“We wanted to deliver on everything people love about Shrek and Puss in Boots but went to some new territory”: Joel Crawford on Puss in Boots – The Last Wish

Over ten years on from the first spin-off film from the Shrek franchise to star the character of Puss in Boots, a sequel has finally arrived. A sequel to a spin-off from a long-running franchise admittedly sounds a little tenuous – the type of film to sneak out digitally on a platform, only ever to be seen and appreciated by content-hungry kids. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, however, defies all such expectations to deliver a truly cinematic experience. Following our “fearless hero” as he hunts down a wish to replenish his nine lives, the movie has all the irreverent humour and world of un-Disney-like fairytale characters we’ve grown to know and love from Dreamwork’s Shrek universe, but it’s far from phoned in by the creatives behind it.

It feels as though the material has been given a genuinely fresh lease of life, with a storyline inspired by Spaghetti Westerns such as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and a brilliant fusion of CGI with a more old-school, painterly approach to animation (as seen on the likes of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and The Bad Guys), moving away from the hyperrealistic aesthetic that has previously been the gold standard. The result is a tale of high stakes, emotional character arcs and a rollercoaster ride of imaginatively realised adventures in blazing colour, carried off by some of the best voices in the game, from Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek Pinault returning to their feline characters, and Florence Pugh, Olivia Colman and Ray Winstone taking on the British gangster version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The other villains, the Wolf and Jack Horner, are also impressively sinister, the echoing sound of death whistling not one you’ll forget in a hurry. Whether grownups or kids, viewers can expect to feel joy and fear, to cry and laugh out loud; they really knocked it out of the park with this one, as evidenced by their Academy Award nomination.

The Upcoming had a fascinating in-depth chat with director Joel Crawford ahead of the movie landing in UK cinemas. He spoke about the long journey to the sequel being made, the approach he took in terms of his influences and animation techniques, and how he’s been blown away by the response to the film so far.

Sarah Bradbury

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is released nationwide on 3^rd February 2023. Read our five-star review here.

Watch the trailer for Puss in Boots: The Last Wish here: