The Swashbuckling Cat Returns in “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” Trailer

Arriving more than a decade after the Oscar-nominated first film, Puss in Boots is back, though not exactly himself. Having used up eight of his nine lives on his reckless lifestyle, Puss (Antonio Banderas) finds himself at the home of a cat-obsessed woman. Unlike his dignified, adventurous past, he's now forced to use a litter box and eat kibble. But when he hears legend of a shooting star that can grant a wish, he teams up with a therapy dog (Harvey Guillén) and his old flame Kitty (Salma Hayek) to find it.

While I haven't seen the original since it came out, I do remember it being pretty delightful, and more effortlessly fun than the later Shrek sequels. The most exciting thing about this sequel, though, is the new look. Gone are the pudgy CGI characters, replaced with more active style, similar to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The voice cast also include Florence Pugh as Goldilocks, with Ray Winstone, Olivia Colman and Samson Kayo as the Three Bears.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish opens in theaters on December 21.

About Kip Mooney

Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.