“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” brings the magic back to the “Shrek” saga.

“This story is a fairy tale”. With this message, DreamWorks Animation welcomes us back to a world where Pinocchio and the three little pigs can have a party in the swamp of another cranky one whose best friend is a talking donkey married to a dragon. We haven’t set foot in that world for more than a decade, and without seeing one of the franchise’s favorite characters, the first to make its own spin-off. Yes, “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” is a fairy tale, perhaps the greatest fairy tale that the saga has ever seen. And also one of the most exciting chapters in the studio’s recent history.

Puss in Boots is back in love with himself as always. Antonio Banderas’ character continues to dazzle the masses and go on adventures without thinking much about the consequences. Until one day he discovers that he has used up eight of his nine lives, so if he dies again it will be the end.. But there is one last hope: if he finds the fallen wishing star in the gloomy forest, he can ask for the lives lost to be restored and become once again the fearless swordsman who is legend throughout the realm. But the path will not be easy. New enemies and the occasional unexpected allies await him.

The first thing that catches your eye at the beginning of the film is the visual change they have given the protagonist and his entire environment. DreamWorks scrapped a simple update to the animation style of the previous “Puss in Boots” and instead they opted for an aesthetic reminiscent of watercolors, infinitely more bucolic and evocative than the more common computer animation. Here they let themselves play with textures, tones and figures to give us one of the studio’s most beautiful films, with many shots that are worth stopping to admire in detail. The characters we already knew are fully recognizable with these new looks, becoming more expressive (for example, with the sparkle in the eyes), and the new additions find that balance between a design that adapts to the saga but knows how to take advantage of the new elements visuals, especially Goldilocks and the Big Bad Wolf. The franchise had never been so magical, aesthetically speaking.

Not only have they decided to go outside the box in the design of settings and characters, They’ve also pumped up the pace and framing to give us frenetic scenes that look like something out of an anime, color changes and effects that are more reminiscent of comics than a ‘Shrek’ movie.. It’s a big leap in quality for a studio that wants to break with its own canons. That such an established company is betting on giving creative freedom to every title (as happened with ‘The bad guys’) is excellent news for the future of Hollywood animation.

Narratively, “The Last Wish” is far superior to the previous film Puss in Boots. Tommy Swerdlow, Tom Wheeler and Paul Fisher become existentialists and talk about death and the important things in life, making the protagonist grow from the most characteristic features of him. Taking advantage of the nine lives a cat has according to Anglo-Saxon tales (seven in Spain), Gato goes from reckless to coward, even considering the idea of ​​abandoning his legendary life and becoming a normal pet. Finding the easy way out with the help of magic is something that suits him very much, and is obviously one of the lessons he will have to learn on the way to the star: shortcuts often go wrong. All enclosed in a great tribute to the funniest spaghetti western.

dogs and wolves

It is not the first film for young people to deal with the theme of death, but ‘The Last Wish’ knows how to do it in a simple and fun way, underlining the importance of having had a good life and sharing it with the people we love. In that sense, Dog stands out as one of the film’s best characters, and pretty much all of the new faces are truly remarkable. The Chihuahua posing as a cat is purity personified. A lovable character with an indestructible spirit, the opposite of Gato. A mix between the annoyingly charming Donkey and a cloud of sugar that could have been a toothache, but manages to reach the hearts of Cat, Kitty and probably many of us. Instead, we have the evil dire wolf, representing how close Gato came to death. Aesthetically he is the most successful character in the film, the fights against him are very epic. It’s been a long time since an animated movie villain wasn’t as scary as this one, we come to feel danger like Gato does every time we hear him whistle. A fantastic villain.

And it’s not the only one. The film has explored the confines of this story world to find a character who outside of the UK will sound unfamiliar to us. Jack Horner is the protagonist of a traditional lullaby, and the great talent of his being able to make a plum out of a pie. This lack of magic has made him obsessed with everything related to her, and his greatest desire for the star is to obtain all the magic in the realm. He’s a spoiled big boy, the clumsy foe to counter the wolf’s intensity. And on the other side we have Goldilocks and the Three Bears, a family of villains with a very interesting story that reminds us that sometimes we don’t have to look very far to find what we want. They are all evolving characters, with backgrounds, and are all beautifully voiced by professional voice actors., which also appear prominently in the credits, as they always should. Banderas continues to provide the story’s protagonist with all the charm and humor he needs.

The ‘Shrek’ saga had been dormant for many years, but ‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’ managed to recover that luster that perhaps we didn’t see from the ogre’s second adventure, in which we met Gato. Not only does the film manage to improve on the character’s first solo story in just about everything, but it also knows how to breathe new life into this universe of stories, with more than one wink along the way and without losing its sense of humor.. Of course, you lack the irreverent comedy of the ogre films a little more, this one has a more childish edge despite the central theme. With this film, DreamWorks reflects that it does not want to stagnate, that it has great ideas and that we can expect very interesting things in the future, especially if it has been able to revive a franchise like this with such force.

“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” it’s already in theaters.

Note: 8

The best: The aesthetic change is gorgeous and fits perfectly with the franchise. The new characters, especially Dog and the big bad wolf.

Worse: The existentialist residue is not the height of originality. She could have tried to be a little smarter.