The sword-fighting cat spun off from the Shrek
franchise makes a very successful comeback in this epic fantasy adventure from
DreamWorks Animation (the fifth film featuring this character). It looks like
this animated film has a chance at an Oscar this year.
Puss in Boots is a fearless fighter, and the film
starts with him defeating a giant opponent. Part of the reason he is fearless
is that he has nine lives. A series of reckless accidents and misadventures over
the years, leaves him with just one life remaining, and this shows his primary
fear, a fear he never had to face before.
Death comes to him in the form of the Big Bad Wolf
(Wagner Moura), and Puss runs away, looking for hiding to a cat lady (Da’Vine
Joy Randolph) who takes in numerous stray cats. There, proud Puss suffers the shame
of wearing little cat mittens on his paws and eating cat food from a sort of
feeding trough. However, he makes friends with a small, persistently upbeat
dog, Perrito, voiced by Harvey Guilén, who is pretending to be a cat in order
to eat.
Robert Roten said in his review, “It appears that Puss
in Boot's adventurous personality is slipping away as he settles in to a safe,
monotonous life.” Suddenly, three bears (Olivia Colman, Ray Winstone, and
Samson Kayo) and Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) break into the house, looking for
him. They don’t recognize him, but when he overhears what they are after, he
gets back into gear, ready for a new adventure.
What they are looking for is a magic map which leads
to a place in a dangerous dark forest where a magical Wishing Star can grant a
single wish. Puss wants to use this wish to get his nine lives back. He and
Perrito go to search for the map. Along the way, they meet up with an old
friend, master thief Kitty Softpaws, who is also after the map.
Puss and Kitty Soft Paws steal the map from Big Jack
Horner, voiced by John Mulaney, a collector who hired Goldilocks and the Bears
to get the map. Puss, Kitty, and Perrito go with the map, with Goldilocks, the
bears and Jack Horner close behind. Jack Horner brings along a whole bag of
magical objects from such stories like Pinocchio and Alice in Wonderland that
he has collected to help him with his quest. Jack raises one of the spells,
causing Jiminy Cricket, voiced by Kevin McCann (sounding like he is doing a Jimmy Stewart impression), to appear. Jiminy’s moral
advice is ignored by Jack, but Jiminy eventually gets the last word.
When they enter the magic forest, Pussy and Kitty each
see a different, dark and dangerous path rejoiced to them by the magic map.
However, Perrito, having a gentle nature, sees an easier way to the Wishing
Star. Goldilocks and the bears, along with Jack Horner all end up in a huge
fight for the Wishing Star. In the end, the quest and fight reveal the true
nature of each of these characters, for good or evil, generosity, or
selfishness. Therein lies the moral of the story.
This year, there have not been many top notch animated
film, unlike 2021, when there were more excellent animated films. Roten said, “It
looks to me like this movie is one the top five best animated films I've seen
this year (along with “Turning Red,” “Pinocchio,” “Marcel the Shell with Shoes
On” and “The Bad Guys”).” It should get an Academy Award nomination.
As a spinoff to the Shrek franchise, these are very
good movies. The first one was really enjoyable and I know that the sequel was
in talks for years. Finally, when they had announced the sequel, the pandemic
delayed everything. Now we finally got it in time before the holidays, and it
is actually better. The animation is on the same level as the Spider-Verse
movie. If you saw the first one and loved it, see the sequel. You will enjoy
it. However, I would highly recommend everyone to see the first movie
before going to the theater to see the sequel. See it if you like the Shrek
franchise.
Thank you for joining in on my review tonight. Stay
tuned tomorrow for the finale of “Disney Month 2022.”
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