Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is an American computer-animated adventure comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures. A spinoff of the Shrek franchise, the film is a sequel to Puss in Boots (2011). It is directed by Joel Crawford, with co-direction by Sir Januel Mercado, screenplay by Paul Fisher and Tommy Swerdlow, and stars the voices of Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek who reprise their roles as Puss in Boots and Kitty Softpaws, respectively, alongside Olivia Colman, Harvey Guillén, Samson Kayo, Wagner Moura, Anthony Mendez, John Mulaney, Florence Pugh, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, and Ray Winstone.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish was theatrically released in the United States on December 21, 2022, by Universal Pictures. The film received positive to acclaim reviews from film critics who praised the animation, visual style, themes, voice acting, and humor, thought it was considered the improvement than its predecessor. 
== Plot ==
Sometime after Shrek Forever After, Puss in Boots hosts a party in the mansion of the governor of Del Mar when, during a fight with the governor's men, he awakens an earthen giant who attacks. He manages to subdue the giant but gets crushed by a bell shortly after. Waking up, he is informed by a doctor that he only has one life after burning through his past eight and suggests he immediately retire to preserve what time he has left. Puss initially brushes it off, but after a black-hooded wolf draws a drop of blood from him in a local pub that night, he seeks refuge in the house of Mama Luna, an elderly cat lady, to be a domesticated pet. He ceremoniously buries his iconic attire outside the house, seemingly putting his outlaw career to rest.
As time passes, a bearded Puss meets Perrito, an optimistic dog who has disguised himself as a cat. Their conversation is cut short when Goldilocks and the Three Bears Crime Family show up to find him, only to find Puss's "grave". They inadvertently reveal the existence of "The Wishing Star" to Puss, and that the map showing its location will be delivered to "Big" Jack Horner that night; seeing it as an opportunity to restore his lost lives, Puss breaks into Jack's bakery to steal the map, unexpectedly reuniting with Kitty Softpaws, who holds a grudge on him for abandoning their wedding day. After a skirmish erupts, they and Perrito manage to escape with the map, with Puss narrowly catching a glimpse of the hooded wolf who was stalking him from behind.
The map leads the trio to the Dark Forest, which morphs into different landscapes depending on the wielder of the map: Puss and Kitty receive two similarly hellish settings while Perrito receives a tranquil and colorful forest — with man-eating roses; the trio decides to go through this path, Puss gets his beard shaved off by Kitty as they and Perrito ride down a river. Puss also gets rid of a stick he had previously been forced to use in the place of his rapier; Perrito fetches it, only to get himself captured by Jack in the process. Shortly after, Goldi and her gang intervene and a fight ensues, but Puss sees the hooded wolf again and runs off in fear, distracting Kitty and enabling Goldi to obtain the map.
Puss reveals to Perrito that he left Kitty at the altar after experiencing fear the first time and still regrets it. She overhears their conversation and reveals that she never came to the altar either, feeling like she could never compete with someone who loves himself more than her. The two manage to reclaim the map from Goldi's group, but Perrito gets captured by them. As the dimension morphs, Puss is accidentally trapped in a "Cave of Lost Souls" after touching the map and instructs Kitty to retrieve Perrito.
Inside the cave, Puss encounters crystal reflections of his past lives. The hooded wolf, who introduces himself as "Death", also appears, revealing that he wants to obtain Puss's last life as retribution for wasting his past eight. In a fit of fear, Puss hastily runs away with the map, an act which Kitty and Perrito see from afar. Meanwhile, a distraught Goldi reveals she wishes for a "real" family, devastating the bears who nonetheless support her. Finally reaching the Star, Puss is stopped from wishing by Kitty, who calls him out for his selfishness.
Goldi's group and Jack soon arrive and another fight ensues, during which Jack is thrown into his magical bottomless bag by Kitty and Goldi saves Baby Bear when he is almost thrown off the star. After Perrito retrieves the map for Puss and consoles him about having only one life left, Kitty, Goldi and her group, and Perrito witness Death return for Puss and a fierce duel erupt between the two. After Puss boldly defeats him in the clash, however, Death begrudgingly decides to spare him, remarking that he no longer sees the arrogant "legend" he wanted to kill but still knows they will meet again.
A giant Jack re-emerges from his bag, having eaten a cookie that makes him grow, and seizes the map from Puss and Kitty. As he attempts to make a wish, Perrito distracts him long enough for Puss, Kitty and Goldi to reclaim and rip the map to shreds, causing the Wishing Star to collapse and kill Jack. In the aftermath, Goldi finally accepts being a part of the Bear family while Puss reconciles with Kitty, promising a life together; sometime later, the two and Perrito steal a boat from the Governor of Del Mar and set sail to reunite with "some old friends" as they catch sight of the royal castle of Far Far Away within a short distance.
==Voice cast==
*Antonio Banderas as Puss in Boots
*Salma Hayek as Kitty Softpaws
*Harvey Guillén as Perrito the Dog
*Florence Pugh as Goldilocks "Goldie" Silverhair
*John Mulaney as The Big Jack Horner
*Olivia Colman, Ray Winstone, and Samson Kayo as the Three Bears
*Wagner Moura as the Bounty Hunter / Big Bad Wolf / The Death
*Anthony Mendez as an unnamed doctor
*Da'fine Joy Randolph as Mama Luna
==Production==
===Development===
In November 2012, executive producer Guillermo del Toro shared director Chris Miller's intentions to take the titular character on an adventure to a "very exotic locale." He also said a couple of drafts for the screenplay were completed. In April 2014, voice actor Antonio Banderas said work on the sequel had begun. On June 12, 2014, the movie was titled Puss in Boots 2: Nine Lives & 40 Thieves. In March 2015, Banderas said the script was under restructuring. He also hinted at the possibility of Shrek appearing in the film.
By November 2018, Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri had been brought on board as an executive producer of both Shrek 5 and Puss in Boots 2. In February 2019, it was reported Bob Persichetti was set to direct the film while Latifa Ouaou, producer of the first film, would oversee the development of the sequel with Chris Meledandri. On August 19, 2020, DreamWorks trademarked Puss in Boots: The Last Wish as the new title of the sequel, which was approved in December. In March 2021, Joel Crawford replaced Persichetti as director, having previously helmed DreamWorks' The Croods: A New Age (2020), with producer Mark Swift, editor James Ryan, and screenwriter Paul Fisher returning as collaborators along with Januel Mercado, who was the head of story on that film and the co-director of this film. Cast members were announced in March 2022.
===Animation and design===
Like DreamWorks' previous film The Bad Guys (2022), inspiration for the design of the film came from Sony Pictures Animation's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), to make it more unique as a storybook than a comic. Using new technology, the team at DreamWorks focused more on a painterly style design, to make the film look like a fairy-tale world, different than what it was in Shrek (2001) from their defunct studio Pacific Data Images.
===Music===
Minions and Despicable Me composer Heitor Pereira composed the score for the film, replacing Henry Jackman from the first film. On June 29, 2022, it was reported that he was in the process of recording the score.
==Release==
The film was released on December 21, 2022. It was originally scheduled to be released on November 2, 2018, and later on December 21, 2018, before it was removed from the release schedule altogether in January 2015 due to corporate restructuring and DreamWorks Animation's new policy to release just two films a year. Upon the project's resurrection, it was given a release date for September 23, 2022, but in April 2022, it was moved to its current December 21 date.
The first thirty minutes of the film were shown at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 14, 2022. Critics noted the darker tone of the movie when compared to its predecessor and director Joel Crawford agreed with them, mentioning that Puss' "fear of death is the engine that drives the movie."
==References==
==External links==
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