My Last Wish? Puss in Boots 2!

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Marley Roache

Revitalizing a franchise isn’t easy, especially when it’s been eleven years since your first movie. This is what makes Puss In Boots 2: The Last Wish such a shock to audience members. The movie currently sits at 96% on rotten tomatoes with a 93% audience score. Although this may seem high, especially for a kids’ film Puss In Boots 2 deserves all the high praise it gets. The film begins with a catchy musical number of Puss regaling his adventures to an excited crowd. Their party however awakens a sleeping giant which Puss must then defeat to save the village. The animation in this scene is off the charts, it perfectly captures the feline hero’s swift movements as he bounces from roof to roof. 

Dreamworks has always had fantastic antagonists from the vivacious Fairy Godmother in Shrek 2 to the revenge-seeking Tai Lung in Kung Fu Panda, but the new Puss In Boots movie’s villain is nothing to overlook. Wagna Maura plays the big bad wolf and gives an utterly bone-chilling performance. The wolf’s character design is in perfect juxtaposition with our main character. Piercing red eyes give him a fierce look, his two large sickle blades increasing his intimidation factor. The movie even strayed from the usual battles shown in children’s films, showing puss getting cut by a blade and even beginning to bleed. By breaking convention the film was made better overall and made for a more original viewing experience. 

Villains and battles aren’t the only reason the film stands out from its animated peers and predecessor. The movie is wickedly funny, often adding running gags throughout. One of the film’s best gag was its secondary villain Jack Horner and Jiminy Cricket. Jiminy Cricket is desperate to mold Horner’s conscience into a good one, only for Horner to be incredibly cruel and even more brutal once the cricket tries to repair his conscience. It’s no surprise that Horner is such a hilarious delight, his voice actor the comedian John Mulaney never fails to deliver lines in a perfect amount of seriousness or a perfect amount of silly. Making any time his character was on screen a laugh riot

Puss in Boots 2: The Last Wish was a fantastic movie. It immerses the viewer completely in the magical world of Far Away and keeps them there with constant jokes, visual gags, and wonderful world-building. Everything from Puss’s character growth to the jokes brought back for the second film is a pleasure to watch from start to finish. With a promising after-credits scene and a high critic score, there’s no doubt we’ll see more of our furry friend in theaters soon enough.