“Fear me, if you dare!” It’s a strange catchphrase but it is Puss in Boots’s and goes some way towards explaining his appeal – dangerous and ridiculous at the same time, as befits a vainglorious furball swashbuckler who’s Zorro in miniature, a legend in his own eyes more than anyone else’s, but a legend all the same.
In Puss in Boots: The Last Wish two-time Zorro and four-time Puss Antonio Banderas returns to the role and remains a good part of the appeal of this character spun off from the Shrek franchise. Puss debuted in Shrek 2, returned in Shrek the Third and Shrek Forever After, then got his own show in 2011’s Puss in Boots. It’s taken this long to get a sequel onto the screen. Two standalone Puss movies in 11 years is a bit thin. What’s been going on in the background?
Never mind. In the foreground we have a story of vulnerability of a different sort, as Puss discovers he’s used up eight of his nine lives. A crisis of confidence arrives soon after and Puss retires to a cat lady’s house which he shares with an army of other felines – kittie litter and kibble is not what Puss is reduced to, surely? There he meets an insanely optimistic chihuahua disguised as a cat, Perrito (voiced by Harvey Guillén). From here, recovering enough mojo to get himself back into his plumed hat and thigh-high boots, he takes to the road, reuniting with Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek), on a quest to find the fabled Wishing Star which will grant him more lives.
Bad guys come in the shape of Jack Horner (voiced by John Mulaney) – a huge pyschopath so the “Little” tag isn’t appropriate – plus a Cockney Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and the Three Bears (Olivia Colman, Ray Winstone, Samson Kayo). Plus plus, and most significant of all, a Wolf who’s a cross between the Grim Reaper and something out of a Sergio Leone spaghetti western.
This movie was Oscar nominated for the Best Animated Feature gong and it’s easy to see why. The basic Shrek-style animation is still there, somewhere in the background, but there’s been a massive injection of Spiderversey style phantasmagoria. Visually it’s not really in the same territory as the earlier film. It’s more vivid, fractal, busy, unafraid to leap into the kaleidoscope.
Some characters really land while others don’t. Harvey Guillén is really the star of the show as the voice of Perrito, the bonkers and incredibly stupid Perrito, his doggie loyalty a counter to the smart aloofness of the felines. Hayek and Banderas flirt with each other as the ex-lovers who might one day be lovers again. As to the baddies, there isn’t really enough room for them all – Goldilocks and the Three Bears seem underwritten as a squabblesome foursome and lose out to Horner, who in turn loses out to the Wolf, a fearsome creation who could induce nightmares in the very young.
An incidental character, voiced by Kevin McCann and called only Ethical Bug, tickles a funny bone, largely because McCann is doing his best James Stewart impression, which will go over the heads of most of the target audience but is a sop to the grandparents who might be watching.
There’s good stuff and bad stuff, in other words. Though overall there’s more than a touch of the “so whats?” to this sequel. The story lines up and gets ready to go, Shrek style. Everyone goes off on their quest, baddies in pursuit, there are adventures and jokes and then suddenly, in a case of “was that it?” it is suddenly entering what is obviously the final straight.
It starts and then it stops with, seemingly not much in the middle. Too many cooks, I reckon, by which I mean villains. It’s not disastrous, just a touch disappointing, because the good bits (the inventive visuals, plus Puss, Kitty and Perrito, Wolf and special mention to Ethical Bug) are very entertaining.
It’s no dog’s breakfast, in other words. Nor the cat’s pyjamas, come to that. The sequel that Puss in Boots: The Last Wish appears to be setting up in its dying moments may turn out to be a wish too far.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2023
