Puss In Boots: The Last Wish
Cert: PG / 102 mins / Dir. Joel Crawford & Januel Mercado / Trailer
It feels somewhat disingenuous to call Puss In Boots: The Last Wish an unasked-for sequel, not least because the world's biggest unasked for sequel is currently still in cinemas and is by all accounts making ridiculous sums of money. Nevertheless, arriving eleven years after its direct predecessor, courtesy of two directors, two story writers and two separate screen writers, the feeling of a cinematic fifth-wheel remains...
The film follows Puss (voice once again by Antonio Banderas), as he recklessly finds himself on his ninth-and-final cats' life. Having heard the legend of a lost shooting star which crashed to earth and will bestow any wish upon the discoverer, our hero sets out on a quest to find it and be granted a reset of his feline power-ups. Along the way he is joined by jaded mercenary and former-partner Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek Pinault), and the brightly optimistic chihuahua Perrito (Harvey Guillén). The journey won't be easy however, as the trio are being tracked by evil business-magnate and collector of fabled antiquities Big Jack Horner (John Mulaney), as well as cockney crime-family Goldilocks and the Three Bears (Florence Pugh, Ray Winstone, Olivia Colman and Samson Kayo). To make matters worse, Puss himself is being stalked by the literal lupine personification of the grim reaper (Wagner Moura), intent on claiming the cat's final life for himself.
CENTRAL
Taking the good points into account first, the central narrative has a stripped-down simplicity which, while it never feels dumbed-down, will be ideal for the younger members of the audience to follow and enjoy. This is a straightforward treasure-based adventure, and the use of the map as a central plot-point (physically changing the terrain depending on who holds it) is a nice anchor point for the story to keep things firmly on-track. Banderas is enjoying himself immensely in the title role, Hayek is solid (although the mostly-subdued nature of her character means the actress' vocal performance is frequently drowned out, tonally), and Guillén plays 'annoying yappy comedy dog' in precisely the way you'd imagine. The supporting voice-cast are all having great fun, and mostly merge with their animated counterparts very well.
At 102 minutes including the credits this isn't overly-long, but nor does it feel padded out. The film is a PG rather than the expected U because of the wolf's characterisation, and a string of bleeped-out profanities from Perrito are played to maximum comic effect; but apparently Olivia Coleman saying that the cat-lady's house smells of piss is just a bonus. Fair. Everything here moves at a bright, brisk pace, and the story markers are set out clearly, with frenetic action sequences and careful exposition scenes carefully placed so as not to run into one another. It's just that...
GRANADA
...well, as a standalone action feature this is way more of a mess than Dreamworks should ever have put their name on. In addition to the scattering of writers and directors, the central characters have full CGI model-rendering complete with the associated fur texturing you'd expect to see. But many of the players further down the ladder seem to be working on reduced-polycount models, giving them an overly angular appearance reminiscent of 1990s animation. The surface-texturing is photorealistic in some places (the main characters, again), given a watercolour effect in others, and even just flat-shaded in a few. The movement and film style is standard for the most part, then drops into anime effects and editing for the fight scenes, but still with the full CGI models. The film is a headache for anyone looking for a coherent experience.
On top of all this, the script takes repeated pot-shots at Disney, using its fairy-tale-world setting to include IP-baiting references to Jiminy Cricket, Pinnochio himself, and the bag/umbrella motifs from Mary Poppins. This might be charming or even cheeky from an independent studio, but given Dreamworks' standing as firmly second-tier to the House Of Mouse it feels more than a little bitter. By the time you consider the dearth of cat-jokes that a movie like Puss In Boots seems custom-built to deliver (and did, last time), you begin to wonder if all of this happened because an executive found an old contract behind a radiator which tied Banderas to one more project.
Despite my moaning, Puss In Boots: The Last Wish isn't bad. But given Dreamworks' past glories, it's pretty far from great. The Last Film would have been a more reassuring title...
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