Clang, clank, clack. Very rarely do you see the sequel to a movie executed better than the original. “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” was released in the United States on Dec. 21, 2022. The movie got great reviews from reviewers such as Rotten Tomatoes (96%), IMDb (7.8/10), and Metacritic (8.8/10), and the consensus of the viewers is that the movie deserves at least a four-star rating, if not more.

“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” achieved a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score, which is an incredibly high score. Compared to the first movie in the series (86% Rotten Tomatoes), “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” scored 10% higher, almost reaching absolute perfection.

Part of this would be due to the enhanced graphics that were developed for the past 12 years between the original and the new “Puss in Boots” movies. However, another major piece that elevates the new “Puss in Boots” would be its intertwinement with relatable life lessons that real people face today.

In the masterpiece of a storyline, Puss loses his eighth life (cats have nine total), leading him to a realization that his life as a famed adventurer and hero could lead him to his true and sudden death. Throughout the movie, a bounty hunter rears his ugly head, making Puss’s fear of true death far greater. Puss later learns of the “Last Wish,” a star that could grant anyone any wish and could grant him a new set of lives.

Puss sets out on this treacherous adventure to obtain these lives while both avoiding the bounty hunter and reuniting with new and old friends.

The characters are also unique, such as a scary wolf bounty hunter, a crime family, an evil pie company owner, and a therapy dog. However, you can catch nods to older characters from the series such as Pinocchio and the Gingy (The Gingerbread Man) in short scenes, and characters such as Kitty Softpaws serve larger roles.

There are many more reasons why “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” surpasses the original, but by far the major reasons are down to these. Although the common trend in filmmaking is that the sequel is often not as good as the original, “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” breaks this trend.