Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

 Nominated for Best Animated Feature    Man, the internet has been all over this movie and for once, it seems justified.

Puss (Antonio Banderas) has roamed the land, spreading justice, merriment, and thievery wherever he goes, despite the bounty on his head.  But there is one bounty hunter he cannot escape:  Death (Wagner Moura).  Death has tracked Puss through 8 of his nine lives and is eagerly anticipating his final collection. Puss attempts to hide in the home of a cat lady (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) but is tracked by Goldi (Florence Pugh) and the 3 Bears crime family who want to hire him to steal a map to a fallen star in the Dark Forest that grants one wish.  Puss decides to steal it for himself, but does not count on running into his old flame Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek) also looking for the map, or an annoyingly persistent Chihuahua desperate for a friend (Harvey Guillén).  

This is The Seventh Seal for children.  There have been other animated films that dealt with mortality, found family, optimism vs pessimism, and regret.  The Last Wish isn't reinventing or subverting.  In fact, it leans into the tropes, which could have made it an incredibly boring, predictable film.  But because it portrays those tropes so well and the characters feel fully-realized, instead, it's a solid family film that has limitless re-watchability.  This is definitely one I plan to own.  It's currently only available in theaters but keep an eye out in the next couple of weeks for it to drop on HBO Max.