Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is a 2022 American computer-animated adventure film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures. The sequel to the spin-off film Puss in Boots (2011) and the sixth installment in the Shrek franchise. It was released in the United States on December 21, 2022.
Plot[]
While hosting a party in the town of Del Mar, legendary hero and outlaw Puss in Boots accidentally awakens a sleeping giant. He subdues the creature but is crushed by a bell. Waking up in a hospital, the town doctor informs him that he has lost eight of his nine lives and suggests Puss should retire. That night in a bar, Puss meets a black-hooded wolf, who disarms and wounds him in a swordfight.
Traumatized, Puss flees to the house of cat lady Mama Luna, where he buries his clothes and meets an optimistic Chihuahua disguised as a cat whom he calls Perrito. Goldilocks and her Three Bears Crime Family soon arrive at Luna's home. They plan to hire Puss to steal a map bearing the Wishing Star's location from pastry chef and crime boss "Big" Jack Horner, but fail to recognize him and leave after finding his "grave".
Puss decides to use the Star to restore his lost lives. Accompanied by Perrito, he breaks into Horner's bakery to steal the map, but is interrupted by his resentful ex-fiancée Kitty Softpaws, Horner, and Goldi and the bears. Puss manages to escape with the map alongside Kitty and Perrito, though he sees the wolf threaten him while fleeing.
The map leads the trio to the Dark Forest, a pocket dimension that changes its landscape depending on the map's holder. During another clash with Horner, his henchmen, and Goldi and the bears, Puss sees the wolf again and runs off, distracting Kitty and allowing Goldi to obtain the map. After Perrito calms Puss's panic attack, Puss confesses to being on his last life, and his remorse for leaving Kitty on their wedding day. Kitty overhears them and reveals that she never attended the wedding either, believing Puss could not love anyone more than himself.
Puss and Kitty steal back the map while Goldi and the bears are distracted by a manifestation of their woodland cottage. As the dimension shifts, Puss accidentally traps himself in a crystalline cave, where he encounters his arrogant past lives, and the wolf, who reveals himself as Death. Feeling disrespected by Puss not valuing his extra lives, Death wants to take Puss's final life prematurely. Horrified, Puss runs out of the cave towards the Star alone, ignoring Kitty and Perrito's pleas for him to stop. Meanwhile, Goldi reveals to the bears that her wish is to be reunited with her biological family; although they are devastated, the bears agree to help her.
Puss arrives at the Star and begins to make his wish using the map, but is confronted by Kitty, who berates him for his selfishness and confesses that her wish was to find someone she could trust. Goldi, the bears, and Horner arrive, and a fight ensues for the map; Goldi briefly obtains the map, but abandons it to save Baby Bear, while Kitty traps Horner inside his magical bottomless bag.
Death mounts the Star and challenges Puss. Having learned the value of life from his time with his companions, Puss forgoes wishing for more lives and accepts Death's duel. Puss disarms the wolf, and declares that while he knows he can never defeat Death, he will never stop fighting for his last life. Seeing that Puss has lost his arrogance, Death begrudgingly spares him. Before leaving, Death and Puss agree they will meet again one day.
Horner eats a magic snack inside the bag, which makes him gigantic and allows him to escape. He attempts to make his wish to control all of the world's magic for himself, but Perrito distracts him long enough for Puss, Kitty, and Goldi to destroy the map, causing the Star to collapse and consume Horner. In the aftermath, Goldi affirms to the bears that they are her true family, and they leave to take over Horner's bakery. Puss rekindles his romance with Kitty; the two and Perrito later steal a ship and set sail to the Kingdom of Far Far Away.
Voice cast[]
Main article: List of Shrek characters
- Antonio Banderas as Puss in Boots, a swashbuckling cat fugitive from the law and a hero of San Ricardo who has lost eight of his nine lives. In Mama Luna's Cat Rescue, Mama Luna named him "Pickles".
- Salma Hayek Pinault as Kitty Softpaws, a street-savvy Tuxedo cat who is Puss' ex-fiancée, and seeks the Wishing Star to find somebody she can trust.
- Harvey Guillén as Perrito, a friendly and naive therapy dog who started out as one of Mama Luna's pet cats, because he disguised himself as a cat. Since the end of the film, he officially names the trio (consisting of himself, Puss, and Kitty) "Team Friendship".
- Florence Pugh as Goldilocks – known as Goldi, the leader of the Three Bears Crime Family who wants to use Last Wish to regain her biological family.
- Kailey Crawford as Young Goldilocks
- Olivia Colman as Mama Bear – Papa Bear's wife, Baby Bear's mother and Goldilocks' adoptive mother.
- Ray Winstone as Papa Bear – Mama Bear's husband, Baby Bear's father and Goldilocks' adoptive father.
- Samson Kayo as Baby Bear – Papa Bear and Mama Bear's son, and Goldilocks' adoptive brother. The character was previously voiced by Bobby Block in Shrek.
- John Mulaney as "Big" Jack Horner, a feared pastry chef and crime lord who plans to use the Wishing Star to gain control of all magic. He collects various magical items, creatures and people ever since he was snubbed of fairy-tale fame by calling himself "Little" Jack Horner as a kid. His group of henchmen cooks is called "the Baker's Dozen".
- Wagner Moura as the Wolf / Death, a black hooded wolf who is initially presumed to be a bounty hunter before revealing his true identity to Puss, who he wants to personally kill as punishment for Puss wasting eight of his nine lives. He wields twin sickles that combine into a double-bladed glaive.
- Da'Vine Joy Randolph as Mama Luna, an elderly cat lady who initially takes Puss in.
- Anthony Mendez as the doctor who tells Puss to retire after informing him of his eight deaths.
- Kevin McCann as the Ethical Bug, a parody of Jiminy Cricket, who attempts to act as Jack Horner's "conscience".
- Bernardo De Paula as the Governor of del Mar
- Betsy Sodaro and Artemis Pebdani as Jo and Jan Serpent, twin criminal sisters who deliver the map of the Wishing Star to Jack.
- Conrad Vernon as Gingy
- Cody Cameron as Pinocchio
Shrek and Donkey make non-speaking appearances in a brief flashback, as does Imelda from the first Puss in Boots; Also from the previous film, Humpty Alexander Dumpty's first name appears in a book Goldi reads.