Tear Jerker / Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Un perro es la única cosa en el mundo que te amará más de lo que se ama a sí mismo.^Translation A dog is the only thing in the world who will love you more than he loves himself.

Puss in Boots: the Last Wish may be the most emotionally charged of all of DreamWorks' films, and this page is a testament to that.

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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• Puss suffers a serious Break the Haughty incident in this film with his being beaten and intimidated by the Wolf. He was traumatized so badly he escaped through a lavatory and took refuge as a stray in a cats' home. He never really recovers from it either, regaining his courage but acknowledging death as someone he will eventually meet.
  • As a consequence of the above, Puss realizes just how badly he has lived his life, not just in his squandering of eight of his nine lives, but in his treatment of his friends as if they were supporting characters in his legend, when he should have valued them more. He even realizes how lonely he truly is because he had no one close enough to be true companions to him.
    • In the Cave of Lost Souls, his previous lives show him memories of his legend, being cheered by adoring crowds and the previous movie's final scene of him riding horseback into the sunset. But the following line is spoken while Puss pushes past those golden memories to ones of him sitting in an empty bar, huddling by the campfire alone while the horse grazes nearby... and once again, him overlooking the church at Santa Coloma.
      Puss: Yeah... Puss in Boots works... alone. Was the legend so big... there was no room for anyone else?
    • What’s more, the way this Jerkass Realization comes about is when Puss asks his past lives to tell him how to find his way out of the cave so he can reunite with Kitty and Perrito — to which all of them scoff and dismissively tell him that since he has the map he should just go get the wish for himself, and that he doesn’t need either of them. The current Puss looks absolutely appalled that he would’ve ever been willing to so easily disregard the people he considers his friends, including the woman he almost married.
    • Another reason as to why Puss is so disgusted now is more than just his past behavior, as he realizes that he has forgotten the reason he became an outlaw in the first place: He wanted to return to his loved ones.
    • One has to wonder: considering that this movie takes place after all the previous films — and that they don't appear at all (beside a flashback)... did Puss have a falling out with Shrek and Donkey?
  • Just how traumatized Puss is by the experience with the Wolf is equally upsetting. Every time he hears the Wolf's signature whistle, he freezes up and his fur stands on end, with the sound of everything else around him fading. During the fight with Jack Horner, when the Wolf appears, Puss runs away in terror, still seeing the Wolf in everything he looks at. This culminates in him having a genuine panic attack, which is portrayed extremely realistically, with his chest heaving from rapid breaths and his heartbeat pounding in his ears. It's eerily relatable to anyone who's ever had a similar experience, and it just makes you want to give the poor guy a hug.
    • This toll that his experience with the Wolf has on Puss's all comes to a devasting culmination when he gets to the Wishing Star. When Puss tells Kitty that's he's on his last life, it's painfully clear from his voice and body movements that he's a shell of the brave and confident hero we know him as, and is deeply scared and desperate. Just look at how he scrambles for the map when Kitty throws it on the ground. It's heartbreaking to see him fall so far.
  • After his escape from the Wolf, Puss finally decides to retire. Yes, while the funeral that follows is funny, it's not so comedic when he breaks into blubbering while singing "Fearless Hero" and walks off in the rain shortly after.
• Perrito's backstory: his family would regularly try to abandon him, but he would keep coming back because he thought they were pranking him. They finally managed to get rid of him for good by tying him up in a sock with a weighted rope to attempt drowning him, and while Perrito sees the silver lining in everything, Puss and Kitty are both mortified at hearing this once they figure out what he is talking about, and Kitty expresses disbelief that Perrito doesn't have a wish.
  Kitty: Wow. That is the saddest "funny story" I've ever heard.
• Goldi's wish is to have a real human family. Hearing this, the Bears are despaired, but Mama tells Goldi they will still help her get her wish if it makes her happy.
  • Throughout the movie, Baby has made digs about Goldi being an orphan and not really being his sister. And before the above-mentioned reveal, he was angry at her for his (correct) assumption over wanting the wish for her own reasons. When she reveals her true intentions, Baby goes from angry and upright to sitting down in shock and genuine hurt in his attempt to dissuade Goldi.
    Baby: Your "just right" is getting rid of us?
  • While subdued more than his son and wife, Papa is clearly not just devastated at Goldi's wish for a human family—he's angry. It's clear his question is meant to call out his daughter for her selfishness as well as hide the intense sadness he feels.
    Papa: Well, I guess some people just stick around until the porridge is gone, eh, Goldi?
  • And Mama Bear's reaction? Acceptance. The look on her implies she put together Goldi's true goal with the Wishing Star, meaning her previous statements about the family (i.e., Goldi), not needing a wish and emphasizing Goldi being part of the family, was her way to get her daughter to change her mind. However, with Goldi finally admitting the truth, Mama sorrowfully agrees to help (along with Papa and Baby), if it'll make her happy. And as she's saying this, she's visibly holding back tears.
