- Released: December 7, 2022
- Directed by: Joel Crawford, Januel Mercado
- Running time: 1 h 42 min
- Rating 4.5/5
Synopsis
My Thoughts
Whatever everyone has been saying about this movie is pretty much correct. It's fantastic and definitely one of the best Dreamworks sequels (if not movies in general) to date. And not just because of the amazing animation and visuals.
The plot revolves around Puss, now down to his last life and being chased by Death himself. He decides to give up being an outlaw and hero to retire, but when he learns of the Wishing Star he decides to travel there in order to wish for his lives back so he can be the beloved legendary Puss in Boots once again. He is joined by a nameless dog companion, as well as his old flame Kitty Softpaws. But they're not the only ones seeking the Wishing Star: Goldilocks and the three bears, as well as a powerful man known as Big Jack Horner are after it as well. All the while Death is still chasing Puss to get his last life.
Just...a fantastic film. It looks fantastic, it has great characters, the villains are great and memorable, really, what more can I say that the entire collective internet hasn't already said about this film yet? It's just one of Dreamworks' strongest so far, though I personally wouldn't say it's quite as good as others such as Kung Fu Panda 2 and The Prince of Egypt. Just...almost.
I'll just briefly go about everything that makes this film go so great in more detail. The visuals: spectacular. Beautifully stylized and animated, a great more cartoon-y style, some neat 2D effects, frame-drops in certain scenes, etc. The main characters? Likable, flawed. Puss is actually really relatable in this as he is coming to terms with his own mortality and suffers from quite a few anxiety attacks in this film (something I suffer from from time to time). The dog "Perrito" is actually not annoying like I thought he'd be and quite charming (with a very depressing backstory, holy shit). And Kitty is neat as well. I've never been super into her character in the original Puss in Boots movie, but she's all right and I like her here as well.
The villains and antagonists is where this movie also shines. Death (the wolf) is one of the best Dreamworks villains to date, just super intimidating and awesome all the way through. Big Jack Horner, though I expected I wouldn't like him much, was actually legitimately hilarious and just evil for the sake of being evil like some of the good old Disney Renaissance villains. He's not quite up there, but definitely a memorable one. Goldi and the three bears, while not direct villains and more so just antagonists, are also fantastic and they have a pretty heartwarming (albeit a little predictable) arc surrounding family.
I also like how this movie is catered to a slightly older audience than most animated movies these days. There's blood, there's swearing (some censored, some not), characters get scars, some characters die in quite horribly brutal (though still cartoon-y) ways, there's heavier themes and backstories than usual, it can be scary... This movie also just...has a legit body count. But I don't think it's inappropriate for children, either. I'd just be careful with showing this to really young ones because it can be a bit scary and intense.
Is it perfect? Eh, it'd still have one or two admittedly very minor criticisms. One, I don't think Big Jack Horner's voice fits the character very much. The voice actor does a good job, the voice just doesn't seem to go very well with his character design. He's still an amazing villain though.
Two, this one I already brought up briefly: I think that Goldi and the bears' arcs were just...too predictable. As soon as we got Goldi's backstory of being an orphan and them going for the wish I knew that Goldi was going to try to wish for a "real" family, only to realize the bears are her family now. Not a bad idea for a character conflict, but it could've been handled a little less predictably.
And finally the whole thing with Kitty and Puss' marriage. Throughout the movie, a huge conflict between Kitty and Puss is that they do not trust one another anymore because Puss left Kitty at the altar once. Which is totally understandable, especially from Kitty's POV, but then later in the movie it turns out Kitty was never even at the church during the marriage to begin with. If that's the case, why is she so mad at Puss for getting cold feet? She didn't bother to show up to the marriage herself, either, so she's in no way better than him here. The conflict was fine before this rather odd revelation, it'd make sense for Kitty not to trust Puss after being left at the altar. But this plot point just makes the conflict feel weird and forced since both are equally at fault here. So Kitty really has no right to be mad at Puss when she did the exact same thing to him.
Overall this is still a fantastic film, though. One or two minor flaws, but still very close to perfection and definitely a whole lot better than the first Puss in Boots (which I think is mostly just okay). Enjoy this one yourself and definitely see it on the big screen if you can.
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