Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish chronicles a fearless hero’s journey to regain his nine lives using the power of a magical wishing star. It takes inspiration from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse with a stylistic focus on blending 2D hand-drawn art with 3D animation. While the Marvel film uses the technique to bring comic book pages to life, here, the same effect accentuates storybook and fairytale images, with painted backdrops that give it a classical touch. This is not only practical for budgetary reasons (as it helps reduce the number of frames drawn and used), it also maintains quality with detailed backgrounds that can carry entire scenes as still images. The action sequences also take notes from the interchange of line art and CGI seen in the fight scenes of Japanese animated films like My Hero Academia: World Heroes Mission.

The similarities with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse extend into the narrative strands as well, specifically in how the convoluted plot and digressing storylines are tied into one cohesive unit. Both films may seem erratic, introducing plenty of characters and multiple dynamics that induce worry that all the individuals and relationships might not get the depth and development they deserve, but everyone has their own time to shine, and the story wraps up fantastically.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish uses the conflicting desires of its characters and the concept of a wishing star map to great effect. Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) is perhaps the most endearing individual next to Puss, her story about finding family in odd places the most compelling – not to mention her general charisma. Another highlight is the Wolf (Wagner Moura), a physical embodiment of death, who arrives on screen with a creepy whistling noise and scarlet eyes. His scenes are all cloaked in mystery, colourless and dark, each step he takes spine-tingling for the viewer and Puss.

There’s so much to say about what Puss in Boots: The Last Wish does right – but it will never do it justice. Its true greatness can’t be described with a few pretty words: it needs to be witnessed in person.

Mae Trumata

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is released nationwide on 3^rd February 2023.

Watch the trailer for Puss in Boots: The Last Wish here: