I honestly barely remember the first Puss in Boots film much less his appearances in the later Shrek films. But I went into this sequel with high hopes given the reputation it’s earning from film critics and fans. And I wasn’t disappointed… I had fun even if maybe it’s a little longer than it needs to be.

Puss in Boots: The Last wish finds our hero on his last life and in search of a wishing star to regain those lives (and his confidence). He’s followed by a whole gaggle of friends and foes who want the wish for themselves.

I won’t say I laughed consistently or I wasn’t occasionally a little bored with the mid portions of this film, but I think it has enough going for it that I walked out feeling fond of the film. Certainly any time with Puss in Boots and the wolf were surprisingly good.. and even a little threatening. I wish I liked Goldilocks and the three bears a little more since there’s a lot of humor to mine there. But Big Jack Horner kind of didn’t work just because, as he admits, he’s just a nursery rhyme. But his talking cricket companion was great.

So it’s a bit of a mixed bag but the Puss and Wolf sequences and some of the stuff with Softpaw and un perro were all pretty good. And I chuckled a decent number of times (and the kids in the back of the theater were howling so that was fun).

The art style is a little odd… I’m not sure what the intent was, but there’s a subtle water color filter over the whole movie. It’s not bad but it’s a little distracting… as are the intentional drop in framerate for some action scenes. I don’t get the decision, but I’m not mad at it either.

It’s a pretty good spinoff continuation of the Shrek universe (with a nice wink to Mike Myers maybe having some work in the near future). It’s not the best in the Shrek-iverse, but it’s pretty high up there considering the competition. I liked it.

Score: 82