Fun ‘Puss in Boots’ sequel an overdue return for swashbuckling feline

An impressive and expressive cast of actors voice the new characters taking on Antonio Banderas’ furry hero.

SHARE Fun ‘Puss in Boots’ sequel an overdue return for swashbuckling feline
10E43_FP01_00011.jpg

Antonio Banderas voices the title character in “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.”

Universal Pictures

Quick, without looking, guess how long it’s been since there’s been a Shrek movie or even a Shrek-adjacent one. Over a decade seems too long for such a popular franchise, right? And yet here we are, 11 years later, welcoming back Antonio Banderas’s swashbuckling feline in “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.”

No wonder he’s forced to think about his own mortality in this one — certain segments of the audience will be too when they realize how much time has passed. It wasn’t for lack of trying, but things were happening behind the scenes with various directors coming and going. then Universal acquired DreamWorks and they went back to the drawing board under new leadership. Somehow television spinoffs kept coming.

The good news is that the character is evergreen. And as soon as Banderas starts speaking, and singing, as his playfully egotistic character, it’ll feel like hardly any time has gone by at all. In “The Last Wish,” the ever-confident Puss in Boots is shaken to discover that he’s used up eight of his nine lives and, for the first time, starts worrying about his own death.

‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’

Untitled

Universal Pictures presents a film directed by Joel Crawford and written by Paul Fisher and Tommy Swerdlow. Rated PG (for action/violence, rude humor/language, and some scary moments). Running time: 102 minutes. Opens Wednesday in local theaters.

It might seem a little dour for a children’s animated comedy, but when you start to think about other kids’ movies, it’s actually a quite common theme. Are they the anxieties of the middle-aged creators creeping out or an empathy machine for kids to think about the adults in their lives? Both? Does it matter? It’s a device to rattle our hero, who has a bounty on his head and a big, bad wolf (Wagner Moura) on his tail.

First he tries out retirement life in a home with Mama Luna (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), in which he’s forced to behave like a cat — using a litter box (“so this is where dignity goes to die,” he says) and eating cat food as opposed to his stovetop cooking as a cover of The Doors’ “The End” plays in the background. But he gets a lifeline in the legend of a single wish in a star that’s fallen to earth and is waiting to be granted, sending him, Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek Pinault) and a gratingly earnest dog (Harvey Guillén) on an adventure to get said wish.

This is where the movie really finds its groove, with the introduction of Goldilocks (Florence Pugh), who is a kind of crime lord to her family of bears, Mama (Olivia Colman), Papa (Ray Winstone) and Baby (Samson Kayo), and, separately, a no longer little Little Jack Horner (John Mulaney) who are all after the wishing star too.

The vocal cast is an embarrassment of riches, especially Pugh, Colman and Winstone, who are right out of a PG-rated Guy Ritchie movie and should get their own spinoff. Mulaney, too, is a perfect adult brat, bitter about his origin being just a nursery rhyme and not a full fairy tale. He’s another kind of crime brute, collecting and stealing famous fairy tale items to compensate for his own lack of magical powers and using them to fun ends.

Directed by Joel Crawford, with Januel Mercardo as co-director, “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” has enough good jokes (script by Paul Fisher and story by Tommy Swerdlow and Tom Wheeler) to keep anyone amused for an afternoon at the movies. The animation is exactly what you need it to be too and avoids too much of the frenetic anarchy of a lot of kids movies that mistake chaos for excitement.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how much time has lapsed, Banderas is welcome back as the “leche-whisperer” whenever he wants.

The Latest
Chatterbox doesn’t seem aware that it’s courteous to ask questions, seek others’ opinions.
With Easter around the corner, chocolate makers and food businesses are feeling the impact of soaring global cocoa prices and it’s also hitting consumers.
Despite getting into foul trouble, which limited him to just six minutes in the second half, Shannon finished with 29 points, five rebounds and two assists.
Cowboy hats, bell-bottoms and boots were on full display Thursday night as fans lined up for the first of his three sold-out shows.