Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) is a computer-animated action-comedy fantasy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and directed by Joel Crawford, with co-direction by Januel Mercado. It serves as both a sequel to the 2011 film Puss in Boots and a continuation within the Shrek universe. The story follows the swashbuckling cat Puss in Boots, voiced by Antonio Banderas, who discovers that he has used up eight of his nine lives. Faced with the fear of death for the first time, Puss embarks on a quest to recover the mythical Wishing Star to restore his lost lives. Along the way, he reunites with Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek) and befriends an optimistic therapy dog named Perrito. Their journey is threatened by multiple antagonists, including Goldilocks and the Three Bears Crime Family and a terrifying embodiment of Death in the form of a wolf. The film was a major box office success. With a budget of approximately $90–110 million, it grossed over $484 million worldwide, including $186 million from the United States and Canada alone. It became one of the highest-grossing animated films of 2022 and significantly outperformed expectations, especially given its December release during a competitive holiday season. Critically, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish was praised for its visual innovation, mature themes, and emotional depth. It adopted a stylized animation approach inspired by Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, combining traditional 3D techniques with painterly effects. The film holds a 95% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and was widely praised for balancing humor and action with a surprisingly poignant exploration of mortality, identity, and fear. Antonio Banderas’s performance was especially noted for adding emotional nuance to a previously one-note character. The film earned numerous accolades. It was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 95th Academy Awards, Golden Globes, BAFTA Awards, Critics’ Choice Awards, and Annie Awards, where it won for Best Character Design and Best Editorial. It also won Best Family Movie at the Movieguide Awards. Its critical and awards success reestablished DreamWorks as a top-tier animation studio, positioning the film as one of its most artistically daring projects in recent memory. The legacy of The Last Wish is tied to its reinvention of a familiar franchise character. Rather than a disposable sequel, it deepened the emotional scope of the Shrek universe and demonstrated that even long-running IPs can be rejuvenated with care, artistry, and bold thematic choices. Many consider it a new high point in DreamWorks' output, and its treatment of death and personal growth has earned it a long shelf life among both younger viewers and adult audiences.