Image from Universal Pictures.
Although Puss in Boots: The Last Wish received mixed reviews from critics it was a box-office success, even beating the new Avatar movie. “The Last Wish” expands the roster of ridiculously talented supporting players from the Oscar-nominated 2011 original, “Puss in Boots,” and is a spin-off prequel to the Shrek franchise. Joining Antonio Banderas and his longtime friend and co-star Salma Hayek, are Florence Pugh, Olivia Colman, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and John Mulany.
Even though the story is predictable, it generally flows pretty well, and has a quite mature message about valuing life and not taking people and experiences for granted, which the movie handles correctly most of the time. The animation was satisfactory and immersive, and the music that played throughout the movie was very ear-catching, and left people excited as they watched. The movie is about Puss in Boots finding out that he has used up eight of his nine lives, and realizing that his love of adventure has cost him his fiance and a happy relationship. Puss embarks on a heroic quest to recover his nine lives and locate the legendary Last Wish.
Evgenii Selin is a Junior at Washington High School who learned to play the guitar as a hobby. He specifically enjoyed the movie’s Spanish harmonies with the electric guitar. This movie can be dark and mature, and it hits you in the face with its tense scenes. The way it handles Puss In Boots’ relation to death (who is portrayed as the Grim Reaper) is surprisingly dark and realistic and will definitely get children frightened. Death is a character that is supposed to teach Puss In Boots a lesson by taking his last life to teach him how life is precious and that he should spend his time wisely. Death helps push the theme of valuing life and finding people who are worth spending it with.
Another student of WHS, Craig Wong, discussed his thoughts on the film. On his favorite scenes, he cited two: “One being the introduction of a wolfy boy which was shivering, and the other being a scene where Puss in Boots straight up has a panic attack. These scenes in themself are worth a watch in my opinion.” He adds that, “The movie has a sense of humor like 85% of the time, and besides those scenes I mentioned above, it constantly drops jokes like every few sentences.” However, he does add that, “Death has zero jokes in this movie, which gives the whole experience a roller coaster of feelings with him being on the screen and off. This movie could have been on another level and just way more coherent if it had just turned its humorous tone down and tried to come up with better jokes.” The cliche jokes make the main characters seem very unfunny and subtly irritating. Craig says that overall he liked the movie, and that he would even go as far as saying that this is the best animated movie of [2022], “even though we didn’t have too many good ones.”
Shane Whittle is a junior at Washington High School who was born and raised in Fremont, California. This is his first year being part of The Hatchet. He is interested in reporting about the school sports and teams, along with things going on in the local community. Shane is part of clubs including Kids4Kids and unitopia where he helps tutor kids in different subjects. He has been part of the Washington Track and Field team for 3 years now. He plans to go to a college in California and pursuing a career in business and finance.