Puss in Boots (**½)
Directed by: Chris Miller
Starring (Voices): Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis,
Billy Bob Thornton, Guillermo Del Toro, Amy Sedaris
Seen: December 15th 2011
**½
Out of ****
Before Puss became involved with Shrek and Donkey in Shrek 2, Puss had
a history of his own, told of in Puss in Boots in two parts: the main story
which takes up most of the movie, and via flashback giving some additional
history and flesh to the characters. The tradition of bringing old and
well-remembered fairy tale characters back to life in some odd and interesting
ways continues in Puss in Boots, as Jack and the Beanstalk is cross-bred with nursery
rhyme Jack & Jill (2 separate Jacks though), and Humpty (Alexander) Dumpty
is Puss’ long-lost, and fixed, best friend.
Puss (Banderas) learns of a treasure held by the outlaw couple Jack
(Thornton) and Jill (Sedaris), magical beans of the beanstalk of legend into
the clouds, where the Giant was slain by the original Jack, and only the golden
egg laying goose is left, guarded by a (not so very) mysterious terror. Jack
and Jill are ruthless, guarding the beans with a vehement vengeance only
limited by the movie’s age restriction. With his first attempt at stealing the
beans, Puss is pitted against a masked cat also after the beans, and when their
robbery is foiled, Puss sets off in pursuit of this masked cat. They end up
duelling and when Puss unmasks the cat he realises that this cat is in fact
Kitty Softpaws (Hayek), who reconciles him with his old friend Humpty Dumpty
(Galifianakis), who has plans for the beans and requires Puss’ help.
They go after the beans and eventually succeed but a much more
sinister plot is cooking as Puss will soon discover. There is action and
adventure aplenty as all those involved are either hunting or being hunted at
some stage in the movie, and as events unfold the ante is upped right to a
point where Puss will be required to make the sacrifice leading into his
legendary status as both a hero and an outlaw at large.
While the movie is relatively enjoyable and the animation is good,
this is unfortunately nothing new, Shrek has all but killed the sub-genre of
fairy tale rip off comedy. The voice acting is very good considering the two
main stars are Spaniards who, even in more recent movies, sometimes display
some difficulty with English (Hayek in outtakes of 2004’s After the Sunset with
Pierce Brosnan showed surprising lack of English mastery). The plot may be too
convoluted for the target audience of the movie, with some elements of violent
behaviour (Jack and Jill) and some jokes (however hilarious), with the
potential to go straight over the heads of children, with not many of the jokes
truly catering for them (in my honest opinion). The movie feels stale, almost
run-of-the-mill, and doesn’t compare to the first 2 Shrek movies. I can’t say
that the 3D adds much to the movie; in my case all it did was give me a
headache; so try for 2D. Puss in Boots is better than the last two Shrek movies
though, and will make for a few smiles if you’re in the mood for a Shrek
spin-off.
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