Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2023)

There’s plenty of films out this year that this self proclaimed critic would have put money on being utterly without merit, unneeded, and certainly unwanted; a sequel to a spin off from a franchise that had long since lost its way would have been high on that list.

Imagine the baffling surprise then, when Puss in Boots: The Last Wish turns out to be the best film Dreamworks has released since Shrek 2 (2004). Ok sure, I hear you shout, that time has taken in the excellent How to Train Your Dragon (2010) and of course Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit (2005) but for sheer unexpected delights, this Puss in Boots sequel is simply a joy I didn’t see coming.

Addressing when this tale is set gives away the ending of the film somewhat, but suffice to say Puss (once again brilliantly voiced by Antonio Banderas) is enjoying his adventurous life as the sword slinging feline, but his wild lifestyle is catching up with him; after a colourful opening spectacle, he realises eight of his nine lives are up, and death is well and truly on his trail in the form of a menacing looking wolf.

Unsurprisingly he sets off on an epic quest (stop rolling those eyes) to find a wishing star that’s embedded in a deep dark forest to gain his original nine lives back, aided by a dog that pretends to be a cat (but is aware of the fact) and old flame Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek). Also chasing the elusive star is Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and the three bears (Ray Winstone, Olivia Colman and Samson Kayo) as well as the piece’s main villain, Big Jack Horner (John Mulaney) in keeping with the Shrek series' fairy tale themes.

Laden with a surprising amount of emotional heft and thematic through lines that strike a chord, The Last Wish is consistently laugh out loud funny as well as being surprisingly thrilling thanks to some excellent set piece sequences, that were clearly so exhilarating they led a certain five year old to watch with a flapjack covering her eyes and exclaiming that she was so nervous she was going to faint.

After initially not being able to see past this surely being one of the most pointless films of 2023, it’s now increasingly tricky to envisage one being as unexpectedly terrific. 7.5/10