The long-awaited sequel, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, directed by Joel Crawford and Januel Mercardo, and written by Tommy Swerdlow and Tom Wheeler is finally here! The film has recently exploded in popularity because of its amazing storytelling and character development. Produced by the beloved animation studio, Dreamworks, which is mostly known for its franchise films like Shrek, KungFu Panda, and How to Train your Dragon.

The film is full of amazing details and foreshadowing as senior Patrick Novak inputs, “The small foreshadowing of Puss’ 8th death at the beginning of the movie was great as we can see Death watching Puss in the shadows right before he dies.”

On the popular entertainment reviewing site, Rotten Tomatoes, both viewers and critics agree that this film was amazing with an almost perfect score. Audience members gave the film a 94% and critics 96%. The film is being helped considerably by its release on streaming services like Apple Tv and Amazon Prime Video, while also viewable in theaters. 

In the story, Puss in Boots, the titular character is a talking orange tabby cat that dawns on his iconic black boots, a wide leather hat with a fluffy yellow feather, a cape, and his sword.

“The fight sequence in Jack’s pie factory introduced all the main players of the plot very nicely as they begin to race each other to the wishing star,” sophomore Daniel Brown explains. 

The film follows Puss as we see him save a small village being attacked by an Earth Titan who he defeats, but Puss in his celebration is crushed by a falling bell. Puss wakes up next to a veterinarian who explains that he has lived 8 of a cat’s lives and only has one left to live. Overconfident, Puss ignores the vet and heads to a bar where he encounters the main antagonist: Lobo, also known as Death. After experiencing fear for the first time, he seeks refuge in a cat lady’s home where he meets a small dog who Puss names Perrito.

“The iconic bar fight scene between Puss and Death was beautifully executed as the overconfident Puss believes Death was a bounty hunter but slowly realizes he is much more,”  Daniel Brown says. 

Months later, living with the cat lady’s home, Goldilocks and the Three Bears reveal the secret of a hidden dark forest that holds the ‘Wishing Star’ which can grant any single wish. With the help of the Wishing Star’s map, he must work together with Kitty Softpaws, an old friend, and Perrito, to find the Wishing Star.

“The family-like dynamic between Perrito, Kitty Softpaws, and Puss was a great addition to this already amazing film by Dreamworks,”  Patrick Novak describes.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish has quickly become one of Dreamwork’s masterpieces for its stellar character development. Puss in Boots specifically has some of the best character development out of any character as from the start of the film we can see his overconfidence in his dialogue and actions. During the final act of the film we witness a one-on-one battle between Lobo and Puss where halfway through their fight, Lobo realizes that Puss has changed and that the overconfident glow in his eyes faded and tells Puss to live his final life to the fullest but promises to one day come back.

Puss in Boots also features a unique animation style similar to the beloved film Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse. The animation choice chosen for Puss in Boots: The Last Wish uses 3-D CGI that seamlessly transitions back into 2-D. This style of CGI of animation slowly becomes unnoticeable after around the first 10 minutes of the movie, this stylistic choice also allows fight scenes to be animated smoothly. Such an example of CGI animation mixed with 2-D can be seen in the first fight with Puss and the massive titan threatening to destroy Puss’ hometown. 

To conclude, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish has become a huge success for both Dreamworks and fans of the Puss in Boots franchise, with both amazing villains and heroes it also holds a very strong story that can keep a viewer interested throughout the film. It also accompanies a wonderful story about friendship and family along with seamless animation.