“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” is a 2022 Universal Production, directed by Joel Crawford. The aim of the movie is to show that you shouldn’t take life for granted while keeping the family-friendly, lighthearted tone.

The movie starts in a classic fairy tale way with Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) narrating the fall and crash of the last wishing star. As it hit earth, the quest to find it and have the last wish became a challenge, and many began searching for it. The story soon switches to focus on Puss in Boots and his adventurous lifestyle. He does have 9 lives after all.

The movie begins by portraying him as a menace and he gets chased out of the governor’s (Bernardo De Paula***) house by his men. Within their battle and ruckus, they wake the sleeping giant of Del Mar. At the end of his battle against the giant, he is crushed by a bell and announced dead… for the eighth time. As the doctor settles him down, he struggles to believe that he has died eight times and flashes from his memory come through to show all the different adventures that have gotten him into trouble. One of these particular instances is when he simply eats food with shellfish in it even when he knows he is allergic. When Puss in Boots was leaving the doctor’s (Anthony Mendez) office he said, “Death comes for us all.”

As time goes on the movie becomes more action-packed and Puss in Boots encounters a wolf that he assumes is a bounty hunter. This “bounty hunter” is faster and stronger than him and for the first time, he is truly scared for his life. Life flashes before his eyes, once again. He then goes on the run, once again, and fakes his final death. He mourns the loss of his freedom and is taken in by Mama Luna (Da’Vine Joy Randolph). While struggling to be a “normal” cat he meets Perrito (a dog dressed as a cat) and then Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and the three bears (Olivia Colman, Ray Winstone, and Samson Kayo) find him to request him to retrieve a map for them. The map to the wishing star. Puss in Boots digs up his costume and goes on the hunt for the map to wish himself nine lives again. 

Overall, this movie hits all the right points to reach the family-friendly adventure goal. However, some of the action scenes made the animation too noticeable and it was hard to ignore it. Otherwise, the creativity and bright colors matched the energy.

Some of my favorite scenes were ones exploring Mexican culture and especially the song “Por que te vas.” The wolf’s sass was also one of my favorite parts of the movie with his best line being, “And I don’t mean it metaphorically, or rhetorically, or poetically, or theoretically or in any other fancy way. I am Death, straight up.” His character mixed with Puss in Boots’ charisma created humor and family-friendly banter throughout the whole movie. I would recommend this movie to anyone that likes animated kids comedy and even those who are older because of the added jokes that wouldn’t be noticed by the younger kids. 

4/5