Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

A departure from the look and feel of the Shrek franchise as Antonio Banderas' frisky swashbuckling feline deals with his mortality via more comic book-y action scenes.

I can’t say as I was excited about another “Puss in Boots” feature film. The Shrek franchise, once one of the freshest things in animation, overstayed its welcome with a mediocre “Shrek the Third,” followed up by “Shrek Forever After,” which was actively awful. So the inevitable 2011 spinoff featuring Antonio Banderas’ swashbuckling feline rogue seemed more like a last gasp than a new start.

Everything in life has a beginning, middle and end, and it seemed like the not-so-jolly green ogre and his crew had reached their natural conclusion. So I was surprised they were making another after an 11-year hiatus, and that “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” would arrive in theaters rather than just thrown onto some streaming platform.

An even more welcome shock: it’s actually pretty good.

No, it’s not nearly as inventive and entertaining as the first two movies. But it’s a combination of revisit and reinvention, as Puss confronts his mortality and comes to know fear for the first time in his life. The movie also boasts zippy action scenes made in the comic book style of “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” where it almost seems like frames were snipped out so characters will strobe across the screen in jerky flashes.

And Banderas shows he hasn’t last any of his growly charm as Puss — “your favorite fearless hero,” as he serenades himself in the raucous opening musical number.

Things end badly for the hero in this particular adventure, as he finds himself smushed by a massive hill/giant and wakes up at the doctor’s office. His nonchalant attitude is challenged when it’s revealed he’s already used up eight of his proverbial nine cat lives. Things move from self-doubt to utter terror when he encounters a creepy, whistling wolf (Wagner Moura) who bests him in combat, wielding twin scythes as he claims to be the personification of Death himself.

Puss retires to the home of an old lady who hosts a veritable army of stray kitties, as well as a sweet but dim puppy, aka Perrito (Harvey Guillén), who has disguised himself as a cat and yearns to become someone’s therapy dog. Puss grows out his beard and considers himself retired from the adventuring life.

But there’s always a new quest. In this case, several parties are vying for the opportunity to find the last wishing star that fell somewhere in the enchanted dark forest and make their fondest wishes come true. Puss figures he’ll enter the fray and try to wish all his lost lives back.

Perrito tags along, Donkey-style, the annoying, unwanted sidekick who will eventually become his best friend and conscious. He also runs into Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek), another feline thief whom he has history with, to be his antagonist/partner/romantic interest.

Opposing parties include Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and the three bears (Ray Winston, Olivia Colman and Samson Kayo, in descending order of size), here reimagined as their own crew of roving bandits. More malevolent, and completely self-aware about it, is Jack Horner (John Mulaney), now graduated from pie-thumbing to stealing every magic artifact he can find to wield in his quest for power.

There’s a magic map hand that keeps changing hands that shows the way to the star, although whoever holds it actually transforms the forest into a different set of challenges reflective of their personality. For example, because Perrito is an empty-headed naïf, his version is a cotton candy-colored land of friendly, winsome critters.

The story isn’t terribly inventive. (Screenplay by Paul Fisher with story credits to Tom Wheeler and Tommy Swerdlow.) Puss and his compatriots will go on a journey, both geographically and of the soul, and discover that all the things they’ve been wishing for were already right in the palm of their paw.

Directors Joel Crawford (with co-director Januel Mercado) keep things moving at a kid-friendly pace, and most of the big emotional moments land in the middle of fights or other action sequences. So few momentum-stopping talkie scenes.

There are plenty of jokey asides and snarky humor to keep parents involved, such as a running attempt by Puss and Kitty to teach Perrito how to perform the enemy-freezing “cute eyes” trick. His version looks more like he’s having a seizure.

The animation is different from the other Shrek films. It lacks the rounded warmth, but the colors are more vibrant and everything is crisper. It’s more 2-D and action-oriented, like a comic sprung to life.

Could “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” restore life to a defunct franchise? Pay attention to the end for a hint in that direction. All I can say is, if they can recapture this kitty’s energy and marry it to a high-octane visual style, no magic trick is beyond imagination.