The new Puss in Boots movie has become a popular conversation topic recently, with people across the internet talking about how great it is. For a while, I wasn’t able to go on TikTok or Twitter without seeing at least one post about it, with everyone saying that it was great and worth seeing in theaters. So I was finally able to see it a couple of days ago and, unsurprisingly, I completely agree. Puss in Boots The Last Wish is great, with amazing animation, a decent story, good writing for the comedy, and probably the best villain out of any animated movie in recent memory. 

The first thing the audience will notice is the animation, as it’s amazing. Although many people see the animation as a letdown because it has dramatically changed from how it used to look, it has a lot more personality, with such a vibrant color palette and fluid movement. This shines in the action scenes, where the camera will typically follow so closely behind whichever character is fighting, and makes each action scene feel more intense and fun to watch. Just watching the opening action scene in the village does a great job of hooking the audience and getting them invested in whatever is about to happen. This animation carries the movie, and even when the story starts to slow down and get more predictable the animation is still fantastic and would keep anyone’s attention.  

The writing is also pretty good. The story is pretty interesting, with a few scenes with decently mature themes, such as panic attacks and the entire concept of death, which is rare to see in a kids’ movie. The comedy is also great, especially because it’s a kids’ movie. It is very much in the same style as the Shrek movies, with a lot more offensive (as offensive as a PG movie can be) humor and even swearing. It does fail to break out of the normal kids’ movie structure, however, as even though the writing and animation are amazing there is always a feeling of it just being a kids’ movie and the plot is a bit too predictable. 

However, any flaw with the story is so easily overlooked because of the villain, as he is amazing. This isn’t really surprising, as Dreamworks typically has decent villains (Fairy Godmother from Shrek 2, any of the villains from the Kung Fu Panda movies) but the one in this film stands out. The main antagonist is literally death personified as a wolf that only has interest in scaring and killing Puss in Boots, and he is quickly established as someone who can never be beaten. If you pay attention, this trait is always present, as Death can be seen in the background of some scenes just watching everything, waiting for Puss to slip up so he can come in and take Puss for good. The idea of inescapable death is an interesting theme for any movie, but because it’s in the same movie as Shrek it becomes way more entertaining and surprising. 

If I had to sum up my thoughts on this movie, I wouldn’t even try to say anything besides “Just go watch it, you probably won’t be disappointed.” There’s not really anything else to say, as even after writing a review all I’ll tell people is just to see it themselves so they can form their own opinion. Puss in Boots, the Last Wish is one of the best-animated movies in recent memory and it will no doubt become another classic DreamWorks movie like the Shrek series that inspired it. 

8/10