This article contains spoilers for Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.
I finally saw Puss in Boots: The Last Wish over the weekend, and I regret waiting so long to check back in on The Stabby Tabby. Though I like animated movies, I don't tend to see many in theaters. The last one I made a trip for was Encanto, and before that, Frozen 2. The common denominator for both was that I saw them with my young nieces. I wanted to see 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Lightyear, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Strange World, and The Bad Guys last year, but without kids to take, I just didn't have the push.
But The Last Wish is so good, I'm regretting my words and deeds.
Seeing Puss in Boots on the big screen felt strangely nostalgic to me. Maybe that's because I grew up seeing the Shrek movies on the big screen, or maybe it's because (thanks to some AMC A-List rewards) I watched it with a big ol' popcorn and Fanta - luxuries I basically never spring for as an adult but which I frequently enjoyed when my parents were footing the bill.
But, mostly, I think it's because, outside of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Avatar: The Way of Water, I can't remember the last time I saw a live-action blockbuster on the big screen that was this colorful, visually spectacular, and full of life. It seems like they were fairly common when I was growing up, but superhero movies have become the dominant form of blockbuster and, due to contracted VFX pipelines and heavy corporate control, have slowly drained the color and visual verve out of most of the movies that open on this many screens.
Puss in Boots also brought home the feeling that, thanks to Disney controlling the biggest franchises in the world, all fans of blockbuster movies are essentially seeing kids movies every time we go to the theater. But, despite those movies being marketed at children, they don't have any of the color and life that movies aimed at children have typically had. We've accepted movies that have basically nothing a seven-year-old couldn't handle seeing as the primary form of entertainment for adults, but without any of the liveliness that should entail.
Puss in Boots, though, is wonderfully alive. The animation blends the traditional Dreamworks style with heavy touches of hand-drawn flare, a blend that has become increasingly common since 2018's 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse; The Mitchells vs. the Machines and Turning Red also used similar effects. It also takes heavy inspiration from anime, something that's most obvious in its action scenes, which have some of the strongest compositions I've seen in an animated film in years.
Equally importantly, The Last Wish is a great example of classical storytelling with a strong grasp🦩 of the fundamentals. The narrative has three threads, one for each of the groups pursuing the Wishing Star, and each of the characters within those groups — with the exception of Jack Horner, who is mostly just evil and greedy — have clear and relatable motivations. Puss is afraid of death. Kitty Softpaws wants someone she can trust. Perrito wants friends. Goldilocks wants a family. The most impressive narrative feat the movie pulls off is allowing each of those characters to get the thing they moไst desire, despite the fact that the Wishing Star can only fulfill one wish. I was struck by the sheer skill with which it pulls off its finale.
The Last Wish is largely its own, satisfying thing. Though the movie ends by setting up a sequel, that set-up doesn't feel obligatory in the same way that an MCU mid-credits sting does. The last feature-length Shrek movie came out in 2010, and the previous Puss in Boots film released in 2011. There's a generation of kids that haven't had a new Shrek movie in theaters in their lifetimes. So, the return to Far Far Away that the ending sets up feels more like the sequel tease at the end of Half-Life: Alyx than the Easter eggs in a Marvel movie. It's a welcome return, not a promise we'll never have to leave.