After over a decade, Dreamworks has released another movie in the Shrek universe, “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” a sequel to the original “Puss in Boots.” The movie follows Puss in Boots after he has lived eight of his nine lives and goes on a journey to claim more lives.
With a stacked cast including Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Florence Pugh and John Mulaney, I knew this movie had to have some potential. With the movie being released shortly after the debut of the blockbuster “Avatar: The Way of Water,” many were shocked to see the turnout for this movie. Movie reviews from Rotten Tomatoes even scored “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” 15% higher than “Avatar: The Way of Water.”
Considering I attended “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” on a random Wednesday night, I was expecting to have the theater only be me and my friends, but the theater actually had a surprisingly high number of people in it. This shows how big of a turnout the movie has had overall, making over $210 million. While watching the movie, I understood the hype.
The character development of Puss in Boots throughout the movie was predictable yet well executed which was very refreshing to watch. It was a very nice feel good movie that still has some interesting twists and turns. I honestly felt like a little kid watching this movie considering how invested I was in it, along with how scared I was of the main villain. Every time that wolf came on screen I was fearing for my life, let alone Puss in Boots’. I thought it was also quite interesting that the jokes mainly aimed toward adults. The movie was full of bleeped-out swear words with a “that’s what she said” joke thrown in there. These moments made the fact that it was a children’s movie very forgettable and truly made it a movie for all ages.
Through lots of tense, funny and honestly pretty scary moments, “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” had me invested in the entire film, which rarely happens. I loved the subtle easter eggs of different fairytale characters throughout the movie by showing short clips of characters or iconic items from the shows. I appreciated the multiple powerful female protagonists and found it very interesting how they all were tied together. With recurring characters from the first “Puss in Boots,” the movie offers a sense of nostalgia for those who grew up with that movie but still offers new twists and an interesting plot for those who are not as familiar. All of these reasons are why I would rate this movie a 10/10. I loved that it was a mindless movie that still kept me invested and made me laugh. “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” is most definitely the slay of the year.