Puss in Boots

Welcome to another episode Lights....Camera....Popcorn!

Today's review is Puss in Boots.

Directed by Chris Miller.

Written by David H. Steinberg, Tom Wheeler & Jon Zack.

Screen Story by Will Davies & Brian Lynch.

Based on Characters created by Charles Perrault

Review #147

MPAA Rating:  PG for some adventure action and mild rude humor.

Runtime: 90 min

Cast

Antonio Banderas ...Puss in Boots

Salma Hayek ...Kitty Softpaws

Zach Galifianakis ...Humpty Dumpty

Billy Bob Thornton ...Jack

Amy Sedaris ...Jill

Constance Marie ...Imelda

Guillermo del Toro ...Moustache Man / Comandate


The Shrek franchise gave all of us a unique and entertaining spin on children's fairytales. After 2 very well done films the following 2 sequels were flat and frankly not up to par with their predecessor's. Instead of continuing to bleed a dry series the creators decided to go the always popular and dangerous spin off route. The focus was the loveable and very funny Puss in Boots from Shrek 2-4. The character despite his small stature has the size to carry his own film. The problem was that the people behind the last 2 Shrek films didn't learn their lesson when making this one.


Plot


A story about the events leading up to the sword fighting cat's meeting with Shrek and his friends. 


The plot description is surprisingly vague so I will elaborate a bit.

Basically this is meant to be an origin story/solo Puss in Boots adventure. Puss is portrayed exactly like you remember him from the Shrek films. A swashbuckling Zorro type with a seductive Spanish lover's touch. He develops a friendship with Humpty Dumpty and through some unfortunate events Puss is forced to flee his home in shame. The film tells the story from the point of his exploits after his banishment until he reunites with Humpty with a plan to rebuild both their friendship and Puss' reputation.

I didn't get into any specifics so the synopsis should be pretty clean for all of you.

OK. Now on to what works with Puss in Boots. To start it's Puss himself. The character is so fun and engaging. Antonio Banderas applies his rugged yet soothing accent to Puss which gives him a power that is felt all the way through. He definitely displays the lover before fighter persona expertly. That;s pretty much it character wise.

The rest of the ensemble just didn't do it for me.

That's a real shame too because the story doesn't come to the characters rescue. It's too jumbled with several plot lines and twists that continuity gets lost pretty quickly. From Puss' back story to the friendship between him and Humpty to the introduction of Kitty Soft Paws. There was way too much here to keep together. And I didn't even mention Jack and Jill. The one thing that made the first 2 Shrek films so memorable was the balance between all of the fairytales and the characters. Puss in Boots plays more like dare I say Spiderman 3. Too many villains so to speak and not enough story. The animation was as always top notch but it wasn't enough to save this one from falling into mediocrity.

On the 5 star scale. Puss in Boots gets 2.5 stars with a "Netflix It" recommendation.

That's a wrap for today. Up next is J. Edgar.

Until Next Episode...."I'll Save You A Seat!"

"D"