Movie News and Discussion

I was a little bored this weekend looking for something fun and breezy to watch and decided on The Last Wish because I remember it getting some pretty good reviews when it came out. I wasn’t expecting too much because the first movie was just ok, and Dreamworks can be hit or miss. I thought I’d be getting something dumb and mindless to kill a couple of hours with.

Well imagine my surprise then, when I actually ended up getting one of the best animated movies I’ve seen in a while. What a delightful surprise this movie was - it tells an excellent, personal story with enough adventure and action for the kids, but also with an emotional depth and maturity that all adults can appreciate as well.

I legitimately haven’t seen a lot of animated movies deal with the concept of coming to terms with your mortality the way this one did. And it wasn’t dumbed down as well - you felt the weight of what Puss is facing and his desperation to keep putting off death. It was an extremely well-done character arc really sold by how much personality, fun and vulnerability Antonio Banderas brings to the role.

Speaking of death…one of the biggest highlights of the movie was the character of the Wolf/Death. I mean damn, what an incredible villain. Wagner Moura really killed the VA performance here - he makes the Wolf so menacing and sinister. The badass design helps as well, with the flowing black robes, red eyes and double scythes. It’s really a reminder of how much a great villain can carry a hero’s journey story.

Gotta give props to Jack Horner as well (and John Mulaney) because he was also a fantastic villain. While the Wolf is an unstoppable force of nature, Jack is just an over privileged, entitled douchebag with no redeeming qualities. He was an absolute hoot - it’s so fun to have villains that are reveling in how villainous they are.

And I haven’t even talked about the other characters, who all have their own full character arcs. Perrito is another highlight character - they could’ve turned him into a one-note butt of the joke sidekick, but instead they made him a kind, wholesome and optimistic counterpoint to Puss’s growing fatalism. The panic attack scene where Perrito comforts Puss was so amazing - they really let the moment just breathe without ruining it with a quip or a joke.

Kitty, Goldi and the Bears were great characters as well and I felt that you could legitimately give them their own movies with how well-realized they were.

The animation is fantastic as well - so vibrant and colourful with some fantastic action scenes that reminded me of the Spiderverse movies.

Overall this was just a really pleasant surprise for me. Idk if they’ll ever do a third because this serves as a really good conclusion to Puss’s story but I’d be totally down for that