Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
March 6, 2023
4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY REVIEW:
Universal/DreamWorks;
Animated;
Box Office $177.13 million;
$34.99 DVD, $39.99 Blu-ray, $49.99 UHD BD;
Rated ‘PG’ for action/violence, rude humor/language and some scary moments.
Voices of Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek Pinault, Harvey Guillén, Florence Pugh, Olivia Colman, Ray Winstone, Samson Kayo, John Mulaney, Wagner Moura, Da’Vine Joy Randolph.
The latest adventure of the swashbuckling feline outlaw Puss in Boots uses bright and colorful animation to tell a tale that conveys the value of living life to the fullest.
The story finds Puss (again voiced by Antonio Banderas) continuing to gallivant as a hero of the people, a roguish cross between Zorro and Robin Hood, living fearlessly on the belief he still has several of his nine lives to live. But when he respawns after dying to protect a village from a giant, he realizes that was his eighth death, and, down to his last life, decides to retire.
However, when he learns of the existence of a map to the wishing star, which lies in the center of a mystical forest and can grant one wish to whomever finds it, he returns to action with a quest to find the star and make a wish to restore his lives.
Joined by old flame Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek Pinault) and new pal Perrito (Harvey Guillén), Puss finds himself in a race to the star, pursued not only by Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and her bear “crime family,” but also Big Jack Horner (John Mulaney), who wants to wish for the control of all magic so he can prove his worthiness among the denizens of fairy tale land.
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Last Wish continues the “Shrek” franchise tradition of putting a satirical spin on fairy tale tropes, up to and including poking fun at the Disneyfication of the genre. The hilarious screenplay is not afraid to delve into some dark humor, particularly when it comes to Jack Horner’s sadistic pursuit of his goals, balanced by moments of genuine pathos as Puss is forced to confront his mortality for the first time.
The animation is particularly vivid, especially when compared with the 2011 Puss in Boots film, deliberately evoking the feeling of painted storybook backgrounds, while giving the action sequences a heightened style by adjusting the frame rate to lend an almost mosaic-like quality to the proceedings.
The most notable extra of the Puss in Boots: The Last Wish home release is the new animated short The Trident, a four-minute adventure that expands upon the circumstances of Puss’ sixth death.
There’s also an informative audio commentary with several of the filmmakers, which can be found on the Blu-ray and with digital versions at select retailers such as Apple TV.
For the disc versions, the full array of extras can be found on both the 4K disc and the regular Blu-ray editions.
The other extras range from some behind-the-scenes material to a variety of arts and crafts and cutesy distractions.
For the featurettes, there’s the nine-minute “In the Beginning,” a look at the making of the film and how the Puss in Boots character evolved since appearing in Shrek 2 in 2004, and the 13-minute “A Cast of Characters,” which profiles several of the characters and the actors portraying them.
For extended footage, we get the two-minute “Jack Horner’s Line-O-Rama,” featuring outtakes from Mulaney, and eight minutes of fun deleted sequences in storyboard form.
On the activities side, there’s a three-minute lyric video for Puss’ “Fearless Hero” theme song, 12 minutes of videos showcasing how to draw Puss, Kitty and Perrito, and a seven-minute instructional video on creating a Perrito out of paper.
Rounding out the extras is a screen-saver-esque video of real cats in a play environment, juxtaposed with footage from the film, that runs a whopping 14-and-a-half minutes.