2022 hasn’t been the best of years for animated movies. Disney took a box office bath with Strange World and Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks teamed up for a disastrous take on Pinocchio (read that review). Even the great Key & Peele released an artful but disappointing animated feature Wendell & Wild (read that review here.)
So it’s a wonderful way to end the year with an animated movie that will be visually stimulating for kids and slyly funny with a certain irreverence for the grownups. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish brings back that cutest, coolest character who broke out from the Shrek franchise and has the spotlight to himself.
Antonio Banderas comically lays on his already charming Spanish accent to give Puss a great voice to go along with his big eyes and orange fluff. In this installment, Puss, while barely escaping a particularly perilous incident, discovers that he’s already gone through 8 of his 9 lives. The countdown of how he lost those other lives is laugh out loud funny.
Alas, with only one life to live, as it were, Puss takes a sort of retirement in the home of a Cat Lady (Da’Vine Joy Randolph). Just a few moments of The End by the Doors references Apocalypse Now in his newfound home with lots of weather beaten felines.
But this movie isn’t going to be content to stay in one place for long; in fact, Puss will hit the road in search of the mythical Wishing Star and restore his lost lives. He’ll need help and Salma Hayek as the voice of Kitty Soft Paws makes for a good foil.
If you remember back that far, Shrek featured many characters from Fairy Tales and none other than Goldilocks and the Three Bears join in this adventure. The fun Cockney accents of the bears (Ray Winstone and Olivia Colman are stand outs) kept me chuckling.
Anyway, I’m babbling on – look, it’s not going to take a place on the mantle with Toy Story or Nightmare Before Christmas, but it’s a jolly way to finish a meh year for the discipline.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is now in theaters | Rated PG | 1 hr. 42 min | 3 ½ out of 4 Stars
