives, and that if he dies again, he is dead for real. The recommended treatment is retirement. Initially he is not willing to retire, but after a rough encounter with a mean wolf who tries to kill him, Puss in Boots is reminded of his mortality, and, for once, fears for his life and retires.
But! no sooner than he does, he overhears a conversation about finding map to a wishing star. So he must now steal the map to this wishing star so he can wish his lives back so he can become “Puss in Boots” once again. Did you get all of that?
As convoluted and messy as I made everything sound, the film does a fine job at keeping the viewer up to date on what is happening — and making the exposition fun and exciting so kids don’t look away. What is also done, with a moderate level of skill, is weaving in a clear character arc (or “range-of-change”) and moral message. <i>Puss in Boots: The Last Wish</i> is making a statement about the importance of valuing our lives. That’s not even up for debate: dogs wage their tails, cats Barry their s***, and this film makes a cute little statement on valuing family and friends over living multiple, unfulfilling lives. Not that this is a bad thing, the statement is made in this “in your face” manor on purpose — if it wasn’t, our modern audience would probably miss it. This does deprive the film of any lasting sense of permanence in the ether of my mind: People won’t be talking about this film beyond it’s entertainment value.
Entertainment is a good word for this film, as it uses a similar technique that has been used in “Into the Spider verse” and “The Bad Guys.” Both of which were incredible works of animation, making the film far more lively — cramped full of chaos with objects and characters zipping around in such cartoonishly fun ways that it makes animation the ideal medium for such a picture.
This style does get tedious in the action scenes — except one towards the end involving “Death” — as the filmmakers seemed to have no concept of tension or dread and decided to just pile action after action on top of lively animation: It’s not bad, but the it could have been better.
Ultimately, the feeling this film left me with was disappointment: with the hype surrounding it’s release and many of my colleagues singing this films praises, Puss in Boots: The Last Star had a lot to live up to. While at the end of the day it didn’t meet my expectations, it was a fine ride while it lasted.
Score: 2.5/4