Perfectly pitched 'Puss' has boots for walking away with your heart
“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” - ★ ★ ★ ½
I don't know how a Hollywood executive decided to make the engagingly clever, kinetically comical “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” but I imagine the pitch session went something like this:
Studio executive: “It's been 11 years since our 'Puss in Boots' feature. Why bring the cat back now?”
Studio underling: “We offer a whole new anti-photorealistic animated look and existentialist narrative. We bring back the vocal gravitas of Antonio Banderas as Puss, now a middle-aged feline who goes to live in a cat assisted-living facility run by Mama Luna, played by Da'Vine Joy Randolph. Meanwhile, Puss is on his ninth and final life, and constantly pursued by Death, played by 'Narcos' boss Wagner Moura as a scary wolf who wants to cut up Puss with a pair of sharp sickles.”
“Gee, sounds a little dark for a kids' animated fantasy, doesn't it?”
“Oh, the kids will love it! We give them hilarious cat antics, incredible action sequences, blinding speed edits, superhero posturing and extreme camera angles, just like in comic books. Plus, we borrow some cool stylistic flourishes from Japanese manga.”
“Japanese mangoes?”
“Manga. As in popular Japanese graphic novels and comic books. And we throw in lots of pop-culture references, including a clever showdown done in the style of a Sergio Leone spaghetti western. We'll even hire Heitor Pereira to compose some Ennio Morricone-esque music for the segment. It'll make a fistful of dollars!”
“Hey, what about romance?”
“Of course. We'll get Banderas' former co-star Salma Hayek to play the sultry Kitty Softpaws, who shares a checkered past with Puss. Turns out his boots were made for walking away. He suffers from arrested adolescence and fear of commitment.”
“I like it! But what about funny, sympathetic supporting characters?”
“Covered. We'll get Harvey Guillén to voice Puss' nameless, straggly canine sidekick, an ultimate optimist who will win your heart. Plus, we'll hire the amazing Florence Pugh to play Goldilocks, who leads a criminal family of bears searching for the same thing everyone in the movie wants: a magical shooting star buried in the Dark Forest. Whoever finds it will be granted a single wish. But can they locate it before that good-boy-gone-bad Jack Horner, played by John Mulaney, nabs it?”
“Hmmm. I'm not sold unless the movie has some kind of moral, such as the hero learns to grow past his own egotism and selfishness to become a better person, uh, cat.”
“Done! We'll even throw in a Jiminy Cricket clone named the Ethical Bug, played by Kevin McCann, sounding like a mash-up of Don Knotts and Jimmy Stewart.”
“What are the chances we can beat 'Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio' for the Best Animated Feature Oscar?”
“Fair to good. We do have a funny reference to 'Pinocchio” in our screenplay.”
“OK! You convinced me! Here's $90 million. Go make your movie. But lose the 'Pinocchio' bit. We don't promote the competition.”
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Olivia Colman, Florence Pugh
Directed by: Joel Crawford
Other: A Universal Pictures release in theaters. Rated PG. 102 minutes