DreamWorks Review: Puss in Boots

DreamWorks Animation’s 23rd feature film

My Opinion right after watching movie

My opinion of the movie is that it is good, not great or excellent. To be honest, I thought it was going to be grander, more epic, and not so……simple. It is still enjoyable, fun, and good, but I thought it was gonna be so much better. At least there is a sequel in development.

Production

This film, like the last 2 Shrek films started development during Shrek 2’s release. It was gonna be a 2008 direct to video spinoff called  Puss in Boots: The Story of an Ogre Killer, but they wanted more money and decided to release it in theaters.

A good amount of the film was animated in India, and this is the first film in the canon to be animated partially in India. They did this because they wanted a cheaper way to save money on employment.

Story

So the story starts with Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) leaving from screwing a cat. He enters a bar when the humans constantly make fun of him, but he tells them that he is not looking for trouble and wants to reclaim his hero status, but they want to sell him off because he is wanted and there is a hefty reward to finding him. WAIT: Wasn’t he a known and respected serial killer in Shrek 2? I am confused.

After he almost beats up a person, they tell him about the magic beans, and the golden eggs (Practically the Jack and the beanstalk story), but he has to steal it from the villainous Jack (Billy Bob Thornton) and Jill (Amy Sidaris).

And they are grown, ugly, married in the movie…………………………………………………. okay?

Puss goes to Jack and Jill’s hotel room to steal the beans, but he finds a disguised Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek) trying to do the same thing. They are found out by the married pair. They both escape and he chases after her because she screwed up his theft. This chase goes on for MANY minutes.

DreamWorks could not hold off with the dancing to the end, but decided to spend 4 minutes on it in the 15 minute mark. At least it is funny.

She kicked a bowl of milk at him, causing him to hit her with a guitar, which she finally reveals herself too and complains to him about it. He is automatically attracted to her badassness when she reveals herself to be a girl. She leaves and he follows her to find out that she works for his ex-friend Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis) . Humpty asks Puss to be involved in his and Kitty’s scheme which he refuses, since he is not over Humpty betraying him. Kitty follows Puss as he leaves and asks what went wrong with him and Dumpty. He tells her what happened, and we are shown through a 12-minute flashback of him and Dumpty’s childhood, friendship, and the end of their friendship where Puss leaves Dumpty to get caught when Dumpty tricked him to help him steel.

Did we really need 12 minutes to show all of this? Puss becoming a hero in his town then turning into a criminal, disappointing his orphanage mother? It is nice, but we are 30 minutes in, and barely anything happened yet. Pacing is not the best in the movie, but at least it explains the two’s origins.

So Humpty runs to apologize to Puss and he joins them to repay San Ricardo and his orphanage mother. So we then see them on the plains, watching Jack and Jill’s carriage ride through the road. Kitty hops on to steal the beans, which Jack is holding and a box is locked around it. They get figured out and Puss is almost killed, but is saved by Humpty, and they escape Jack and Jill. So they are enjoying the ride, and Puss compliments her saying she is better than her reputation lets on, and she tells him about her life and how she was a stray with soft paws, and she was taken in by a loving family, and they took her paws.

So they plant the seeds in and the beanstalk grows. They climb the beanstalk and play in the clouds for a bit before they go in the castle and steal the goose who births golden eggs. As soon as they are back on ground again, they bump into Jack and Jill, and they escape.

So when they are safe and evening comes, they all celebrate to paying back San Ricardo and to being rich. Puss and Kitty have a more than subtle sexual conversation as they dance, and Humpty cockblocks/interrupts so she can stay focused on the task. He asks her if they can go their separate ways together and she tries to warn him, but Humpty interrupts again.

The humor, which is mostly about sex (awkward) is for the adults a majority of the time. I guess the dancing is for the kids, but this is very adult and ballsy, kind of reminding me of their earlier films. It…..it is very weird but interesting with the way these two interact.

The next morning, Puss wakes up to find vultures hovering over him to eat him, and abandoned in the middle of the desert. He soon returns to San Ricardo to find out that Humpty was Jack and Jill’s boss, he was following Puss, and wanted revenge for Puss leaving him to get arrested. He sends the guards after him, and Mama tells Puss to pay for his crimes.

So he is arrested, but is soon rescued by Kitty, who he is mad at for not telling him, but she said she tried to and they confess their lust/feelings for one another. She stops Jack and Jill while Puss confronts Humpty and they hash it out kind of quickly since they both hurt one another and there is good in Humpty, yada yada yada. The mother of the goose who they stole showed up and is ready to savage the village (which was humpty’s plan).

The bird goes to the bridge and breaks it, falling. Humpty and the golden goose end up dangling over the bridge on 2 separate ropes and Humpty sacrifices himself so the bird can be saved, and his shell cracks, revealing a golden egg.

So, the movie ends with Humpty Dumpty going with the birds, wearing his golden egg suit, and Kitty and Puss go in their separate ways, knowing they will end up running into each other, and puss is now a hero, though he was a serial killer when we were introduced to him in Shrek 2.

So like I said, the plot is a bit too simple and could have been executed better, but it is pretty good and straightforward. This movie is still fun and I would watch it again.

Characters

The characters in the movie are decent as a whole; some are good, others you don’t really care about.

Puss in Boots is the same one we got to know in the Shrek series; flirty, badass, heroic, funny, but here he wants to so bad be a hero, but in Shrek 2 he was a serial killer. He is a great protagonist and held this film on his own.

Humpty Dumpty is kind of annoying, but everything he does is understandable. He wants to fit in, and is resentful. He is just okay to me.

Kitty Softpaws is very likable as well, though her backstory is a bit weak. She is sassy, over-the-top, proactive, cunning, and has great charisma.

Jack and Jill are just eh.

Animation

The animation is actually really great in this film, all around. Usually in the Shrek films, they look a bit goofy to bad, but here, the humans look extremely realistic, there are a lot of details in the clothes, skin, fur, the backgrounds, and you feel like you are witnessing an actual atmosphere and not some made-up computer one with a bunch of pixels.

Music

The music is the typical Spanish music that automatically comes to your mind; fun, light, sassy, all of that. Not particularly memorable, but gets the job done.

Reception at Release

When the film was released on October 28, 2011, it topped the box office and did so on the second week. Domestically, it made  $149,260,504, overseas it made $405,448,722, with an overall box office of $554,709,226. It is the 11th highest-grossing film of 2011, and the 3rd highest grossing animated film of 2011 behind Kung Fu Panda 2 and Cars 2.

Critically, it was a success. A lot of them liked it because the movie did not take itself seriously, and it has a lot of charm, good voice acting and a decent story, with people also hating it for not being entertaining and gimmicky.

When it came to awards, it was nominated for a bunch; Annies, Academy Awards, all of it, but it only won a Saturn Award, Kid’s Choice, and Woman’s Critics for best film.

Reception Today

Well today, it is seen as better than Shrek the Third and Shrek Forever After, but not as good as Shrek and Shrek 2. Since DreamWorks is currently making a sequel to it, it can be considered somewhat of a classic. A bit too soon to tell though.

Final Score

Story = 6.5/10

Characters = 7/10

Music = 8/10

Animation = 9/10

=30.5/40=  76% 

Next Time……

Review: December 10th, 2013

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