By Arman Saxena
Wow, what a gorgeous film! Having seen the trailer I expected animation that was different from the usual Dreamworks style, but I did not anticipate finding myself in awe of the energetic, colorful, and expressionistic frames that populate this film. With a character like Puss in Boots, the filmmakers could have settled for being standard animated fare: a fun, engaging story that captivates children and adults alike but is ultimately forgettable in both their minds. But the visual aspects of the film are incredibly inspired, from the color changes that occur during the fight scenes (which reminded me of 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) to the pop culture references littered (sorry, I had to) throughout the film (from Terminator 2 to Dogs Playing Poker). There was clearly a lot of love and imagination put into crafting this film and as someone who loves animation, it’s always a joy to see a film that was made with such joie de vivre.
That’s not to say that this is a perpetually joyous film. With Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) on his last life, he has to overcome his newfound fear of death, a theme that is tackled a lot more maturely than I expected from a mainstream film marketed towards children. The existentialism that permeates throughout sections of this film makes me believe that it is not too much to call it a psychological drama. Puss has always lived with this sense of immortality as a result of his nine lives and the legend of his moniker, but once he’s on his last legs he is forced to reconcile with the mistakes he has made and what truly fulfills him. And the film does not shy away from spending time with Puss’ psyche, we see him feel fear, loss, and loneliness, all made more powerful with the stark, striking colors of the animation.
Antonio Banderas conveys all of this beautifully. Adding intonations of vulnerability into Puss’ consistently cocksure attitude, Banderas makes this the most relatable on-screen Puss so far. The supporting voice performances are also uniformly excellent though I want to highlight Wagner Moura as the film’s main villain Wolf. Moura knows how to play menacing, his best known role to American audiences being Pablo Escobar in Narcos. But here he is playing the personification of death itself and Moura imbues his character with the kind of controlled terror that makes Wolf one of the best (and most frightening) villains in recent mainstream animation. The whole rogues’ galleries of antagonists in this film are all beautifully rendered characters. From Big Jack Horner (John Mulaney, who is having the time of his life here) to the Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and the Three Bears Crime Family (Ray Winstone, Olivia Colman, and Samson Kayo), the film does a lot thematically with its supporting cast. The film is a quick 102 minutes and it’s impressive how the filmmakers are able to flesh out so many characters in so little time (though I think Goldilocks’ motivations could have used a little bit more development).
Fans of the franchise will be excited to know that Kitty Softpaws (a terrific Salma Hayak) is not just a glorified cameo in this film. She’s as important to this film as she was to the last, and while their banter remains, her relationship with Puss is only more interesting this time around. The most important of this film’s new characters is Perrito (played by What We Do in the Shadows’ Harvey Guillen), a self-described therapy dog who is the film’s heart and soul. While initially somewhat annoying, Perrito becomes the film’s most endearing character, largely due to Guillen’s thoroughly sincere voice performance. He joins Puss and Kitty on their adventure, gradually affecting them in ways that provide some of the film’s most poignant and funny moments.
I am not saying that a lot of the film does not seem predictable or follow many of the tropes seen throughout family films, because a lot of it does. But with its wonderful visual verve, a captivating cast of well-realized characters, and seriously-explored themes that don’t muddy the film’s tone, ‘The Last Wish’ rises above those tropes to become one of the best computer-animated films of the 2020s so far.
