First Take: Puss in Boots: The Last Wish - fear him, if you dare

SYNOPSIS: When Puss in Boots discovers that his passion for adventure has taken its toll and he has burned through eight of his nine lives, he launches an epic journey to restore them by finding the mythical Last Wish.

DreamWorks are back. God, is it surreal to say those words - sure, they’ve experimented with new IP over the last few years, with The Bad Guys and Trolls becoming the most notable ones, but at long last (and under the stewardship of Illumination’s head honcho Chris Meledandri), they’ve returned to characters which some reckon embody love, and others think show what life is about. Yes, 12 years on from the original, Puss in Boots has a sequel, and the development hell was worth it- this is a cracker of a follow-up.

Joel Crawford takes the lead in the directors’ chair, delivering a jam packed 1 hour 42 minutes (although 10 of them are the credits) that is well paced, well thought out, and well animated. It’s also written very well, as Paul Fisher and Tommy Swerdlow’s script has plenty of humour, a lot of heart, more backstory to the characters, and some of the most inventive jokes aimed at adults within a PG film- embracing the fairy tale aspects of the wider Shrek franchise, and adding the trademark innuendo we expect from these films. With the rest of the technical elements, the animation style is very much inspired by Into the Spider-Verse, and Heitor Pereira’s score does the job for this kind of movie.

On to that cast, and as you would expect, Antonio Banderas returns as the legend who has used 8 of his 9 lives, with Salma Hayek Pinault coming back from the 2011 spinoff too- but it is the new additions to the series who make this film tick. Florence Pugh, Olivia Colman, Ray Winstone, Samson Kayo, John Mulaney, Wagner Moura and Da’Vine Joy Randolph create a lot of classic animated moments, ones which DreamWorks became known for when a certain film came out in 2001- but the big question which we need to ask: are we ready for what the ending of this film potentially sets up? 

THE VERDICT

With half term holidays finishing up in England, and Ant-Man releasing (and breaking cinema projection servers), Puss in Boots has had a good 2 weeks at the top of the box office- it’s now going to run without any competing family films until early April. Universal picked the right time to unleash this film, because it really was worth the wait.

RATING: 4/5