    • Her face before she makes her statement to Goldi is pure heartbreak. She did everything she could to make Goldi feel included, but it seems all for not. And she sadly accepts her daughter's wish even if it means letting her go.
    • Then's there's this line that sums up Mama's inner heartbreak:
      Mama: I was always afraid it was too good to last.
  • Goldi's My God, What Have I Done? progression throughout her reveal — after Papa Bear's aforementioned question, Goldi attempts to explain her reason, citing that she couldn't stay because she's not a bear. However, her voice and posture clearly show she doesn't fully believe in what she's saying. But when Mama sadly accepts Goldi's wish while holding back tears, Goldilocks can't even say something in her defense. She just sighs, ashamed of making her mother nearly cry.
    • And look at Goldi's face when she sees Mama Trying Not to Cry — Goldi face notably goes from happy of knowing the Star's location to a look of sadness when she hears her mother's above-mentioned line. And when she takes a good look at Mama's face, her eyebrows widen to surprise and shame. Goldi never meant to hurt her family, especially her mother, but she did.
  • It's only implied given Goldi's line about not being a bear and body language, but it's hinted that a possible reason she wanted a human family was because she felt insecure over being the sole human in a bear family. So, despite the bravado she put up when dealing with Baby's digs, Goldi felt (for some time), that she didn't truly belong.
• Kitty and Puss's relationship isn't in a good state throughout the film. They were going to be married, but he never showed up as he was afraid for the first time in his life and ran off in a panic. And she never showed up because she didn't think she could compete with his love of “The Legend of Puss in Boots”.
  Puss: Kitty will never trust me again. Not after Santa Coloma.
  Perrito: But that was just one bad heist!
  Puss: Santa Coloma wasn't a heist, Perrito. It was a church. With a priest, with guests, and Kitty...everything...but me. I ran away then, too.
  Perrito: Oh. Oh... OH! You left her at the altar?!
  Puss: It was wrong, I know. I am ashamed. I just wished I hadn't hurt her so badly. I regret that day.
  • Kitty also proves rather cynical in general while chatting with Perrito, noting how everyone she ever trusted either betrayed, abandoned or even declawed her. Her wish, in fact, isn't for money or fame. She just wants someone she can rely on, something she believes she's never had in all her life.
  • And just when it seems that they're finally about to mend that broken bridge, the Wolf revealing his true nature scares Puss so much he desperately races to the Wishing Star to regain his lives, leaving Kitty and Perrito behind in the process. Kitty angrily confronts him about this, revealing her own wish in the process and how she had begun to trust Puss again only for him to betray her.
  • Puss tries to explain by admitting he's running out of lives, but Kitty is unimpressed.
    Puss: But I am NOT! I AM NOT PUSS IN BOOTS! (sighs) I'm on my last life. I need to get my lives back. Without them, I am not... I-I am not—
    Kitty: What, the legend? I still can't compete with your one true love...Go on, get your lives back. Just keep them out of mine.
    • As Kitty tries to leave, Perrito is heartbroken that she and Puss are tearing apart. He even whimpers while he glances at Puss in despair, who then finally tries to tell her why he’s trying to get the wish. Of note is how terrified he sounds when he tries to explain himself.
      Puss: Kitty, Death is after me!
    • What's worse is that Puss' panic over being hunted by the literal grim reaper causes him to come off as being terrified of his own mortality instead of the physical personification of Death. Had he not managed to overcome his fear and earned Death's respect, it would have been a literal case of Poor Communication Kills.
• As Baby falls into the light of the Wishing Star, he screams for help. Mama and Papa immediately run to try and save him while Goldi hesitatingly looks at the map. Baby then cries for Goldi. Thankfully, she quickly realizes her mistake and saves Baby, but it was a near thing. Had she hesitated any longer, Goldi would have lost her brother due to her own selfishness.
  Baby: Sis! Help me!!
• When Jack's last remaining chef, his hubris and apathy having resulted in the death of all his others by that point, gets knocked into the Star's barrier and begs him to save her, his only response is to not even look at her, nonchalantly saying he's occupied as she's killed.
• A small and subtle one with the brief cameo of Pinocchio — the man next to him is Geppetto, meaning this version of Pinocchio didn't have a pair of evil con-men, neither an evil puppeteer or a coachman who abused his magical nature. It was his own father, ignoring his son to count his money. And by the time Shrek rolled around, said father willfully abandons his son under the new rules.
• While it is played mostly for morbid laughs, the Ethical Bug’s emotional turmoil over the increasingly obvious realization that Big Jack Horner is irredeemably evil in spite of several attempts to get him to see the light- culminating in him calling him out in outrage for his actions. Only to be casually flicked away and mocked by Jack for not figuring it out sooner. Even worse, in the junior novel, the Ethical Bug gets a vision of Jack sucking the magic out of Puss and Kitty, turning them into ordinary, feral alley cats.

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