Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

There’s life yet in the wider Shrek franchise, as evidenced by this second instalment for the fan-favourite character, Puss in Boots. The last Shrek-adjacent movie was the first Puss in Boots film eleven years ago; evidently, Dreamworks saw it fit to green light once more. This may have something to do with Shrek’s enduring popularity in Internet culture—effectively doing Dreamworks’ market research for them. To some extent they acknowledge this musically in the trailer in the creative narrative use of All Star, a song with equally enduring status in meme culture. (Take this instalment as a litmus test for a possible Shrek 5, maybe?)

An unabashed nostalgia play as much as it is tapping into contemporary popular culture, Smash Mouth’s All Star is cleverly spliced and deconstructed nearly beyond recognition. Besides its inextricable link to the broader Shrek franchise from which Puss in Boots is derived, All Star has enjoyed a remarkable second life as a favourite for memes and Internet culture, making its use near mandatory. Thankfully, the editors saw fit to carefully match lyrical lines to the trailer narrative, the dialogue again unmistakably delivered by Antonio Banderas. While perhaps a bit ham-fisted in execution, it works well enough, with lines such as “the years start comin’ and they don’t stop comin’” tracking an aging Puss in Boots. Elsewhere, “all that glitters is gold” is sung as Puss visually reminisces about a golden sunset. Epic percussion (which may in the future be remembered as the most pervasive sonic element of today’s trailers) punctuates the comedic one-liners and acts as a transitional element between sections of the Smash Mouth tune.

At 1:29 we get the second major song of the trailer, just like Puss in Boots we reach a major plot point: he practically begs Kitty to get the rest of his nine lives back by reaching a wishing star (acting as the MacGuffin for the plot). Latin-flavored Café Con Leche by Pitbull, a summer 2022 hit, tracks the remainder of the trailer—asserting both the distinct character and vibe of Puss in Boots as a character. It also leaves an impression with the audioviewer that while the film is indeed in the Shrek universe, it’s ultimately something new—of this year, not from over twenty years ago. Notice also that there’s tight diegetic integration of the translated song with the action on screen, especially at 1:54—Puss laps up milk in a rhythm that is approximately in keeping with the song, and the song choice is topical (literally, “coffee with milk”). One has to wonder whether the trailer editors have had any hand in working with the animation team to be able to synch the rhythm just right in this particular case. Also notice later when Pitbull sings “cafe con léche”, we see a sequence where Puss downs his drink, which seems to act as a great rejuvenator at 2:04. The animation style is also a bit different here, as well—the frame rate of the characters is much slower than the camera itself. It’s a new and highly stylized look that fits well with the music.

The trailer then neatly splits its time between comedy and action, with a more narrative-driven segment in the first half, naturally followed by montage sequences later on. It seems to both try to capitalize on the apparent popularity of the franchise’s past, while also offering enough of something new to draw a general audience in—such as many sequels and nostalgia plays do.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish arrived in theatres November 26th.

— Curtis Perry